I kinda have exactly opposite views.

First, as far as entertainment was concerned, Boys was better simply coz it had all ingredients of masala. Anniyan was so-so.

But looking at the bigger picture, I was really frustrated at seeing Boys, and a bit glad at seeing Anniyan. While things as showin may happen at some palces, if they make a movie out of it, they make it look like some lifestyle - to just molest gals, to throw tantrums at fathers, to have sex freely around. For a state (TN) that is so afflicted with movies, and with youth who'd make every guy in the corner an idol, I dont think its the right message. That's one place where I liked Anniyan better - although unrealistic.

Neywa, my 2 pence.

Anniyan rules!...Its better than all tamil movies...good story...good acting...good songs..good everything....movies dont really need to be realistic...all the hollywood blockbusters like matrix are also unrealistic in their story...thx...

You hit the nail right on the head. Sometimes tributes turn out to be screw-ups.

Yup. Shankar did disappoint with Anniyan. I also felt that the 'Garudapuranam' type punishments might have been inspired by the movie 'Seven' starring Brad Pitt/Morgan Freeman. In that movie a serial killer hands out bizzare punishments to victims guilty of seven deadly sins.

LG, That was one review we were all waiting from u.

To me, Anniyan did not at all strike a chord within!

U hit the nail on the head abt the Thiruvaiyaaru scenes, the highly irritating Remo with his intolerable accent and abt the rolling of Anniyan's eyes....very amateurish.

And regarding HJ's music, I kind of liked the BGM that came everytime anniyan was killing someone. So typical of the HJ style...with strange chants like KK's. Kaadal Yanai was screwed up big time by Vikram. However, in general I should say that the music was good. On a side note, Now I am happy that Rahman did not really do this movie :)

Overall a huge disappointment from Shankar. In my list of looking forward to directors, Shankar makes a ungraceful exit.

I feel Anniyan, like all Shankar's movies, has hell a lot of loopholes. It is indeed "Indian" re-formatted. There was unnecessary "throw" of money - "thiruvaiyaru", "big" artistes for dummy roles, paint costs (road, bridge and what not, which wasn't effective on screen), flower show@holland, unnecessary excess use of time-slice matrix technique in a fight! The heroine is a damp squib. Shoddy graphics..
But lazy, still Anniyan is paisa vasool for me... Vikram was good in all 3 roles though the remo role is something that we hate inherently and hence that shows on the actor (Karthik used to make us hate him with these roles earlier). Vivek's comedy comeback and surprisingly in line with main story. The screenplay didn't make me squirm in my seat. Probably the idea behind and the energy overall on screen made me forget other big flaws in the movie. To me "Jeans" still stands the biggest blooper amongst shankar's movies. But for AR Rehman and aishwarya, the movie was a noshow! But next time Shankar comes out with a movie like this in the pretext of social message, he is gonna become bunker.
Anniyan is a Vasool movie thanx to Vikram, Vivek and Vegam (lack of vivegam is outplayed by the former three).
P.S.: Maybe it would have been more palatable if the overall budget was 1/3rd for the movie.....

Nethi adi!!!!!
Super review!!!Expectation romba jasthiya irundadhu padathukku
I feel Shankar should get out of this corruption, clean the society thing and try something else

ada when i wrote anniyan-kadiyan review in my blog imagine the flames i got !!

Lazy,

I have been a longtime silent reader of your blog. Your Anniyan review is probably one of the best I have seen around. I totally agree with your views on Shankar and the movie. The only reason I could watch the movie was due to Sujatha on certain occasions. Apart from it, it is a great let down.

Continue your good work.

a proficient ease... a ???
an anti-reality path....anti-reality ???
with the problems dodging the society...two thes ???
a little exaggerations...a and plural ???
directing career graphs...plural ???
symphatise ??

I am bored. I give up. I GIVE UP.

Guru,

You have finally succumbed to the pressure....you at the end of the day one of the average Kamal fans, who are all fuming all over Cyberspace with the recognition Vikram is getting all around the world.

What made me laugh was why you guys are all bent on bringing Indian and Kamal is Anniyan reviews, when Anniyan had more in common with movies like Ramana, Primal Fear and all that. You guys are suffering from a complex.

When was Shankar's film logical? Anniyan only took on the individuals. A 70 year old Thatha took on the establishment and managed to escape the country !!!!!

You claim Vikram's acting as a let down and go on to unnecessarily talk about Kamal's acting in Indian (again some complex indeed!)

Frankly, how did you know that Kamal did in fact act in Indian. He was hiding behind layers of pancake and plastics (you smartly called it 'underacting' - and escape clause used by many who can't emote freely facing the camera). Frankly, as some one on your site called it 'pancake acting' in the Anniyan thread. Frankly...that is what it is...'Pancake Acting'. If Kamal doesn't stop this nonsense sooner than later...people will permanently start to associate him with this phrase.

I am not surprised by you criticising Anniyan..the movie. But, pulling down Vikram (when even the biggest Kamal promoter Vikatan has gone mad in praising Vikram) who has single handedly made this block buster hit all over the world has beyond doubt confirmed what I suspected and feared will happen or is happening.
You might as self change the name of this site to be 'Akila Ulaga Kamal Rasigar Mandram'.

By the way, what was that about 'Anniyan will remain as the biggest blooper...'. Are you in touch with the ground realities and happenings at the box office.

Anniyan is a mega hit not just in Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Andhra...but all around the world.

Good bye!

Hi Lazygeek,

Couldn't agree with you more on your review of Anniyan...

Shankar always is upto masala flicks with a strong base story told in flashbacks. This time around i felt that he kind of signed Vikram first and then in order to give him a wider scope for acting, conceived the anniyan concept and lost his base strength in the way. I atleast expected some kind of entertained only being disappointed!

Hope he comes back with better stuff....

The Music was also not upto shankars stds ( just can't match it to evergreen A R Rahmans entertaining numbers as well as offbeat stuff like pachai kiligal,en veetu thottathil or kollayile etc...).

