The camera refuses to move. Stops panning and stands uptight on Vaiyaapuri’s face as he comically remarks about the kidnap plan to the deaf Kamal Hassan. Half an inch more and Vaiyaapuri’s nose would brush the camera lenses. What is an unrestrained close-up like this doing in this comedy film. Out-of-place, you would feel. So did I. As more-and-more similar shots came more-and-more closer to the characters, you know it’s different. And by that definition of different, Mumbai Xpress is very different from the comedies that we have had before. It’s an offshoot of on-the-road movie genre. By a unwritten rule, we have had on-the-road movies either being thriller or serious types. Mumbai Xpress tries to explore the arena of on-the-road comedies. It tries.

Even as Pasupathi(codenamed as A) etches the kidnap plan of a rich business magnet’s son, to his sidekicks, the movie takes-off in a high speed. From then on, it runs express speed to hire Kamal Hassan in the kidnap plan and execute it. All of this told in a way that makes you think the movie was truly shot in a single day. Singeetham’s directorial experience comes to play in executing this kidnap sequence with a professional touch. The Kidnap plan which looks like the plot of the story gets done with half hour with top class comical twists, turns from the top of a crane. The Vande Matharam sequence in the school being the best of all sequence in the movie.

While the first half completes with a bike chase, one is left to wonder how Kamal & Singeetham would manage to drag this rather simple story into the next half. The second half occupies the commercial aspects for the film. A rushed-up romance that wouldn’t gel with the plot, introduction of new characters and new confusions in the aftermaths of kidnap and resolving these knots make up for a dragging second half. Even as I say that the second half goes dragging, there are scenes which make you laugh, like a typical Kamal Hassan comedy flick. Kamal chooses to end the film with a fiesta similar to Shrek.

A kidnap plan gone wrong, an innocent circus bike driver and a bunch of foolish amateur kidnappers gives enough time and space for an adept actor like Kamal Hassan to carve a niche for himself in the film. While acting as an innocent dude is something that Kamal does in most of his comedy flicks, also irritates a viewer who would expect assortment. With that Asterix type knot around his head and colorful bike, Kamal Hassan is all out for fun throughout.

Pasupathi is one who would be the most profited from the movie. Its his character that walks away with the cake, like the Gemini Ganesan of Avvai Shanmughi. Pasupathi talks a natural Tamil slang that just rocks. His voice modulation and his facial expressions just suits the ‘Boss’ role he plays. The scene where he tackles the traffic police alongwith Kamal, WOW. Manisha looks pale and is a misfit for the role. Naaser and Santhana Bharathi take similar roles they played in Anbe Sivam.

Sidharath’s camera needs to lauded for the angels and some amazing free-flowing shots. But then, blame it on the digital movie-making that most of the effort gets wasted and overlooked. Its understandable that the crew is trying to use a movie-making which is even debated in the Hollywood but the audience were just not told of all these. An unassuming viewer would think that it’s just an act of irresponsibility to have a movie show-up grains and poor picture clarity.

Illayaraja needn’t have been there in the film. The songs needn’t be hyped so much. The film would have managed well without songs too. Yelle Nee Ettippo which plays at the background has neat music in the album. All that got lost in the film and makes one feel that Illayaraja’s efforts weren’t paid-off properly.

As said its a beginning of a breed of movies in Tamil and could not pushed aside by overlooking. I don’t seem to recall many on-the-road comedies atleast in Tamil. Thiruda Thiruda was a little adventurous than being a riot fare. Mamootty and Arvind Swamy’s starrer Puthayal was of a similar type but Mumbai Xpress is out-right comedy with more logistics than logic. You may not be inspired to watch it again and again like Michael Madana Kama Rajan or Pesum Padam but you would certainly relish the moments of Mumbai Xpress.

The screen dissolves into black. A little androglossian strained voice starts to speak-out, feebly. It narrates a story as a first-person account. A story that is nothing but a state-of-mind. A story that transforms the mind and vision of blackness into white. All this transformation accompanied with a lot of trouble, anguish, agony and zillion other words that you relate to the word PAIN. Cut.

