Archive for the 'movies' Category

DISCLAIMER – This is purely a personal opinion and may contain spoilers.

Movie Name – Pachai kili Muthucharam
Language – Tamil
Cast – R.SarathKumar, Jyotika, Andrea, Milind Soman and others
Music – Harris Jeyaraj
Cinematography – Arvind Krishna
Direction – Gautam Menon
Production – Oscar Films Pvt Ltd owned by Oscar Ravichandran

Pachai kili Muthucharam is inspired from the English movie “Derailed“.
Pachai kili Muthucharam is a typical Gautam Menon’s movie that targets “A” class audience.
Pachai kili Muthucharam was made to get Sarathkumar out of a slumping career.

These are the statements or rumours doing rounds in Chennai. Pachaikili Muthucharam is worth watching if you are a movie buff who likes incisive dialogues, beautiful cinematography, a good BGM which is synchronised so well with the screenplay. And last but not the least, one who commutes in Beach – Tambaram EMU in Chennai will love it.

Story

Venkatesh a.k.a Venky (Sarathkumar), a pharma medical rep leads a peaceful life with Kalyani (Andrea) and his son Nanda. Their life boat starts to wobble when Nanda is diagnosed of first level diabetes. Kalyani and Venky start concentrating on his health and their personal life falls into a dry period. Venky is dejected when he hears Kalyani’s plans of practicising celibacy to concentrate more on their son’s helath. This is when Geetha (Jyotika) meets him in the Beach – Tambaram EMU which Sarath uses for commuting. Slowly a thin line of friendship develops between them. The line grows thick and Sarath starts lying to his wife. He starts going out with Jyotika. Jyotika gets all the information about Sarath and his family and tells him that she is madly in love with him. Jyotika complains about her sad life with her husband to Sarath. Sarath falls to her words and they go to a Beach resort in ECR road. Lawrence (Milind Soman) makes an entry into the film and hurts Sarath badly. He rapes Jyotika in front of Sarath and takes their money and cellphone numbers. The movie moving at a snail pace starts sprinting with Lawrence and crew demanding money from Sarath. They blackmail him that they will tell the ECR episode to Jyotika’s husband and he cannot go to the police as it will bring shame to their families. Unknowing what to do, Sarath starts giving money to Lawrence and crew and he spends Rs.8 Lakhs which he had saved for his son’s welfare. He informs Kalyani of all that happened and Kalyani ditches him by going out of the home and tells him not to search for her.

Second half has more twists and turns that adds to the suspense of the movie. Watch it at the silver screen for the suspense to unfold.
Music

Music is by Harris Jeyaraj. As with every other Gautam Menon’s movie, this one is also a musical hit. All the numbers have come out really well. Special applause to the Camera man Arvind Krishna for the beautiful close up shots, Soft focus shots. He is at his best when showing Jyotika and Sarath in the EMU.

Un Sirippini Pon Sirippinil

This is the first song of the movie depicting the romance between Sarath and Andrea. A soft melody sung by Gautami Rao and Robby is used as a back ground bit in some parts of the movie. Lyrics is by Thaamarai. If you are a person who enjoys lyrics with music, Thamarai has gifted you with beautiful poetic lines. Ensoi Thangamani!

Unakkul Naane Urukum Iravil

This is yet another beautiful song in the movie for the violin bit and lyrics. Voice rendered by Bombay Jayashree. Bombay Jayashree renders her voice to all hit songs in Gautam Menon – Harris combination. Starting from Vaseegara (Minnalae) to Paartha Mudhal Naale (VettailYaadu Vilaiyadu) , there she is with the hit song of the movie. The picturisation of this song is not that good with Jyotika and Sarath dancing with a dozen men with black mask in the background. The violin bit in the song is used as a major part of the BGM in the movie. Over all, I will have liked it much if they did not picturise this song. It kind of makes one feel as if this song is thrusted upon them. This is the third time in Gautam’s movie after Thoodu Varumaa (Kaakha Kaakha), Neruppae sikki mukki (Vettaiyaadu Vilayaiaadu) that a song is thrusted beacuse it is hit. Gautam needs to work on this.

Karu Karu Vizhigalaal Oru Kanmei

A good fast number sung by Girish, Karthik and Naresh Iyer depicts the growing friendship between Jyotika and Sarath. A fast western type number with good Tamil lyrics. Nothing much to say about this song.

Kaadhal Konjam Kaatru Konjam Ser

The number shot when Andrea and Sarath start their life in Hyderabad. Sung by Naresh Iyer relies on heavy poetic lines. For people who wonder why this movie is named Pachaikili Muthu Charam, this song has a cue. Watch out the following verses from the song.