Btw Rahman's Mangal Pandey is about to hit the stores on 14th July with an additional CD of the Original sound track! Musically after the brilliant Thiruvasagam, Its mangal... mangalll.. time!

-Sriram

Mr Kumar,

Whatever you might say... Vikram is just a starter and no way even closer to what Kamal is? Comparisons are evident since Indian / Gentleman was like a prequel to Anniyan. how Kamal had conveyed expressions even through the pancake was something remarkable and thus earned him a National award. Vikram was hardly objective as anniyan or cool dude a remo (a pathetic interlude). This is a web log of democratic expressions (even if you call it as Kamal's Mandram) not as pretentious as your comment!

One last time (just in case you think that I am claiming things without facts to back up):

Check these stats and facts:

http://www.musicindiaonline.com/n/i/tamil/2315/

http://sify.com/movies/tamil/fullstory.php?id=13888640

Now, please don't claim (as all Kamal fans always claim!) that only because of a movie running successfully, it wouldn't be a good film. Even though your own Kamal famously claimed twice (coincidently, on both occassions, after the successes of Apoorva and Devar Magan!) that - "Ethu nalla padam? Odura padam nalla padam", I would also not subscribe to that view.

So, the only reason I am providing those links is to let you know that you are way off the mark with your 'blooper' comment (that is, if you have referred to the BO success and not the quality of the film in your opinion!).

Good bye ...for sure!

Well written Lazy. You do come up with refreshingly different styles each time while writing the reviews. I have not seen Anniyan yet.Not planning to either.So my comments are pertaining only to the way you have written and not the content.

And Mr Kumar, one need not write a huge article to discuss whether a film is a flop or not. So when Lazy calls Anniyan a blooper, he is obviously talking about the quality of the movie.

"If made appropriate changes at the basic story line level, Anniyan would have been a classic."

Thalaiva kaala kaaminga. Vaazhga celebrity bloggers.

As a student of communication, i did notice a lot of technical errors in the movie, but it does seems to have entertained a good number of audience here. In all ways, it is more watchable than Boys and thats our only consolation. And i totally agree with you on the screw up part! MPD has been kaarithupified upon...made into some sort of a joke...nevertheless a once watchable movie.

pretty sad to see your negative review.i always felt u had in mind the mass taste but in this case u have failed i think. mebbe perceptions differ. i seriously felt that anniyan rocked. mebbe initially it had its hiccups but slowly gathered momentum and pickep up top speed at the climax.vivek's comedy i felt was brilliant..back to the "good ol Dhool days" . mebbe i feel u ppl expected a lot and were not willing to sacrifice on the storyline..i went in for entertainment and in the process enjoyed every second of the movie...besides its a shankar movie..being a fan of him i did not feel bad. u shudn't have deprecated it to this level. a more balanced review next time please..

My comments in response to another blogger's review on Anniyan was this :

"As for Anniyan vikram, he really rocked. I liked the way they show things through his eyes, with strands of hair falling down his face.

The first half was a total washout while I would wanna see the movie again for its second half."

True Ambi was admirable, but when potraying a downtoearth aiyangar, Shankar or even Vikaram for that matter should have taken precautions not to overdo. The character is grossly overdone and so quite naturally is very irritating.

Anniyan had a better storyline than Indian or Muthalvan ? Give me a break. The fact that Indian and Muthalvan came much before Anniyan paved its way for a downfall. And there is no element in the movie that would want me to put Anniyan in a higher pedestal than the other two ones.

His inotation as Remo was unberable, but I guess he did a fairly good job with Anniyan. Am sure the scene where he shifts between the anniyan / ambi personalities would be talked about for a long long time. If I were to get a VCD, the scenes where Anniyan appears is what I would wanna watch. Everything else is a washout.

The only points that I seem to agree with you are about music, dialogues, and "Anniyan isn't certainly a movie, Shankar could be proud making it"

Anniyan might remain the biggest blooper of recent times, but it breaking all records of revenues would tell a different story altogether.

wow - a goofball movie CM got a better review from you - anniyan was way way better than CM - anyways its ur space as somebody said - peace

super review lazy...indian, gentleman, mudhalvan-laiy iruntha antha pulse intha film laiy illey...ennoda review ithu thaan

anniyan anniyan
ivanillai indian
sodhapitaaru namma shankar-an
kudutharu thuvaichu pota baniyan

hri,

Don't know about Lazy's mindset, but for me, CM felt better. Maybe it was because I didnt expect much from it after the disaster that was Baba.

I think the hype that surrounded Anniyan was also partly responsible for my personal letdown. A film that has got just flashes of technical brilliance and no soul left me feeling empty. And come on, you can't pay tributes to your own films :-).

I still dont understand why someone should give a "balanced" review like people here ask for. Then please read the Hindu or chennaionline - Malathi Rangarajan will make sure you watch every Tamil movie that has been released. And for people who list out how the movie is doing at the box office, who cares unless you have invested in the movie ( and I really hope that most folks in Tamilnadu have done so, because every time I ask someone whether a movie was good or not, I get a pat reply "It is a super hit". Hello, what is ur true opinion ? Dont just say what everybody else would like to hear ). This is a personal blog of one person. It is his opinion.

-- padhu

good review! agreed with most of the points..

nothing original abt the movie...

but still i feel its worth the movie if u dont mind the recycling..

i think it might be because i wasted 10 dollars on two over hyped movies ...MX and Ji that i felt anniyan was atleast worth the money spent..

shankar as a director needs to reinvent himself..

aratcha maavaiye evalo naal araipaan....

v

I like Netrikkans comments the best :-)

Hi Guru,
According to you...
CM is gr8.
ME is so so.
Anniyan is total let down.
Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.

Regards,Arun

I was actually waiting for this review. I did see the movie recently. This is my summary of my review.