Film Fare Awards 2005 - And the filmfare award for the best - film, screenplay, direction, camera, back ground music, actor, actress and child artist goes to the cast and crew of BLACK. Will sport a moustache if this doesn’t come true. Sometimes, even if you are stiff emotionsless critic, you fall shaken with emotions when a movie moves so deeply from the heart. Black is one such gem. A classic that can stand over gimmicks and modernities of film techniques. Cut.

A Hellenkellrish story that carves lives of two people, where both become teacher and student to the other, at various points of the thorn-filled garden of life. A story that could well be complained for being straightly copied / stollen or even inspired from the life of Hellen Keller, known to us from the english textbooks of 4th grade.

Take a vivid look into the black, non-imaged, non-pixelated, muted life of Michelle McNally [Rani Mukherjee], living in Shimla. Take a detailed view into the life of the humane, adorable and angry old Debraj Sahai [Amitabh Bachchan] who is losing his worthy life and it’s memories to Alzheimer’s diesease. Their lives gets inter-twined when Debraj comes to hand-hold the blind ‘n’ deaf Michele. And what would you teach to a child who has no idea about the world around her, except for the sense of smell, taste and touch. All Michelle knows is her maa who has a hand that is soft that touches her cheeks. Any other hand and Michelle reveals her ultra famous emotion, anger. It is this anger that when postively charged gets her moving in her life to the heights, she never had imagined even in the wildest of dreams.

The movie moves firmly for a two and half hours without a single boring frame. Not only it makes you cry, laugh and applaud but also it teaches you that a movie needn’t pronounce a message. A movie can just arouse plethora of emotions in you. The physically challenged have a zest for life. A thirst to know more and know it completely. Shallow knowledge gets them upset. Their anger is sharp and uncontrolled for they are the ones who react appropriately at situations than the normal mortals who are numb with emotions. Michelle gets angered when Sahai slaps her for not typing as fast as expected. She reacts immediately. From 10 words a minute, she types 30 a minute. She bursts out when her sister makes a miunderstands her on the engagement day. Proves that she has much more to offer than what’s known to the outisde world. Also she becomes a patient teacher to her ex-teacher only to create a miracle on him.

For the first time, one would understand the demon behind Alzheimers disease. You could forget to carry a pen, forget to meet someone at four o’ clock. But what if you forget yourself, your past and every single thing around you. Terrible.

As Debraj Sahai, Amitabh Bachchan carries the entire movie on him. With the intonation so accurate and expressions very classy he takes away the cake in the movie. I’ve never seen such a spell binding male performance in a bollywood flick before. With those wide-open eyes and that stupendous acting performance, I see Kamal Hassan. As a south Indian, I’ve known Amitabh as a bollywood hero compared to the Rajinikanth of south. Being a Rajinikanth admirer, I hated Amitabh for a reason because some of Rajinikanth’s earlier flicks were remakes of Amithabh’s bollywood hits. And I hated to believe this fact. As a carorepathi host, Amitabh was convicing but did not catch my fancy. Many bollywood films that featured after that used him as a brand ambassador for their films. This one is a killer effort. A perfect way for Amitabh to prove he is truly the the BIG B. As he catches the young Michelle with strands of her hair to control the blind kid’s anger, as he slaps her when she could never type more than 10 words a minute, as he walks effortlessly with his head shaking of aging and being suffered with Alzheimers, Amitabh creates magic. He adds color to this rather black movie. A true champion.

Rani Mukherjee. WOW. No exaggerations but this is far most one the best performances by any actress in recent times. As a grown Michelle McNally, she occupies the second half of the movie ans stays throughout in the heart. She has this amazing voice that brings in reality to the movie. It’s her voice that narrates the entire movie. A swaggering gait with a walking stick on her hand, she sometimes reminds the Chaplin walk. And not only that but also dances so rapturously. She listens to the college lecture by feeling the lip movement of her mentor. What everyone does in 3 years, she does it in a two decades withstanding all the pains of being blind and earing impaired. And yeah, even as a blind woman, she wants to know how it feels to be kissed by a man on her lips. She has just her teacher to help her with that. Afterall, isn’t he the one who teached her life, maa, papa, water, cry, snow and every other damned thing of life. She asks. He teaches. A classy scene that brings out gross realities of life as they are without exaggerations. Rani Mukerjee can be announced as the Indian actress of the decade, undoubtedly.