” Kayil vantha muthucharam sinthaamal
en ullangayin veppaththiley ottik kollumae

Ezhil konjum pachchai kili vanthaalum
en vedanthaangal vendaam vendaam enru thallumae “

Sarath, Jyotika,Milind Soman and Andrea have done their part really well. Stunts are by Stun Siva and as with every Gautam movie, the villain’s crew has the familiar faces acted in Kaakha Kaakha and Vettaiyaadu Vilayaiaadu. Stunts are not irritating with the typical Tamil cinema rope sshots and bike stunts. Sarath with his physique makes one accept him as a action hero.

Sarath has proved that he is a great actor who shows great expressions does justice to the character given. I particularly liked the scenes with Jyotika where he is hesitant and reluctant. Over all, a fine performance from Sarath. People will like him for his physique and his acting talent is going to be praised.

Andrea plays her part well and she is cute and does a bit of acting. This being her first movie (in Tamil), lip sync is a problem which can be clearly spotted in certain scenes and the first song.

Milind Soman the Indian male heart throb of more than twenty years makes his debut in Tamil as a Villian. Every other Gautam Menon’s movie has a new villain.This time it is Milind Soman who sports a stubble and his good physique adds power to the character. I suppose Gautam has dubbed for Milind.

Jyotika has matured much in acting and is beautiful. Her eyes are expressive with beautifully threaded eyebrows and the nose ring adds charm to her beauty.

Flashes

Jyotika says to Sarath that her husband does not like her talking with other men.

Sarath responds

” Why do you talk when he does not like it? “

Sarath says all that happened to him to Andrea.

” Enna pidichirukkunnu sonna! En mela payithiyamaa irukkennu sonna! Enna engayavathu kootittu po nnu sonna! “

Sarath to Andrea

” Naan senja thappukku un kitta mannippu kaekka porathu illa. Athukku mannippu kedaiyathunnu enakku theriyum! “

Over all, Pachai kili muthucharam is a good movie for people who like dialogues and a good characterisations. I liked it much. The first half moves at a slow pace (not dragging) and the second half sprints. Certain stunts could have been avoided. For people like me who commute by beach – Tambaram EMU, it gives a feeling as if I acted in the movie. Because so many scenes are shot in train. I would been there in one of those. May be I relate it much.

P.S.:- This is my view of the movie and you may or may not like it for which I am not responsible.

Saturday night and it’s time for a movie. This time, it was Selva who accompanied me to the latest tamil release Veyil . Here is my review. Selva a.k.a Aiyya happens to be my childhood neighbour cum friend cum colleague. He is one of our regular group of Rakki goers.

|_. Movie Name|Veyil|
|_. Language|Tamil|
|_. Cast|Pasupathi, Barath, Bhavana, Shreya Reddy, Priyanka (debutante from Malayalam TV industry) and others|
|_. Music|G.V. Prakash (A.R.Rehman’s nephew)|
|_. Cinematography|Madhi|
|_. Direction|Vasantha Balan|
|_. Production|Director Shankar’s S pictures|

Veyil is Vasantha Balan’s directional venture. After Kaadhal, Imsai Arasan movies’ success, Shankar has learnt that it is better to give a chance to his assistants rather than take risk by introducing some other director in his production. Full credit to Vasantha Balan and he has proved that he is no less to Balaji Shakthivel (Kaadhal fame).

Veyil is a story which does not rely on heroisms, punch dialogues, a separate comedy track, extravagant sets, double meaning dialogues et all for success.

Veyil relies on a strong story line, beautiful cinematography, best actors, good music.

h3. Story

Veyil starts with the childhood life of Murugesan (Pasupathi) and Kadhiresan (Barath) in a small village near Virudhunagar. Pasupathi is a movie junkie and is severely punished by his dad for bunking school and watching movies. His dad, a butcher by profession, beats him up severely and leaves him in hot sun for a whole day. Murugesan flees his house with his mom’s jewels and a little money stolen from home. He reaches Thirukazhugunram where he spends and loses all the money watching movies. Nowhere to go, he stays in the cinema theatre and grows to become operator in the cinema theatre. Meanwhile, kathiresan (Barath) goes to school and is nursed by his parents and he starts an advertising company in his village.
Every tamil movie must have a Villain and in this movie, it is Barath’s ex-employer Bose. He is jealous of Barath’s growth and tries to hinder it by all means. Meenakshi (Bhavana) is a college girl who meets Barath while recording for his adverts. Barath is shown as an arrogant and angry young man who forces Bhavana to record the way he wants. Director has not relied on a separate comedy track as Barath does this part well. A subtle comedy track to be precise.
Pasupathi grows out to become the theatre operator and falls in love with Thangam (Priyanka) who is the daughter of a tea shop owner. Love blossoms between the two and they plan to get married. Pasupathi, in his Johnny style look, steals the show. He has once again proved that he can speak volumes with his eyes. The love ends in a tragedy with Thangam forced to kill herself and Pasupathi left stranded alone. Pasupathi starts drinking and is forced out of the place when the theatre is closed down. Pasupathi, on his mentor’s advice, leaves for his home town.
Barath builds his advertising empire and expands in a big way. The enmity with his ex-employer Bose also grows larger. Barath expresses his love for Bhavana which she accepts. Barath’s life goes all his way with he winning big contracts for local advertising.