Story concept - Very good. The concept of how we all contribute to society downfall is done well
Songs - Average to good. Sounds okay
Choreography - Good in some places, horrible in some places
Roles - The role of Ambi I felt was overacted. It could have been done in a simpler manner. But it was done with overtones of Pithamagan and it was bad in shades
The role of Remo was avoidable at the best
The role of Anniyan had great potential but was overacted and done badly. There was no fire.
Prakash Raj could have done a better job. I am not sure why the relationship with his brother was brought in
The movie started well and went downhill. The songs started well and went downhill.
The fight sequence were unbearable. Matrix works in small amounts but not in large doses. It was pretty painful.
Why do all doctors look funny especially when they treat the mind.

Shankar should be lauded as he bring out valid social evils. The concept was good but the execution was not.

What everyone has to realize is an evaluation of a movie or a critique of it does not go with what people see in it. The movie could be flawed but good be a hit. People might be going to see it for various reasons.

From my point of view, it had potential but it was wasted. Throwing money at things do not produce masterpieces and Anniyan is an example of it.

srini

No helmet, no interest ;^)

Sada...for a moment, my eyes betrayed me and read it as "Sodha"...almost everywhere she has been smirked upon as being non-glamourous and non-acting!!!

LG, excellent review. don't agree with your views on the film but defly a well-analyzed writeup :)

Kumar,

Indian Thaatha hiding behind the pan cakes? Do you know how tough that makeup was for Kamal? He cant eat. He cant move around freely. Physically very demanding. Its not like a mask. Man. He gives his life and blood for cinema. No wonder he is THE BEST ACTOR in India.

Agreed. Vikram is a good actor and he also tries his best. But just because he is a hardworker doesnt mean we should appreciate everything he does right?

Ok. You go by box office only right? One movie called Raja Parvai was a flop. Another movie called Anbe Sivam was also a flop. According to box office. Ok?

Its not lazy who is against Vikram. It is YOU who is against Kamal. It is pretty natural, he compared with previous shankar movies dealing with same subject. You would have felt happy if he had compared Vikram's acting to Prashanth's acting in Jeans or Prabhu deva's in Kadhalan?

He had mentioned Surya in AE, and Arjun as well. How you happily ignored that buddy?

Comparisons are bound to happen. You yourself, giving box office details as comparison :-P

See. It is understandable you dont like Kamal. So dont ridicule a true review from Lazy by branding as Kamal Rasigar mandrathin review. It is pretty childish.

At the end of the day, just because the movie is a box office hit you want lazy to go gaga over it???
Enna logic o?

Barking at the wrong tree wont solve problems. Enjoy life. Go and watch Anniyan once again :-)

the spotlight is on Vikram. doing three diff roles for the first time in the same movie, i sense he needs some credit. his facial expressions have improved. i liked him.

others things, Shankar cud have done way much better. i guess he ran out of dough :(

What Shankar says about Vikram and Kamal?

http://specials.rediff.com/movies/2005/jun/16south6.htm

Kumar, I suggest you read my Saami review and the comparison of Kamal to Vikram there. http://www.lazygeek.net/archives/2003/06/is_vikram_the_demigod_.html

Hope you will agree that I am not trying to biased by critizing a Vikram's role in Anniyan.

Nesh, Matrix was an out-right sci-fic. Anniyan is suffering inbetween fantasy and realism. The balance wasn't achieved perfectly.

Bart, Nice short review there ;-)

NetriKannu, Thanks for the grammar check. I stand corrected. And blame it on the blogging spontaneity. Also, I have to admit I am not a celebrity blogger. I think you have given up on me and won't even bother to read/comment in my blog. Will miss you dude !!

Gonkoora, You IP is matching with Netrikannu. You seem to be a MPD of Netrikannu !!

Very good review Guru.

Few comments:
"Anniyan had a much better storyline than Indian or Muthalvan."

- Maybe a better message. But definitely not STORYLINE. It implies it has a better script, but it doesnt.

"Ambi Characterization"

- It is VERY much overdone. He could have been sensible, smart and still hold his strong convictions (think Micheal Vasant), but he was irritating, plain dumb, overtly naive and sometimes silly (kann addika theriyuma?)

Horrible Graphics/Matrix Time slice! When will Shankar ever learn to use sensible graphics?

I always like to read your reviews since you look into aspects
which I might not have thought about while watching the movie. This review is no exception.
So kudos to you on bringing the nuances, technical and otherwise.

Anniyan has a strong social message, which I agree could have been said better.
As always shankar has tried to sugarcoat the bitter pill with other commerical ingredients.
So, I do not agree that Anniyan is shankar's biggest blooper.
I feel that honor goes to Boys. The reason is that a director of shankar's calibre
should not stoop to the level of making a sleaze flick. He, I feel, has a social
responsibility as the reach of his movies is far and wide, unlike other directors.
Sparing the songs and senthil character I could pretty much not stand that movie.

As someone as already mentioned, you have given CM a favorable review, possibly
taking into account SuperStar's long hiatus.
Does that by itself make CM a better movie?
It had shoddy screenplay and rank bad acting not to mention pathetic comedy.
Why this double standard?

I agree I had given a better review for Chandramukhi and so-so review for Mumbai Xpress. If you look all of these the perpective of entertainment values, chandramukhi is certainly the number one. Wait wait before you pounce on me for that.

Mumbai Xpress was likeable but I didn't enjoy it completely because of it's drag in the second half. Anniyan from the very moment Ambi starts typing Anniyan.com ceases to be a shankar's movie and takes off in a diff track which is unbelivably boring. Except for Vivek comedy there nothing much interesting. Chandrmukhi, even though with bad acting in many places and unbelivable logic issues didn't pretend to convey social messages.

And btw, why are we comparing Vasu/Singeetham/Shankar on the same league.

Arun, I have to accept strongly that I loved Chandrmukhi better than Anniyan and Mumbai Xpress ;-)

On better thoughts, Chandramukhi was an out-right victory for Rajini. It certainly wasn't a giant step for kollywood. Anniyan could have done that. But it failed misrably and thats what irritates me.