Ayesha Kapur, as the young Michelle grabs the first half with her lovely debut performance. With a movie full of scope for performance, it is the casting department which needs to be appreciated to have casted Ayesha Kapur as young Michelle. Hats off.

Ironically, for a movie that details the life of a blind and deaf girl, the images and the sound stand out first class. Ravi K Chandran, known for his stylish modern camerawork in Mani Ratnam’s Kannathil Muthamittal and Aayitha Ezhuthu goes in for a conservative yet astonishing camera work. It is through his lens that we look into the life of Michelle and Sahai. The lighting is modern but the camera angles are truly old fashioned. And probably thats what Bhansali drove Ravi K Chandran to do. If only the movie was shot and edited as modern as Aayitha Ezhuthu, it would have failed to impress. This slow movie requires patient camera movements but yet needs to touch the audience. Pre-dominantly colored with black, wherever possible, the color tone itself is rich, lavish and conveys what the movie is upto. I could devote a paragraph for the music by Monty. It would be right to do that. The music and camera are inter-weaved in the movie. So is the review. If only we get to watch the movie with either one of this(visual and sound), it wouldn’t make any sense . The camera pitches the emotion while the music accompanies and heightens it ten fold. There are no songs however and hence the distractions are reduced largely.

The editing and the sets adds more value. The sets of the bungalow as situated in Shimla are realistic and to re-create them after a fire accident must have been a great effort for the entire team. From the title card, it looks like most of the movie was shot in Himachal Pradesh.

Bhansali did a great job in Khamoshi but it was just not reaching there. His efforts that followed in Hum Dil De Chukke Sanam and Devdas were lavish and were heavily commercialised. With Black, Bhansali proves that he is the bollywood master of melodrama and blacks out the better movies of Bollwood. Black is a picture postcard movie. Any single shot can be blown out into a poster and to this Bhansali has compromised to heavlily exaggerate at some places. By making the story revolve around an Anglo-Indian family situated in a a hill-station, Bhansali tries to show places, people and their costumes which a normal middle class Indian, couldn’t relate so easily. That gives you a feel that the movie happens far away from India. You can shirk these off for the kind of movie Black is. Am sure this effort of Bhansali wouldn’t go unnoticed. If only the reviews/reactions to Black turn-out the otherway it could be because of the prepossessed mind-set on Sanjay Leela Bhansali and his movies.

Black is an effort that needs to be showcased inside and also outside India. While outside India, people would definetly see Black, it needs to be taken to places deep inside India. The best way would be to dub them in many regional languages without affecting the moments of the movie. If you don’t want the rest-of-the-world to dub bollywood from looking at the colorful Monsoon Wedding and Bride and Prejudice, represent Black to the world as an ideal Bollywood flick and articulate the fact that we are one of the movie super stars. For it takes a huge effort to create a movie of this excellence. Whatever it takes, beg-borrow-steal, watch BLACK.

Why would Vishnu incarnate as Rama in the epic of Ramayana and be sent to exile? He needs to kill Ravana. That’s one perspective. Being a staunch bhaktha of Shiva, it’s the path that Ravana chose to attain Moksha. That’s another. Put both into a single glass and see through it. I am sure you get another perspective. Every perspective also has a moral. A moral that so glaringly and sometimes very subtly told. This probably is the reason Ramayana still exists as the numero-uno of moral story building forte.

(more…)

[Pic : galatta.com]

Simbhu requests a shoulder to cry, talks a mile long amateurish dialogue about his girlfriend, who ran away with someone and when the cricket fame Mandira Bedi consoles him, catches her by her hips and over her shoulder winks at the camera. You know by then what manmadhan is going to be. Don’t you?

