The ‘D’ Silent!

Blood. Gore. Magical Camera angles. Long conversations. Extraordinary performances. Chapters in movies. Still unable to comprehend whom I’m talking about? Of course, Its Quentin Tarantino. One guy who has shattered all the beliefs about the handling of screenplay and his characters. He is one of those very few film-makers who could be seen as ‘Trend setters’. My knowledge of the Hollywood has grown up along with his movies. Almost all his movies are ‘R’ rated. Most people may not like his way of film making. But this is the very thing which excites me whenever I see his movies. Its takes something more than ordinary perspective to scale his creations.

Django Unchained is the latest ride from Tarantino. In this movie, Tarantino as a director competes so hard with Tarantino as a script writer. If any of us want to know what a director can do to an actor, check out Leonardo DiCaprio in this movie. His face is full of vehemence, his eyes shining with cruelty and dark humour. He has entered into a new charisma, a splendid one. If you have seen Titanic, Catch me If you can, Shutter Island, Inception, then you will know how far the actor has transformed himself in Django.

A good director is the one who unearths the hidden potential from an actor. Maniratnam did that to Rajnikanth in Thalapathi, Brian de Palma did that to Al Pacino in Scarface. Scorcese did that to Robert De Niro in Raging Bull. Now, Tarantino does the same to DiCaprio in Django Unchained.

If DiCaprio is the sly snake, then Christopher Waltz is the invincible hawk! What an actor you are sir! You are the discovery of Quentin in Inglorious Basterds and won Academy award for the same most fittingly. Another spell bounding performance from him as the Bounty hunter Dr.Schultz. When we see Waltz and DiCaprio in the single frame, it is like standing in front of a double barrelled gun and getting blown away by their screen presence!

Amidst all these talent pool, there lies the old but not-so-old Samuel Jackson. The man who played the protagonist of Pulp Fiction has delivered another cracker here. You will end up hating his character Stevens so much that the Director wins at each frame. Screenplay will take you to a roller coaster ride till the last 30 minutes. And then Tarantino has proved in showing what he is best at showing. Blood spatters! Flesh explosions! Guns.. Bullets.. Magazines.. Quentin makes a special climax for his own character in this movie. The German myth of Broomhilda is well crafted into Django Unchained.

Oscar or no oscar. This movie will live as one of the greatest movies made of all-time. Quentin.. StanD anD DelivereD. The D is not silent. Not anymore!

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Nanban is well

Pre-Nanban release:
"Shankar is a great creator. Why does he wants to do a remake when people like Jeyam Raja are there for that particular purpose already?"
"Vijay? Casted as the scientist played by Aamir? Don't joke man. It is bullshit! Surya will be the opt guy for such intellectual characters"
"When is the last time you watched a Vijay movie without making fun of him?"

Post-Nanban release:
"Shankar proves once again that he has ability to deliver a successful message sandwiched inside a boxoffice hit"
"Vijay at his best eventhough there is not a single punch dialogue or a single action sequence"
"Just like any other Vijay movie, we ended up laughing continuously for the entire time. But he is not the source this time"

Casting:
When it comes to casting Shankar has always been a forerunner on Tamil cinema. Examples like Nambiyar on Gentleman, Radhika in Jeans shows his thirdeye to cast the actors. In Nanban, a movie-goer will not think odd to see Vijay as the intellectual. And that is the victory gained for Shankar's casting and directorial genius.

Script:
Screenplay of 3 idiots is used exactly as it is. Changes in dialogues gives the regional flavour to the film. Shankar and Madhan karky does their best here.

Cinematography:
My favorite cinematographer Manoj Paramahansa has lifted the lens for Nanban. In Eeram and VTV, he had the scope to exercise his innovations. But he did a great job for a entertainer like Nanban. Visuals never felt awkward in a single roll, unlike the experience of usual remake movies.

Art:
This is one of those departments which hasn't had a great show in original 3-idiots. Being a Shankar movie, Nanban has the gigantic sets in songs. Sets erected for Asku laska and Ileana songs shows the exemplary ground work done by the art department.

Music and Audiography:
Harris Jayaraj has exceeded his expectations in all the song numbers. Hear 'En friend ah pola' song with full bass and you will know how close competitor it is to the 'Mustafa' song. His background score is weaved close to the story-flow. Oscar winner Resul Pookutty has shown his adept at the audiography. Techniques like echo and amplification are used for particular scenes where the hero intends to tell a message to the audience.

Acting:
Acting department is under the radar of some directorial genius like Shankar. He shows how to get the best out of actors like Satyaraj and Vijay. Even Jiiva does proves his skills.