Pasupathi reaches his home town after twenty years and is chased away by his dad who does not forget the prodigal son’s deeds. Pasupathi happens to meet his younger brother Barath and is brought home. Barath fights with his dad and Pasupathi is allowed to stay at home with his parents and siblings. Pasupathi happens to meet Pandiyamma (Shreya Reddy), his childhood sweetheart, and finds that she is left single after a broken marriage. Pasupathi finds nothing to do at home and at is not allowed to work at his brother’s place. He feels like a unfit piece of a jig-saw puzzle. He is not shown love by his younger sisters or his father. He feels solace in Shreya Reddy’s company. He fights with his emotions and thinks that he has wasted his life and has nothing to do. He yearns for the love which is showered on his younger brother Barath.
Barath fixes up marriage for one of his sisters. Pasupathi is blamed and insulted for the loss of marriage jewels. The family comes to know that he is not the reason for it when the jewels are recovered. Pasupathi decides to leave the house and goes away from the family. Meanwhile, Bose plans to kill Barath and employs people for the task. Barath is attacked by villain’s men when he goes in search for his brother. Pasupathi finds Barath amidst the pool of blood and comes to rescue him.

Will Barath survive the murder attempt?

Will Pasupathi save Barath and revenge Bose?

Will Pasupathi’s father realize his mistake?

You got to watch the movie’s climax for the answers.

h3. Music

Music is by G.V. Prakash Kumar, the 18 year old nephew of A.R.R. He scores well for the BGM and has churned out a few good ones in his debut. A good note is that one can understand the lyrics better

h4. Uruguthey…Maruguthey…

The melody by Shankar Mahadevan and Shreya Goshal is the best of the songs.

h4. Veyilodu Urvaadi…

The first song has a folksy touch and clear lyrics with voice rendering from Jassie Kift, Thippu and others.

h4. Kaadhal Neruppin nadanam…

A number with Karthik and Chinmayi coming in for the duet has some foot tapping beats.

Madhi, the cinematographer gets some credit for showing the dusty village and the scorching heat of Tamil Nadu summer realistically. The colours chosen for the different time eras are to be appreciated. One can really find his work in the Kaadhal Neruppin nadanam song. The fast movement and the adjacent colours add robustness to the melody.

Vasantha Balan has been choosy in his cast and does a good job in it. pasupathi is the hero of the movie with his known and awesome potential for acting. Either be it the romantic scenes with Priyanka or the scenes showing his brotherly love with Barath or the scenes showing his inner turmoils or the action sequence he proves that he can do magic with his eyes. Sabash to pasupathi!

Bhavana, Priyanka, Shreya Reddy have done their job well with their good acting skills. Barath, is getting more and more matured with his movies. After his success in Kaadhal and Emtan Magan he has showed that he can don any role and is different from the rest of the young actors in Kollywood. The good part is that he is trying to do a bit of comedy which most of the young heroes are trying to capitalise on.

Vasantha Balan has packed as many scenes as he can and has succeeded in making a good movie altogether. The second half slows down a bit. Some scenes involving Pasupathi’s sentiments could have been avoided as one can hear people in the theatre complaining that the movie is over sentimental. The director has tried to touch down the baseline of relationships and feelings and he has succeeded for the most part of it. This being his directional venture, one needs to really appreciate the efforts to make a good film.

I felt really satisfied watching a very good movie after a very long time.

Veyil – The heat is on. A perfect watch for a movie lover.

What the heck does the tag line He knows what to do for the Diwali’s big release Vallavan. Can someone explain me?

Amar and I planned for the usual 2nd or the night show at Rakki which starts by 10.00 PM. Felt sleepy yesterday and slept from 7 PM. Was confident that my cellular will wake me at 8.30 PM. Forgot the fact that my mobile was running a 24 hour format clock, programmed the alarm for 8.30 PM. Amar had called thrice and sent a few SMSes. By the time it was 9.35 PM, woke up to Amar’s last try and told him that will be at Rakki in another five minutes. Reached the theatre by 9.50 PM and bought the tickets and the found from a friend that the movie starts by 10.15 PM and has eighteeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeen reels. So, definitely we were in for a bigggggggggggggggg 3 hour treat. Definitely, it was.