Taking off as a modern day adaptation of Sigappu Rojakkal, manmadhan is all about serial killing girls who are unfaithful to their husbands/boy friends. While this fact hasn’t been established clearly through dialogues, the screenplay makes you to assume this. Similar to its predecessor serial killing thrillers, the protagonist/anti-hero has a purpose. That purpose as expected is a lengthy flashback. By a chance most of the girls whom our hero meets are diseased by infidelity. Contradictory to real life, these girls fall for the hero in the first pass he makes at them. This disease, again as per the kollywood grammar doesn’t affect the heroine.

(more…)

[Pic: terminal movie]

Steven Spielberg, other than creating visual magnificence’s in his movies, has also a soft side. The last few films, spoke of it, way too much. Despite the soft side was even well known from Schindler’s List and Amistad, the last four/five films have brought out an interesting side of Spielberg. Having been inspired hugely by Spielberg films, I’ve created myself, a personality of Spielberg to be a technical showman. And Schindler’s List was nothing but a different film for this showman. But Artificial Intelligence and Catch Me If you Can broke those assumptions on him. They showed how Spielberg has grown-over the techie image. I believe, Spielberg has evolved into a style of filmmaking that allows him to take a simple story and weave it into an amazing masterpiece.

The Terminal is one such film. More than the premise of the story, the humane side stands out, clearly displaying the different arena of film making, where Spielberg now treads. The film talks about a man who gets stranded in the JFK Airport, New York because of a legal logical hole in the law. No one could do anything about it, just like Victor Navorski. He couldn’t get anywhere. He abides the law, stays in the airport terminal for months and finally gets a chance to step in the American soil. What would he do ?

(more…)

It’s the time of rehashes. With the recent kollywood heroes(namely two, guess who ?) movies being re-made from re-made movies, Gandhi Krishna has certainly delivered a re-hashed movie, with lots of interesting moves in the script. Chellamay, may well be called Kadhal Konden 2.0, except for variance the director has shown in the script and the backdrop of the movie is a lot different from the original.

If Selvaraghavan, used a orphan kid, to talk about possessiveness, love, affection and sympathy between the kid and a girl of his same age, Gandhi Krishna makes a similar relationship a little complex. The girl with whom the protagonist or anti-hero(however you may call), is related to, is an elderly mother-figure for him. Worse, she is also married. So we have a true hero here, too. However one is prone to get miffed by the perplexed situations that doesn’t tell you for a long time, how the hero considers his relationship with girl.

(more…)

Kudaikkul Mazhai isn’t science fiction but can be classified as one. The recent post of science fiction has nothing to do with this. After the movie, while I was biking down, this was the first thing I realized.

While the concept of Schizophrenic delusion is relatively an infant in Tamil films, we have had quite a few number of films that have dealt with Schizophrenics. Kamalhassan’s Aalavandan edged on this issue. Parthiban’s Kudaikkul Mazhai deals in-depth with a Schizophrenic. It doesn’t make a documentary out of a him rather it sits inside his head and give the audience a first-hand experience of Schizophrenic delusion. While there could be many comments/suggestions on how the movie could be taken better, Parthiban needs a huge pat for venturing and trying his hand on this zone, tactically.

With just two characters occupying the screen for most of the time, Parthiban’s lead role can be regarded as one of his best. That old man in Houseful movie is still his best, in my opinion. Karthik Raja, doesn’t come short in the background score, like the songs. The theme music and it’s picturisation being one of the best scenes of the movie. The song Adiye Kiliye written by Parthiban and sung by the Maestro himself is enticing.

The art direction plays a very important role. The house in which Parthiban moves around has been very very creatively made that you find the most unusual thing in the most unusual place. Each frame has so many different things that you may be blink to grasp the idea behind them. The paintings and the animals in the house are symbolical, very tough-to-grasp at the first sight. The creative juices has overflown and it literally reaches above-the-head (my head, not yours). The tilted empty ink bottle pasted to the wall, the clock on the roof, the huge Coffee-day tissue framed on the wall, the nice drawings on the cardboard talk about Parthiban and his team’s hard work.