Padhu,

The point that a blog is someone's personal stuff is beaten to death and your reiterating it makes absolutely no difference.

Your coming to lazy's rescue seems to have been more overdone than Ambi's bit in Anniyan.

If someone wants ppl to just shut their traps and read stuffs, "PERSONAL BLOGS" would not have comments section. And the reason it exists (despite having an option to remove it) is for people like you and me to voice our opinions too, in support of or against the author's view.

The reason why people come here is because they would never have someone like Malathi listen to their views / comments / suggestions / feedbacks. Opining differently only leads to a healthy discussion, unless you are gonna get frantic about it. So, quit pouncing on people who come here to tell the author what they feel about the post. Leave that bit to the author, who seems to have handled it in his own logical way.

"Arun, I have to accept strongly that I loved Chandrmukhi better than Anniyan and Mumbai Xpress ;-)"

Guru ...Come on..Let's fight it out :-)

Recipe 1 - Take a old malayalam hit, Tailor it to Rajini's needs, Sprinkle with some double meaning jokes then and there, never see any continuity in screenplay or logic holes.

Recipe 2 - Take some of shankar's old movies, sprinkle with some nice Sujatha dialogues, never see any continuity or logic holes (asusual), deliver it in a big canvas with some decent acting (although not extraordinary).

Recipe 3 - Try some new kind of comedy, have decent acting coupled with new hand in technology (above average execution though for Kamal's Calibre)finish it with a pathetic climax under a very low budget. (Totally experimental you can say..)

What surprises me is Recipe 1 thrilled you better than Recipe 2 and Recipe 3? The only thing which made you to like Recipe 1 is the name 'Rajini', I guess.

Good review yet again, though I rather felt that Vikram was the saving grace of the movie (except the Remo character of course). Put it this way...which other Tamil actor would you have cast in this role - I could think of only Surya.

However, I strongly disagree with lazygeek's opinion that 'Boys' was better than 'Anniyan'. The only redeeming feature of 'Boys' was its music; it was terribly directed (winning the MTV Award!!!!). And Shankar's worst movie was undoubtedly 'Jeans'.

As for comparisons to 'Indian' and 'Mudhalvan', those movies were ahead of their time. Perhaps, seen today, they might have been passed upon; at their time they were almost revolutionary concepts. And Kamal 'pancake-acting' in 'Indian' - please do not forget a certain 'Citizen' with an equal amount of pancake, if not more (the younger Kamal in 'Indian' was sick, though).

The thing about Shankar is and I have mentioned it elsewhere before is that he tries hard to cater to all segments of the audiences. Even the best of his movies has overdone scenes and crude comedy. With Anniyan I believe he has taken it a step further. Matrix effects has already been used in Matrix and Boys and probably couple of other English/tamil flicks. Why use it again in Anniyan and that too repeatedly? Its no longer new anymore. But with Anniyan doing well Shankar would'nt care much about all this.

Regarding Vikram, he needs weird/abnormal characters so that he can change his getup and show that he is desperately trying to act. As Shankar mentioned he is not a spontaneous actor at all. I'll believe he is when he plays a normal character and does it right. Kamal has done it many times effortlessly. Vikram's acting comes as over-the-top and unrealistic in many places. Even in Pithamagan Surya was more believable than Vikram.

Prakashraj's dialogue in Anniyan about not seeing an actor like Vikram so far
in his life would have drawn a few guffaws and boos in the theater.

This movie contradicts its very theme.

Sincerity, discipline : things that this movie demands of the common man; Unfortunately this movie lacks this.

Indian movie industry suffers from the same plight as the common man in India. (as portrayed in the movie).

So if Shankar wants us all to "reform" and be like the "foreigners", then this movie should show us the way.

In other words, this movie wants us to change our ways from being a 'charlie', but this movie is a 'charlie'.

Arun, Naan oru anjaa nenjan. am not afraid to fight it out ;-) Ofcourse, I can matrix fight like our anniyan.

We knew Chandramukhi would suck in terms of logic. it did as expected. atleast, i didn't expect shankar to cook-up stories like this in anniyan. thats probably why i hated it. and i don't see it technically advanced than his earlier flicks.

even though war of the worlds is screwed up, spielberg has made some amazing advancements in technical and story telling methods to raise his own bar. thats all i request from any 'good' director[not the vaasu types] in kollywood. we don't an aayitha ezhuthu any more. we want a better flick than that, the next time and better one after that. only this makes way to improvement.

LG,good review. I agree with the statement "If made appropriate changes to the basic story-line, Anniyan would become a classic." When I was watching the trailer itself, i kinda formulated the story. When I saw Anniyan, I thought my story was a lot more better than what shankar represented. Sujatha's dialogues were great. Puchi Srinivasa Iyengar peran,Puchi na andha galam, ippo Dinosaur Mani padinduirukar.heh.

Anonymouse said -
anniyan anniyan
ivanillai indian
sodhapitaaru namma shankar-an
kudutharu thuvaichu pota baniyan

Anonymouse, enjoyed your poetic review ;-)

YB, Great observation. I missed to note it. Actually the character of that guy talks about abiding rules. How did he missed to wear a helmet on the road ?

Ram, You are right. I meant to say 'message'. wrote it as storyline. and yeah the graphics part of shankar's movie gets irritating.

Prabhu, I was expecting Katz to kick up the fight with kumar. You did it and you were mostly right.

Guru Prasad, Yeah she was a sodha. she probably couldn't do much in that badly defined character of hers.

lazy,
agree with ur review.
I thought i was the only one who thought the anniyan get up looked second hand. What was that anyway? a monk outfit? Poor thing , he had to wear that in the chennai heat. & shots of anniyan hair strands.....how uncool.
Vikram, apparently have learned the tricks of the trade. He knows that all the shouting & screaming& overacting will bring the audience in. Am sure the director wanted him to play it over the top.
The anniyan voice, the graphics, all amateurish& jarring. Y even bother? It was a treat to watch vikram play ambi.He is so good at doing native charachters.Y anglicise him & make him look like a caricature? Song picturisations were a let down too. Vivek was the only redeeming factor in an otherwise boring movie
True, singapore & india comparison doesnt make sense. How big& culturally diverse is singapore anyway?
But everybody want to play it safe these days. Every new movie is a rehash of some thing or the other.Am sure shankar is happy with all the box office success.

