Padmaavat - Movie Review

Ok Great! The blog is still around :) Let me hope 2018 encourages me to keep writing. After my long hiatus [about 4 years to be precise], this is a review of a movie which took quite sometime to hit the screens amidst lot of protests and violence in India - Padmaavat.

Genre: Period Drama
Cast: Deepika Padukone, Ranveer Singh, Shahid Kapoor
Direction: Sanjay Leela Bansali

Padmaavat, erstwhile named as Padmavati is an epic period adaption of the poem of the same name by Malik Muhammed Jayasi about the story of Rani Padmavati (aka Padmini), the princess of Singhal Kingdom who was married to Maharawal Ratan Singh of Chittor and the rage and brutality of the king of Delhi Sultanate, Sultan Alauddin Khilji whose sole motive was to get his hands on Rani Padmavati at any cost.

I am perplexed about the protests by Karni Sena against this movie for offending the Rajput Sentiments. This movie is a epitomization of the Rajput valour, their courage in the battlefield, their strict political and social culture and Sanjay Leela Bansali [SLB] has left no stone unturned when it comes to dialogues, songs or intricate sequences where Rajput glory can be pottrayed in the big canvas.

SLB, with proven credentials in directing epic Indian history movies after Bajirao Mastani, has notched it up a few steps higher with Padmaavat. With the story set in late 13th- early 14th century, the grandoise of the Rajput kingdom of Chittor, the rough plains of Khilji Dynasty and the tropical kingdom of Singhal are depicted with utmost flair. Art Direction & VFX have done a herculean task to bring SLB's vision to screen.

But what are sets, props & CGI, if there is no story and strong characters to the tale. The crux of the story was already there in the poem Padmaavat, SLB showed his acumen in roping in the best in business and transformed them into living characters.

The three protagonists - Deepika Padukone as Rani Padmavati, Shahid Kapoor as Maharawal Ratan Singh and Ranveer Singh as Sultan Alauddin Khilji have given their lives' best performance till date. I have added Alauddin Khilji to the protagonist as he was more than just an antagonist, he was the lifeline of the movie.

Deepika Padukone (Padmavati) has scored in every single occasion in the movie right from the encounter with Ratan Singh in Singhala till final act of committing Jauhar (Yes, this is not a spoiler! Everyone knows this by now). As the movie reaches the climax, you don't see Deepika Padukone but Rani Padmavati on screen.

Shahid Kapoor (Maharawal Ratan Singh), most probably in his first role as a Rajput King, has made sure he is up for the task right from the word 'go'. Though his lanky frame makes a less-convincing statement for a Rajput King, his dialogue delivery and agility in action sequences more than compensates for that.

And, finally Ranveer Singh (Alauddin Khilji). What to say about this guy? If anyone want to know how Alauddin Khilji would have been during his prime, they need not think beyond Ranveer. Alauddin Khilji can never be portrayed more ruthless, brutal of a monster as Ranveer has done. He had made sure to make people believe Alauddin is what Padmaavat is all about. This could not be possible unless he was living the character throughout the movie. The brutality in the war sequences, the scheming mind in trickier situations and landing decisive blows whenever it demands - Best actor, by far, in the whole movie. In line with KB sir's remark to Director Shankar on Endhiran, "Ranveer has made Alauddin look bad, beautifully bad".

Jim Sarbh as the eununch slave general of Alauddin, Malik Kafur, had delivered what the script demands but it makes you feel that the character Malik Kafur was reduced to just a loyal slave and a (implied) homosexual partner  to Alauddin. People who knows the history can recollect the stories of his raids especially to Kakatiya & Pandya Kingdoms. He is equally barbaric and ruthless as Alauddin but was clever enough not to confront him while Alauddin was alive and quick to establish his control after Alauddin.

Raza Murad as Jalaluddin Khilji and Aditi Rao Hydari as Jalaluddin's daughter and Alauddin's Begum provide decent cameos. Was surprised to see screen space for Amir Khusrow. Would have loved to see a cameo of Ghengis Khan in the mongol war sequence. A historical accuracy that didn't miss the eye was the final war sequence where there was no cannons on either side. This story pre-dates Babur & the mughal kingdom who introduced cannons to indian warfare.

And finally for the accusations of glorifying Jauhar, this is the final act of the movie and it is historically documented that Rani Padmavati did commit Jauhar with other women in Chittorgarh fort. While agreeing to the fact that these are regressive and dangerous idealogies which are less relevant today, history cannot be modified at one's will and the end is justified with the fact that Jauhar was still prevalent during 13th-14th century.