The drawback may be the script. There are obvious shots like the bearded Parthiban doing something and a Maruthi Car zipping near the telephone booth that literally gives out the suspense of the movie. If meticulously seen one could understand the hallucination plot which makes the rest of the movie a long wait for the climax. It’s inevitable for someone to see shades of Guna and Kadhal Konden in the second half of the movie. Also the script could have been cut short at various places to avoid the feeling of a drag, especially the twin of Parthiban who comes from Sinapore, talks his life, throughout. However, I liked his reference to Pattinathaar songs before he gets a bullet onto his body .

The titles show Rudhran to be an assistant director of this movie. This famous psychiatrist, is known for his talk show that he made for Raj TV called Unnai Arindhaal. He also explains the protagonists case in the end of the movie. Rudhran’s help in unleashing the mind of a schizophrenic is clearly visible throughout.

With that well targetted trailer and the publicity, Kudaikkul Mazhai, half-crossed the well of success. With a slight overdose of creativity, it crosses the other half, but not as expected. Excitement is assured if you walk into the movie hall without expectations.

Azhaghiya Theeye will not move you, will not make you feel nausea with blood baths, will not make you cry in buckets. It is one of those movies where you might find your spirits lifted because of the very light-hearted subject it represents. Prakash Raj and Radha Mohan need to be congratulated for they managed to produce/direct a good movie in a shoe-string budget.

At the same time, it is not a very different movie as it is advertised. Such movies have always sprung out of the dark just like Sollamaley or Kannethire Thondrinaal or Agathiyan’s Kaadhal Kavithai and so so. When you make a movie with at such low costs as what Prakash Raj says you rely on heavily on the story and the actors. Both have done their part well. Be it Prasanna who is caught in an unexpected situation or that Kumaravel as Chitappa, have done a great job in the acting department. Navya Nair would still need some time to apply acting gears.

What I loved about the movie is the references in dialogues to other movies. From Mannathi Mannan to Boys, the characters continously refer to one or other, the reference to Thiruvilayadal being the best. Radha Mohan should have been a movie buff to have scuh amazing references. Great job dude; from one movie buff to another.

Prakash Raj seems to have acted this role just after Gilli. Especially when he calls Hi! Chandran, it reminds me of Gilli Muthupandi calling Trisha, Hi! Chellam.

Amidst the action masalas and the aruvaa times this is certainly a movie that cools you down, a warm interlude.

[Pic: imdb.com]

Manoj Night Shyamalan’s Village isn’t still out in Chennai. But the promos have already started. Last week, Star Movies featured two nights of Night’s movies. The first one was his not-so-hit movie, Unbreakable. Unbreakable is unmistakably one of unnoticed Shyamalan’s movie that had an amazing surprise twist. Even Signs didn’t have a surprise twist on par with Unbreakable. Forget Sixth Sense, it’s a movie par excellence. Unbreakable is also one of my favorite movies, all time.

Most of us believed in comic heroes, at least during our childhood. And so a kid also believes in comic heroes. What if his father itself is a real life comic hero? What if the comic hero himself takes time/effort to believe that he is one? What if life leads a man to a secret labyrinth after an accident? So goes the premise of Unbreakable. Being a comic addict, I just loved the idea of the movie made on a comic hero.

Bruce Willis as David Dunn amused me with his startling performance. We have seen Willis perform as an action hero but here he is an action hero without knowing he is. And so his subdued performance lightens up his capabilities as an actor. Samuel Jackson as Elijah Price, who is a physically frail comic book fanatic, creates ripples in us. The last time I enjoyed this duo was in the third serving of Die Hard called Die Hard: With a Vengeance. Remember Jeremy Irons saying ‘Simon Says’ in that mesmerizing voice.

Though many were disappointed by Shyamalan for Unbreakable after a movie like Sixth Sense, he proves his story telling ability once again. With two people who are connected to each other by their extremities, Shyamalan weaves a web of beliefs, comic books, super heroes and so so.