Nice review lazy..I was very amused looking at media reviews saying 'shankar has redeemed himself' after boyz. I thot boyz was great. Shankar has to redeem himself after this movie.
Shankar production- kaadhal, this yr was monumentally better.

Just out of interest Guru, how did you see Anniyan? I mean did you see at theatre, on dvd, or tape or something?
Good review as usual..

OH YEAH. This blogger is SO biased that he won't accept anyone other than Kamal as an actor. And anyone other than MR as a director. BTW, Did he write a review for Pithamagan? He did not.
Anywho it's his space, so peace (thanks, hri ;))

Good review there Lazy. Bang on target.
Whats up with Shankar.. Does he think that some dumb people who dont understand computers see the movie.

I remember Ambi complaining from a Railway station on Anniyan.com (where is such a good browsing center in the train route from Chennai to Thiruvayaar ?).. and after all this Vivek says all the complaints have been logged from the same IP and Phone number.. Since When did Dial Up give static IP addresses.. ?

Either he should not show up these things.. or show things perfectly. Little knowledge is too dangerous, in this case a flop show.

Tornedo, I did not write Pithamahan and 7g Rainbow colony reviews for different reason. They were time dependant. I would love to write them now. Just that I'm not too interested in them now.

BTW, I want you to read Aayitha Ezhuthu review and Mumbai Xpress review before you put me on the criminal board !! Let's talk then.

Venkat, Has the Anniyan DVD released so soon to watch it on DVD or video ?

Good review guru..
I just finished seeing the first part of the movie..
from what i saw, my 2 cents worth
1)Sada sucks at dancing, especially her expressions in the song..or was it bad choreography?
2)song sukumari..was badly choreographed..It looked as if the director and choreographer had no clue how to shoot this song..ofcourse locales are beautiful
3)Even kadal yanai song..why the hell Remo singing abt himself ?? :) that was ludicrous
3)Vikram's ambi's body language is little effeminate..I felt so.
I can add many other things..i'll stop and i know its not easy to make a movie..Also I heard the second half has a taut screenplay. So I wud rather wait..

LG,
No need to blast ME just for the sake of being Neutral. Because Iam seeing you quoting 'Please see my ME review in case you think Iam a kamal fan' often here.
Okay, whatever you say...Anniyan is still technically a good movie (It sucked then and there in screenplay ...I agree) and CM Sucked right royally in all departments. If you don't have Rajini the star in CM, you would have definitely blasted that movie for sure! No need to praise CM or ridicule (an experimental movie) like ME, just to prove the audience that you are neutral...my 2 cents!
Btw,I like your blog...since you celebrate arts,literature and that too consistently!

10 out of 10 for your review.
Very true. Anniyan was very disappointing except for few sequences..

That was one very good review.
Much needed.

What I didnt quite like about the movie was not MPD - most movies nowadays seem to have it, Chandramukhi being no exception. The sore part of the movie, I felt, were the excessive visualization and unnecessary dramatization. It was like a satire of MAtrix, Mission Impossible and some other similar movies!!!

hi LG,
great revu for anniyan. i think anniyan is a must see for its social message though, technically its a damp squib. i know some of my friends who changed their attitude after seeing the movie. i thought MX was very good to see once for kamal. CM was a total disaster. its like laloo winning again and again

Excellent review......could not agree with you more. Shankar's screenplay seemed to have played the spoilsport. Ambi and Anniyan would have been enough....Remo was an eyesore....But I beg to differ wrt the songs....They might not be as good as rahman's but were good though.....by the end of 2.5 hours you do not have the satisfaction of having watched a movie.....easily one of the worst movies of Shankar....only Kaadhalan was worse...

The time you said " I've huge list of VDO's pending in my library to be picked up in the World/European Cinema category …" ,
I expected something like this was on the way & here it is - The Anniyan review .
Romba padam pakkureenganu ninaikaren , adhuvum nalla padama vera pakkurrenga nu ninaikaren ;-)) .

That way I felt your review was little too ' harsh ' on Shankar ..
LG , Enga nilammaiyei koncham yoseenga …
Thirupaachi ,Sachein , Karka kasadara , Ayya ,Deivadhayei kanden , 6'2" ,Englishkaran ect .. Edhu ellam enga tamilnattula vandha,vara pora padathoda listtu ..
TV'la vara trailors paartha ennum bayamma erukku … Evaalo "prachanai" ku naduvulla enga pollapu odittu erukku :-(( Neenga ennadanna War of the worlds,Speilberg nu pesittu erukkenga . That way Anniyan was a welcome break !

This cannot be an excuse for making good films but believe me , it is for makig a super-hit film .

Eppa Bangladesh teamla oru "Ashraful" ellaya ..adhu madhiri enga Shankara 'mannichu' vitrunga !

LG

You escaped ! I thought you would have some nice words for anniyan and was all geared to confront you. Yes Anniyan proves us of all the talent or the lack of it, Shankar has in making movies. He is one helluva guy moviedom should avoid. Using visuals to provide gimmickery is not the need of the hour. Copying all stale techniques used in Matrix and the likes - makes you vomit.

I dont know when these directors, who unfortunately claim a lot of power to make the industry sway the way they want, will understand how to use visuals to stunning effect - I could not see one visual that would reflect the realities of today... hmmm we are yet to be redeemed.

Just playing the Devil's advocate here Guru(I haven't caught up with Anniyan yet), but does the genre and purpose of a movie define a yardstick for itself?

Let me join the fray too - CM vs ME vs Anniyan.