Vallavan stars Chimbu a.k.a T.R.Silambarasan, Nayanthara,  Reema Sen, Sandhya, Santhanam, Sathyan, S.Vee.Sekhar and who does not?

Belive it or not, this movie is Chimbhu’s first full time direction venture and there is a strrrrrrrrrrrrong story line. Chimbu and Sandhya are close friends from school life. Chimbhu loves Nayanthara in college where Nayanthara (3 years older than Chimbhu) is a trainee lecturer. The love breaks when Nayan comes to know that Chimbhu is a student in the same college and younger than her. One cannot forget the act by Santhanam (the lollu-sabha fame) and his crew. Truly a good comedy track that goes on well with the movie. He has outperformed his earlier appearances in manmadhan and ah-aah . Truely a great performance. The firssssssssssssst halllllllllllllllllf ends this way. A very long one with nearly a dozen songs. Everyone at the theatre was craving for a break.

Priyan, the cinematogrpher, has done a good job capturing songs really well and mainly for tolerating  Chimbhu’s idiosyncracies. Chimbhu is alkl there in the movie. Nayan is really beautiful after her weight loss and does a fair good job in acting. Reema is good and Sandhya is all time standing like Barbie behind Chimbhu. Balakumaran is the dialogue writer and really the dialogues are well. For some people, who want to know the swear words in tamil, watch Vallavan. Even Reema uses the baddest swear word in tamil. Yuvan , with his young and peppy music, steals the show. As always, he scores a point extra in re-recording and Goodness me! all the 9 songs are a big hit. Chimbhu has tried to stick all the songs at all the possible places he can and he has succeeded to an extent. My favorite number is Yammadi, Aathadi by Suchitra (of the Radio mirchi fame) and T.Rajendar. The songs are filmed very well with extravagant sets (I understand why the producer was upset with Chimbhu) and a lot, sorry a loooooooooootttttttttttt of people dancing around.

The second half starts with the flashback where Chimbhu falls in love with Reema Sen in a school culturals show. Chimbhu, Sandhya and Santhanam in school attire. Ok, I can tolerate to an extent. But Reema in a pinnaform. Come on Chimbhu! Wake up! We cannot accept whatever you do. Coming back to the story, Reema is projected as a crazy and pscychotic person who wants Chimbhu to be on her feet all the time as he is in love with her. Chimbhu does all the childish acts, finally ditches Reema Sen when she tries to ditch him. Too much of childish behaviour at this moment could have been avoided. It includes the screenplay, direction. The scenes involving Chimbhu and Reema are too pathetic. Once again, Santhanam steals the show with his comedy track at the school. Flash back ends with Reema and Chimbhu parting away. Reema enters the scene again and challenges Chimbhu that she is the one who is gonna marry him. Chimbhu challenges to his part. Amar challenges me that the movie will run for 50 days. I challenge him that the movie will run for 500 days. Oops! Challenging is addictive. God save us!

Somebody advise Chimbhu that we cannot tolerate his punch dialogues. Really they are punch dialogues. Or else, why else would Amar punched me for bringing him to the movie? When is Chimbhu gonna stop speaking about life, first, last, love. All his punch dialogues are composed of these four words. There was a voice in the theatre that he is trying to convey message to Dhanush? Is he ? No film politics! If someone counts how many times the word love is used in the movie, I will buy him a free ticket to Vallavan.

Amar : oh God! when will the movie end?

Me   : My back and bottoms are aching man!

By this time, we saw a guy leave the theatre thinking that the movie got over and he came back after hering the Yammadi, Aathadi song. Poor soul, could very well have escaped.

Chimbhu does some sentimental act and gets in good books of Nayan again. They decide to marry, By this time, Reema kidnaps Sandhya and has Chimbhu going nuts. Wait, is it only Chimbhu or the audience?

Will Sandhya die in the hands of psychotic Reema?

Will Chimbhu save Sandhya?

Will Chimbhu and Nayan marry and live happily ever after?

Truely an interesting climax. You should definitely spend Rupees 60 and three looooooooonnnnnnnng hours for this Chimbhu’s directional venture.

A million dollar for the one who guesses the climax before watching the movie.

The film finally ends with the tag

A Film by,

T.R.Silambarasan

He knows what to do

Amar : Did you check out the tag line , He knows what to do ?

Me : Ony he does!

Vallavan – 20 % Nayanthara + 20 % Reema Sen + 10 % Sandhya + 50 % Chimbhu masala.

அரைச்ச மாவ அரைப்போமா , துவச்ச துணியை துவப்போமா

Me : Amar! What is our next week-end movie? E or Varalaaru ?

Amar is already running home.