Direction:
Not to mention too much about Shankar, he has carved a great flick. Successful placement of Ileana song just before the emotional climax shows his mettle to give a masala mix to any story. Asku-laska song will be a visual treat to Shankar audience where he rectifies the limitations posed by 3 idiots script on his grandiose visualisations.

Everyone in the age group of 20 - 35 would have seen 3 idiots. It is one of those rare movies with a wide audience reach. I have watched 3 idiots four times and when I watched Nanban, I neither felt bored nor I thought of Nanban as a waste remake. Even to set a benchmark in remakes, we need Shankar.
He neither made Vijay to fly nor to fight. But he made him to act. There lies the greatest success of Shankar. 

Verdict:
Nanban - A successful remake. A remake of Shankar's success.

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Engeyum Eppothum - Message attains Omnipresence

Incident is something which the human mind can influence and change as per our thoughts. Accident is something which we can influence but cannot control.

Engeyum Eppothum is a leaf out of the bunch of  road accidents which chicken scraches the destiny of many families everyday. When I read the storyline, I couldn't stop myself from comparing the movie with the prestigious Amores Perros. There has been previous attempts in Tamil Cinema with an accident as the main game-changer in lives of many. Aayutha Ezhuthu, Anbe Sivam and Kalloori are some of them in that list. But, after watching the movie, I felt lots of gratitude for AR Murugadoss and Saravanan for coming up with such a magnificent attempt. as it is so far the best in terms of audience reception.

Love is the time-tested lubricator for all the hard advice we need to tell the audience. Director made use of this fact and succeeded in weaving a tale of social message using love threads. Anjali's character is chiseled so well that the director is at par with the scripting greats such as Mahendiran and Bala. The Man from the Dubai and the Engineering college love pair in the movie are ideal examples for the greatness of the paperwork involved. Dialogues fall in their best places in movie, like a child at its mom's lap. Cinematography and Music acts as the two bandwagons for the narration and is at its best.

In the era where even the Message messiah Director Shankar has run out of social messages to project in celluloid, we must salute the director for coming up with more than one 'message' to inject into the audience. In my view, Director Saravanan is a far more adept at incepting thoughts than Don Cobb! He virtually opens our mind with the narration and incepts the following thoughts using love as the primal catalyst.
1. Traffic Awareness
2. Organ Donation
3. Power of destiny which is always hanging on all our heads like a poisoned knife.

To sum up, Engeyum Eppothum is a movie which will make you to smile for its feel-good content, laugh for its humor, cry for its tragedy and definitely it will make you to think for its message.

An ordinary movie is one which can influence our thoughts but cannot control our actions afterwards. But, an extra-ordinary movie is one which can influence our thoughts, linger for a longtime in our mind and can control our actions. Engeyum Eppothum falls in the latter; instead of preaching, it teaches and it is a sure-shot winner.

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Vaanam - Up above the world so high!

Vaanam is the most used metaphor for high moral virtues and rectitude in our vocabulary. 
In Vaanam, sky is used as the common denominator for the fate of five different lives. Krish has come up with a story which drafts the lives of a slum-dweller, a desolate prostitute, a rock band musician, a socially minority person and an ordinary weaver. The story starts with these five different threads woven together into an ostentatious raiment. Films like Crash, Amores Perros, Babel, Ayudha Ezhuthu, Sarvam and Saroja are some of the movies which will come under the same umbrella. 
Unlike my previous movie reviews, this post is not going to tell how the film should have been. But it is going to tell how the people should have been.

The moral I took from this film is this:
If we take the sky as our roof, 
Then all the people in our planet will become neighbours, part of a single family!
Then nobody will wage war against another family member!
Then the riches won't hesitate to share their wealth to those in need!
Then the poor won't see the riches as leeches of poor people's blood!  
Then the gap between rich and rags will be decimated!
Then people will be branded based on love, not based on geographical or lingual origins!
Then we will sow seeds for the real human race!

There are a lot of 'then's. But the need of the hour is not a bunch of 'then's, only a fist full of 'now's! :)

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Ko–Drawing parallels!

‘Ko’ has been portrayed by the media as the summer blockbuster of 2011. I’m not here to talk about the film cast or direction, but I chose to talk about the script. KV and Suba has come up with a racy script which is weaved with journalism and politics, both entwining and complementing each other. Now, let us consider the parallels we can draw from the film characters.