I felt that CM was poorly executed. In fact, I'd even go on to say that if CM were released, say after Baasha/Annamalai, it'd have flopped miserably. One major contributions toward CM becoming such a big hit was that it released after the miserable 'Baba'. Even considering that Rajni movies have irrefutable logic (they all work!), CM had too many continuity problems, poorly etched characters and average music (and double entedre to boot).

One was not judging ME by the same standards as CM or Anniyan, simply 'coz it was a Kamal movie. With Kamal, one always expects something different - maybe 'outlandish' (like 'Aalavandhan'), but certainly different. ME tried to be, but lost its way in the middle (that stupid family-song!!).

Shankar's USP has always been DIFFERENT themes & treatment - be it 'Gentleman' (marked probably the first extensive usage of graphics), 'Kaadhalan' (pure style, zilch content), 'Jeans' (no style, no content, just Aish, the locations and ARR), 'Indian' (unique) or 'Mudhalvan' (unique). 'Boys' was such 'T.Ilamai' remixed, plus lotsa non-veg stuff and other kitsch - fairly predictable throughout. And that is exactly what's wrong with 'Anniyan' too - it was so boring and predictable for somebody who'd already seen Indian/Mudhalvan/Ramana. The only 'new' thing I found in Anniyan was the martial arts sequence - even though it was flicked and irrelevant to the movie, the sequence packed a wallop few other other parts of the movie did.

One of friend said that ME was more frightening to watch than CM & Anniyan because he watched the movie alone in the theatre

Hey Lazy!
Super review. Totally agree! :)
Ambi aint a loser but I think Vikram makes him out to be one! I had serious problems with how he played ambi... he was too stereotyped, at his loudest best, especially with excessive crying...
like i said in my review, there is a certain soul to ambi which gets lost with the way Vikram carries it! With a lil dignity and underplaying, a subdued Ambi cudve been simmering with frustration and helplessness... I saw Ambi as someone who quietly smashes his fists into the wall when no one's watching (the angry helpless man) rather than crying while criminally wasting metro water!
that cud ve made the protagonist more relatable!
very detailed review! nice!
cheers!

Kalpana, Did you even finish watching the movie. And yes the second half was better than the first. On a whole it was disapppointing.

Kumar/Sat/Karthik/Whoever I am, Thanks.

Arun, I am not blasting any movie to show neutrality. Seriously. First of all I am not for ranking CM,ME and AN. Wait a sec, I ranked them already now ;-)

Hemanth, ;-) I escaped but not shankar !!

SriKriz, I agree to what you say. It's not european cinema or world cinema that made me hate anniyan. you don't need all that here. anniyan is kick himself !!

Nilu, While genre can possibly set a yardstick, purpose cannot. I am a devil's advocate myself, nilu. And I loved the movie, Devil's Advocate, too.

Suderman, Thanks for that. And yeah, Vikram could have downplayed the role not only for ambi but for all the three of them.

Guru, I don't know whether it released, thats why I asked you how you saw it. I think Chandramukhi, Sachin and Mumbai Xpress has released though.

I beg to differ :

http://strikhedonia.blogspot.com/2005/06/anniyan_18.html

Hey LG, nothing on Anniyan topic. How is your car search going? I am still seaaaarchingggggg...(hope you remember that i mentioned i was an occational visitor to your website when you posted your car search topic)

This was the first Shankar film that I liked. I've absolutely hated the others. True, some of the supposed big scenes like the flower festival and Thiruvayaaru turned out to be duds, but overall the film was entertaining and even had a sense of humor about itself at times, whereas films like Jeans and Boys took themselves too damn seriously.

I agree that it is far from perfect, and Vikram's performance was not GREAT, but I thought it was interesting enough. Remo was hilarious, whether intentionally or unintentionally.

The songs and their picturizations were a big let down. Kaadhal Yaanai seemed to be the latest ripoff off "Koi Kahe Kehta Rahe" from Dil Chahta Hai, and the others were not memorable.

Fight choreography was ripped from Matrix and Hong Kong films, so it loses points here.

I liked the spotlight on India's social problems. The film is not advocating that you open up a can of Garuda Purana on someone's ass whenever they spit on the road :-) but it urges us to be more responsible.

LG,
Off topic.. did u get to listen to Thiruvasagam in Symphony? When do we get to read a review?

How come Anniyan threatens Sangeetha Sabha manager for considering "Sivaasu" by MP when he himself has come there on Chari's "Sivaas". Sankar, I know you like to be the audience of your own movie, but this scene should have been reformulated for logic if you'd been a honest audience member.

For all those here, a general understanding is that the quality of tamil movies has reduced considerably although there have been patches of brilliant products once in a while. Yes! the audience wants racy entertainers but making 9/10 movies as racy entertainers just to make money demeans the sole purpose of medium.
Shankar, the message of every citizen realizing their duty is thought provoking, but the merchantile aspect of running from your doomsday by selling a white egg painted gold spells the oblivion to the quality of cinema. Imagine if five people are motivated by your movie making style, Yes! there could be a lot of money, but our qualilty and character would swing monetarily rather than on the social message side. Think about it when you make your next movie. Expectations aside, were you happy making this movie from the inside? Gentleman tickled me, Indian titillated me, Mudhavan energized me, and ANNIYAN ridiculed me! an intelligent viewer's words.......

lazy,have been a quite fan of your reviews. Prely for your style. It might interest you that I hardly ever watch movies and it is just your style that draws me here.
Okay, that off my mind.Lots of controversy here, Anniyan vs CM, Vikram vs Kamal etc. Though as I said I am not a regvular movie buff, have seen probably most of Kamal's best and Vikram's best(which will be like what 5 movies?6?).My thoughts are as follows:
1.Vikram is a bloody good actor - if I may say this, the best hope in the current scenario
2. But he is not Kamal - there is a plus and minus to this - minus being that he becomes a director's doll and is prone to exploitation by mindless directors a la Sivaji Ganesan hence the overacting charges we see now. Plus is that he is not prone to the personal flights of fance a la Alavandan and even the family song in ME(which to me is a defiant exercise by Kamal in reference to Marraige as an institution - "see an innocent man can love a mistress of another woman and it is just all between 2 individuals to be happy together rahter than a social responsibility or a holy instiution". Why make this personal point in a movie trying a different type of comedy?)
There is less likelihood of Vikram imposing personal points of view on us.