Samuel Jackson’s characterization as MR. Glass inspired me a lot. A true believer in himself, an optimist, a man despite his physical illness gets out finding a man who is directly opposite to him physically. No one, No one except Samuel Jackson would have done this role such perfectly. Let me know if you didn’t love that character when he shouts in agony, They call me MR. Glass. Riveting performance. And as he extends his hands to Bruce Willis in the final scenes, I never expected IT to happen.

I watched the movie a couple of years back in the DVD, I couldn’t believe the surprise twist in the ending and re-played the final scenes again. It’s easy to create a mystery from the beginning of the movie and keep it alive but what’s important is to unleash it by fulfilling the expectation bestowed on the mystery. Shyamalan did it convincingly.

I hope his latest offering The Village, keeps up to the same expectation that we have on this Indian storyteller.

[Pic: vasoolrajambbs.com]

Who would require a movie review for Vasool Raja MBBS? Actually it’s a crime to write a review for a movie like this. Wait. Read the next line before you think of firing me. You don’t actually need to read/write a review for this movie. The primary aim of the movie, I believe, is not to do any lifetime achievement in cinema. Rather the aim (other than cinema business) is to deliver laughs. And Vasool Raja does it royally and rightfully. Are you convinced now. Take a breather. Among the numerous laughs the movie gives, there is also an obvious kind pat to the doctors reminding them that patients need to be treated as humans and not as just cases.

Crazy Mohan known for this indomitable verbal and situational comic sense, has done a fantastic job for Vasool Raja. The only point is that, this movie is like Kathala Kathala has innumerous verbal jokes. Not the kind of comedy that you can remember until weekend and yap with him/her on the beach and laugh again with them. They are ephemeral in nature. Jokes like Dim Dip Dim and Manamirundhaal Marghabhandu are absolute crackers. Crazy is the uncrowned king of Tamil film comedy. Let Mouli forgive me for that statement. He wasn’t all that comical in his latest Nalla Damayanthi.

Not much with Kamalhassan. He has not makeup stunt [except for the first few scenes]. No huge dialogues and no persistent pathos that would allow him to make a loud cry throughout. It seems that he has had his breakfast, took a walk around his house, saw the shooting spot and came inside to enact a role called Vasool Raja. Very casual like what we have seen before in Pammal K Sampantham, Michael Madana Blah Blah, Tenali and of course Panchathanthiram. It is an accepted fact that he has a flamboyant comic sense. He just underlines one more time.

Let this not make you think I’m fastidious, but Bharathwaj hasn’t been upto the expectations. Though he isn’t fully to be blamed for the not-so-good songs and their picturisation, he could have taken his time in the composition. I have really loved his music for his previous films and thought he could weave a magic, having Kamal as the cast.

I hate to compare the Hindi Bhai and the Tamil Thambi but it seems impossible. One reason, why I Munnabhai MBBS was because I saw a song clip in MTV. That song in the hospital where Sanjay Dutt expresses his romantic encounters completely blew me away with the music and the performance of Sanjay dutt. I was placing my bid on Kamal’s performance of the same song in the Tamil version. Instead of a similar song, it was replaced with a silly song called Azhwarpettai Aandava which sounds/resembles like that Kandasaamy song in PKS. A true let down. Also that belly dance song looked like a cheap insert unlike the hindi version.

We know that Airtel is the prime sponsor for the movie but every time anyone’s cell phone rings onscreen it has a loud AirTel tone. Annoying and the height of embedded advertising. It is very clear that the movie was super produced in two-three months. Kamal’s next film cop haircut is visible from that Switzerland duet. If only Kamal can ditch those absurd looking coolers that he keeps wearing in every duet of every comedy film, how nice.

Blessed are those who haven’t seen the original version. Yeah, if you haven’t seen the original, watch Vasool Raja for the sheer Crazy Mohan and Kamal combo. They deliver. If you are the unfortunate one like me, watch it still, for the Kamal version of the don-turned-doctor-turned-don. Limited Feast assured, still.