As far as the portrayal of the protagonist (Ashwin) is concerned, we can draw parallels with the famous Vandhiyadevan of ‘Ponniyin Selvan’. In both the stories, the protagonist lifts an ordinary person to the country’s  most prestigious ruling chair. Role of Ashwin is similar to the role of Indian Express editor played in the rise and fall of Dhirubhai Ambani.

Similarly, the character of the antagonist (Vasanthan Perumal) can be seen as a tuned version of Camerlengo of ‘Angels & Demons’. Both the characters choose anti-social methods to seed hope in the minds of people. When caught red-handed, they talk about the ‘Greater-good’ and confront their deeds as a noble one.

In fact, in both ‘Angels & Demons’ and in ‘Ko’, the protagonist decides to acquit the guilt of the antagonist for the ‘Greater-good’!

Story of young generation coming to politics can lead comparisons with ‘Ayudha Ezhuthu’ etc. Even, we can go on saying that KV’s last film ‘Ayan’ is inspired from the Di Caprio blockbusters – ‘Blood Diamond’ and ‘Catch me if you can’!

Character of Saro (Pia Bajpai) has been an exception from the above described comparisons. This character is sure enough to win well-deserved accolades to the scriptwriters (KV and Suba).

In spite of all these comparisons, the director stands out successful with this script. Even though we can draw infinite parallels with other sources, this script well-supported with the dialogues, cinematography and music  make the film to bask in the light of blockbuster success. One should appreciate the confidence, KV has shown on this script. The metamorphosis of KV from a photo-journalist –> cinematographer-> scriptwriter-> director has attained its completion.

Above discussed way of scripting a Tamil cinema may not be the right way to make a film. But it will change the mind set of the hoi polloi such that s/he will give more importance to the script rather than the star-cast.

As the climax of this film projects, a right-goal will always win morality over the right-way. In this perspective, we can say that KV Anand has achieved a great feat with this movie. Kudos to him!

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Nadunisi Naaygal - A brave attempt gone haywire!

Fact is that, if a movie tests your patience, it doesn't mean that it is not a quality flick. A thriller movie is one, which brings the audience to the verge of their seats, not to the exit door! Nadunisi Naaygal places itself in the latter category.

Ironically, the film posted itself with some quality technical work. Thanks to Manoj Paramahamsa and Anthony. People used to assimilate any pictorial narrative with the help of music. Even at the times of speechless movies, it is the music which compensated the dialogues. Hats off to Gautham to come up with such an idea to make a film lack of music. It is indeed a brave attempt! It is one of the riskiest moves made by the ace film-maker. When you take such an Himalayan risk, you should concentrate on the script with utmost perfection. But, this is the place where Gautham fails to make his count.

Nadunisi Naaygal is an attempt to compensate the music with visuals. Performance by Veera as the protagonist hunter and Sameera as the hunted are mind-blowing! Gautham once again proves that he is one of the rare directors who can make a boulder to act. Gautham brought the best out of Simbhu and Trisha in VTV, Jyothika as an antagonist in Pachai Kili Muthucharam, Surya in VA, Jeevan in Kaka Kaka, Daniel Balaji in Vetaiyadu Vilayadu. Similarly, he stands out as a great director, when he brings such an incredible performance from Veera Bhahu(Veera/Samar) and Sameera (Sukanya). But, as a script writer, he fails to make an impression.

Nadunisi Naaygal is a void without Manoj Paramahamsa. Such an wonderful piece of work he has done for this movie! He tried his best to make the visuals as claustrophobic as it can be and he succeeds. Most part of the script could be seen as an inspiration got from Silence of the Lambs and Sigappu Rojjakal. One who watched these two flicks can draw parallels in number of occasions with Nadunisi Naaygal. The house, dogs, brutal murders, sexual urge, childhood sexual abuse are derivations from Sigappu Rojakkal whereas, the character-map of the psychopath is a derivation from Silence of the Lambs and Fight Club.

Though I salute Gautham for coming with such an idea, the irreplaceable fact remains that 'Music is like Mother! Nothing can replace or compensate it'.

My rating will be 2.5/5.

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The King's Speech - A humble review

I just finished watching The King's Speech. It was an awesome story of the part played by a speech therapist in resolving the elocutionary difficulties of King George VI which eventually led to the triumph of Britain in WWII. In my opinion, Colin Firth and Geoffrey Rush, both of them deserve the Academy awards.  Portrayal of a King and a Commoner is done with some meticulous efforts in the screenplay.Thanks to David Seidler for putting his efforts to create such a wonderful movie. It is a treat for all those quality-movie lovers.

PS: Those who hate dramas can keep off. No offense meant.

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