We can only hope that Vikram will get directors like Viswanath or Balachander who extracted outstanding performances from Kamal. Despite his obvious intelligence as a movie maker, I dont think Kamal, as an actor, has out-performed those roles in his independent movies.
Otherwise, he is destined to go the Sivaji way - huge talent(though comparing Vikram with Sivaji will be stupid - I am just comparing their situation - the scale is obviously different) frittered away on tear-jerkers or loud characters.

Vikram has done a good job as an ordinary man in his earlier movies - just that it doesnt pay in the current Tamil Cinema context - he has to compete with Vijay and Ajith by being larger-than-life. I will be happy if he can be part of say, even 2 or 3 outstanding movies in the next 10 years :-)

To have any other expectation is deluding oneself about the practical possiblities of Tamil Cinema :-)

Guru Anna, I think this would happen once in a lifetime. I entirely disagree and dislike your views on a movie...I think it is one in a thousand...But I thought you should not have been such sarcastic...

If you are arguing on logic, I think Anniyan will never emerge as a winner. Think of the storyline, think of our people's understanding and try developing trhe story to the perfect logic. That would be totally impossible...You can shoot out on Shankar for more than 100 occassions...

Also I think Shankar's films have never been logically perfect. With the dominance of fantasy elements, he is always bound to sacrifice some loogic for the masses. This time the sacrifice was more...

77 replies! Have to read alllllllllllll of them before saying anything, and now! LG has a new post, so i guess no one will read my reply. Still and but, I will write something.

I have no direct technical bit by bit comments on Anniyan. Just to say that, 90% of moviegoers in Malaysia loved the film and on average about 50% of them go back to watch it again for the 2nd and 3rd time. (this is not based on any published survey, just consider it a social observation).

Anniyan is running for the 22nd day now in Malaysia. CM ran for 60+ days.

The money paid for Anniyan's rights by Malaysia and Singapore alone os enought to get back atleast half of the movies cost. ANd since its released all over the world, The producer would have reaped about 2 to 3 times the innitial cost. This is a fact for most of the big star, big budget movies from TN.

So technicaly again, reviews doesnt matter anymore whether its online, offline, on paper, in magazines, by mouth, because the people will go see it again and again! And for a fact, movies like Anniyan, Anbe Sivam, Boys, etc is loved and became HUGE hits in Malaysia and Singapore.

And to conclude my reply (which seems to be going nowhere), I would say, LG in his own rights, gave a decent movie review, but it did not sink well with most of the others. Kumar gave a decent reply, some facts by him that reflects the habits of movie goers OUTSIDE of India. And there is no so called 'Matrix effects' and there is no reason on why it should not be used again. Its an industry standard now. Maybe, just maybe if the SFX company Shankar went to had a very good machine to render the FX, then its would have been smooth.

In the end, Anniyan is just another Tamil movie. The fact that it had Vikram, and hes so loved outside of India, makes him and ALL his movies box-office hits. And please guys, there is no such things as Tamil box-office flops. Once the producers sell it to the rest of the world, theyre happy. And since we in malaysia pay about RM 10 per movie ticket (USD2.50, Rupees 100), we have more rights to defend or ditch review Tamil movies than any Indian bloggers me think. (no offend to anyone, just wanted to say this for a long time). Maybe because Indian around the world OUTSIDE India watch more English/ non-Tamil movies, theyre ready to accept the abstract content of movies such as Anniyan.

P/s: you guys like to be critical, in the song Kannum Kannum Nokia, in one shot of Sada at the Petronas Twins, you can see the camera mans reflection. Hope this feeds the critics for another few days.

Have fun guys, and a very happy weekend for you Mr Guru. You rock!

GP, not really.. people will still look at your reply. Oscar Ravichandran could have got his money back. But Shankar wouldnt get back his lost respect, as a great director.

Everyone in Singapore just love anniyan dudes! Lets do the 'yo yo'! Lol!!!

Hey Keerthi,

You are right, he has lost his respect. Maybe abit. Depends still on his next project. I hope he gets Kamal. I read somewhere itll be a Telegu movie with a huge budget. Shankar is good, hes a trendsetter, youre going to see tonnes of movies made reffering to Anniyan as with his other movies. But this project, which I think has already take too long (nearlly 2 years since boys), may have taken its toll on Shankar. And look WHO beat him with a multiple personality disorder syndrom a few months back!

By the way, Sujatha's writings are cool, new age stuff. Lets do the yo-yo is a more decent flirt than LAKALAKALAKALAK...(seriously!)

Anniyan is certainly not a great movie in any genre, but certainly a entertaining movie. In fact, i did find it more entertaining than Chandramukhi. And second thing is, it is much better than some of Shankar's earlier movies like Jeans, Mudhalvan or Kadhalan. Here at least he tried to tell a different thing apart from the usual corruption stuff and he has some innovative (as far as Indian cinema is concerned) use of mythology. Acting by Vikram was quite good and i didn't find the Remo character repulsive.

Of course i dont get how you think Boys was realastic. A usual rags to riches of a group of runaway boys in a very short time is realastic for you!! Please see my blog for a more scathing review of Boys.

Perhaps you just expected too much from Shankar.

I disagree with you. I definitely think that Anniyan is better than Boys. Boys was a run of the mill movie with crude and lewd language and picturization. Anniyan may not have been portrated in the best possible way but Shankar is trying to get a social cause across. By bringing in the MPD concept, he has changed it from ending up as "Indian".
I personally am of the opinion that Vikram's acting was excellent. He was bad as "Remo" but thats because he's too old to portray a Romeo.
I agree with you that the picturization of the songs were bad but they are definitely worth listening to.

Shankar has done a good job in Anniyan. Who said he lost his respect? Well if you dont appreciate him nevermind, there's lots of people out there who do.

Boys was a brilliant film. Anniyan was a good one.
Guru, sometimes, it helps to not overly analyse a film. Just watch it for the sake of watching it. I went to Anniyan just to see the movie, and didn't come out disappointed.

Hi all I saw Anniyan yesterday .... my comment are below ...
Pros
Hype given my Vikram and Shankar ( which most people blindly believed)
Cons
a) Overacting by Vikram in 3 characters ...
1. Ambi - think lota overacting had gone into this role ... Vikram desperately tries to potray a iyengar,
may times both Saada and Vikram make some crazy, hyper expressions, which is not needed atall
2. Remo .... Vikram does not suite for this Role ... think he had totaly over done it. He could have been more cool .. instead of sniffing his finger now and then.
3. Anniyan - This roles actualy needs lota expression but Shanker gor caried away by by outward thins and made Vikram look crazy by giving importance to Hair, lowsy dress, and some Black paint in his face ...

We can relate to main characters in Nayakan, gentleman, Mudalvan .. the roles in this movie are totaly absured and unrealistic

b) The fight sequence with the Karate fighters .... Its sooo stupid and awkward to see these fights, they are very much unrealistic and too much of graphics is fed into them.

c) Weak screenplay ... of all the Shankar's movie this one has the most weakest sp .... got may loopholes .... there is no logic, reality etc ... feel all the scenes are loosely hooked together ...

d) Music - inferior quality .. may be musicaly dumb people will surly enjoy it. Haris Jeyaraj is sleeping deep down, please dont disturb him ....

I read in some interviews that Vikram is expecting National award for this movie Anniyan ... I think he is just dreaming i guess the national award had gone into his head !!

You idiots,

Can't you recognize a good movie when you see it? I don't see any of you guys, going out there with 15 crores in your pocket and making a movie with only big shots for over a year. Nor do I see any one of you, making history at box office. However I did see Shankar just do it, so sock it.

You know what your problem is, you forget the idea behind the story and analyze what is not important. Remo was obviously in there for commercial elements and so were lavish sets and songs. There is a reason why the movie is called Anniyan, because it is based on him!

Vikram was a big let down? Hello, who the world won the National Award? Vikram did all three roles with ease.

If you can't appreciate a movie just walk away from it, instead of bringing it down.

Maybe if you make a movie better than this, and make it a superhit, I will give a second thought on if you are a loser or not. I dare you, go ahead and make a better movie.

Surf

yep
this movie is indeed impressive.
i like the way he carries on with himself.
truely he is a born actor

How can anyone suffering from MPD fight like Neo from the Matrix? MPD won't make u a superman or romeo.
What a cork movie! Shanker always likes to bulls@#t. Anyone remember how kamalhassan kills nizhagal ravi in Indian? He will live telecast the whole murder. Another bulls@#t. And in mudhalvan Arjun becomes CM in one day and brings darastic changes in one day.Wow! Such an easy job eh, being a CM.Anniyan was a laughable movie. Everytime when you watch a Shanker movie, at the start of the movie you would see this ' ippadathil varuum kathapathtrangaluum katchikalum mulluzkka mullukka kaarpanayeh'. Instead of that he should put this 'thaivu seithu unngal mulaiyai kazitri vaithu veetu ippadathai parkkavam'. I knew why this pic was heavily publicize now coz they knew it if it failed in box office it will be disaster.And how can anyone compare this with chandramukhi?
Anniyan was made for 2 long years for 26 crores wherelese Chandramukhi was made within 4 months with just a total of 5 crores. The reason why Anniyan took so long was Vikram was growing hair for that 2 years, hahaha ;)

Oh guys, stuff it. Anniyan is a good movie. I just cant believe that you are the same people who will dance and havoc the cinema watching one old guy with plastic lips talking BS, while at the same time, say that intelligent movies like Anniyan is nothing. By the way, Indian tata did not kill Ravi live, he recorded it me think.

Understand MPD better before commenting on it, maybe ure an art streamer, so you dont understand medical situations. An MPD would cause the commit suicide just like it can cause you to kill another person.

And stop, for the final freaking time talking about box office failures. IT WILL NEVER HAPPEN with tamil movies. Unless the producer NEVER wants to release a movie, or the distributor doesnt want to buy the movie (something that doesnt happen with Shankar movies), a tamil movie WILL get back all its cost before even it hits the theaters. Even if a movie doesnt run in TN, it will make 10 times the money elsewhere around the world. ANd Anniyan is not a box-failure, they made 150 prints of it compared to 75 prints for crappy CM in India. Youre contradicting your own people eh!

And becoming a CM in one day is nothing hard, it has happened before, not only in India.

All those so called critics, you guys just want to watch some masala movie and go home talk about it for a week. Next time I suggest you go watch some Satyaraj, Vijayakanth or Vijay movie for that matter. Maybe youll nominate them for the Oscars.

Nice review. But I dispute the following points.

"I only wished Vikram to have understood the subtle fierceness, Kamalhassan displayed as Indian Thatha"

The Indian Thatha character was a highly dignified one. That guy was supposed to have been a "true" freedom fighter. So that character is supposed to have a subtle fierceness about him.

On the other hand Anniyan is an MPD obsessed with just one thing in life. This character is similar to Batman's Two-face (the cartoon version) and I think it has been portrayed well. But he could have followed the Vidathu Karuppu path by showing just the shadows or the profile in dark.

"The minute you have Anniyan executing Garuda Puranam type punishments"

I suppose you also object to the use of Varma Kalai in Indian. Varma Kalai has a lot of history behind it too.

"I can't believe shots of Anniyan website having such poor quality graphics which any local graphic artistic can make"

Exactly the point. The website was constructed by Anniyan using a crash course in graphics. But I don't think shankar meant it that way. The real reason might be the budget, what with the matrix-type fight and the song sets. Anyway this one is not such a big deal to make someone hate the movie and we are still not upto Hollywood levels.