This should be one of the best movie experiences on big screen and you won't forget Alauddin Khilji for a long time.

Rating: 4/5
Verdict: A Sanjay Leela Bansali grandeur with rocking performances by the three protagonists.

Interstellar - The Science in the Science Fiction

Disclaimer: The only Nolan movie that I have watched in theaters is 'The Dark Knight Rises' and it was nowhere close to the Dark Knight. I have never watched 'Inception'. So, this post is not a Nolan fan-boy work!

For movie buffs and science class bunkers, the science contents are italicized so that the movie narration is not disturbed. Stay away from them, if you want. For science lovers, the italicization is there for you to pick them out.

Astronomy & Stephen Hawking are two reasons which made me watch this movie. Astronomy is always fascinating and Neil deGrasse Tyson's 'Cosmos' made me lean more towards it. Hawking's 'A Brief History Of Time' was so mind boggling that I have to read the book multiple times to understand what he actually tries to convey.

The movie opens to an earth of future time with crops failing and frequently occurring dust storms which makes it a difficult place to lead a peaceful and healthy life. Human race is in a survival mode and its future looks bleak.

Cooper (Matthew McConaughey), a farmer and a former NASA pilot is toiling in this dreaded conditions with his father-in-law, son Tom & physics-curious daughter Murphy. Murphy believes a ghost haunts her bedroom and it gives signals time to time about something. Cooper and Murphy finds once such sign, a physical coordinate of a location and their inquisition leads to a secret location of now defunct NASA. The professor at NASA explains the idea of finding a better place to live and their secret progress in achieving that.

The solution: A newly formed Wormhole near Saturn's satellite system, possibly created by some extra terrestrial Aliens, which connects to another galaxy far away with a planetary system having a humongous black hole Gargantua as its center. Three potentially habitable planets Miller, Mann & Edmunds (named after the astronauts who visited and surveyed them) have been identified orbiting the black hole. The Plan A is to have a manned mission to these planets and identify the one that is most suitable for human survival and return back to arrange the transportation of human beings to it. A Plan B was kept in place just in case if there is a chance of no return. A large batch of fertilized eggs kept in earth like condition in the spacecraft will be taken along and they will act as the seeds for future human race to flourish in their new home.

Murphy doesn't want to be away from her Dad but Cooper chooses to be a part of the mission. He boards the spaceship along with three other astronauts including professor's daughter, Amelia (Anne Hathaway) and a robot TARS for the greater good of human race with a promise to return back for Murphy. They reach the spacecraft 'Endurance' stationed in earth's orbit which will be the mode of transport for their complete voyage. Once the booster's are powered up completely and they get a final thrust towards Saturn, the team goes into a self induced sleep till the first checkpoint (wormhole) is reached.

Science:

Now, for people who wonder what is a wormhole. Firstly, it is NOT a black hole. In wormhole, you know that you will end up in a different place but in black hole, you don't know what is there on the other end or if there is really an end?

Wormhole can be easily visualized as the warp zone in Nintendo Classic, Super Mario Bros where you enter a pipe in World 2-1 warp zone and mysteriously come out of World 4-1. In wormhole, we are talking about galaxies that are millions or even billions of light years away. Light year being the distance traveled by light in one year, it would take millions & billions of years to reach there even if we travel at speed of light [~300000 km/s]. Wormhole acts a portal which allows to do this space travel in lesser time. Scientifically wormholes occurs in space where there is a bend in the time-space continuum but such areas are extremely rare in the universe and even if they occur, they are infinitely smaller in size for a spacecraft to travel through and highly unstable to exist for a long time.

In the movie, the director explains the wormhole as the one which was supposedly created by an alien race of intelligence far greater than us. This gives a fair justification as no one has seen a wormhole yet in real life. The wormhole shown above was designed based on basic physics equations for a wormhole and theoretically, wormhole is expected to look like a bubble or fish eye lens image with a peek into the world on the other side.

As Endurance reaches the wormhole entrance, Cooper takes over the task of piloting the spacecraft through it. Once they complete their highly turbulent travel in the wormhole, they exit at the other end in an unknown galaxy with a terrifying black hole acting as a center of planetary system. Their planetary expedition to the first planet Miller is faced by a problem. In fact, this problem would be persistent in other two planets as well. As these planets are influenced by the gravitational force of the black hole, it creates a time dilation effect ie., time moves slower in these planets compared to earth. Since this is a super massive black hole, the more time they spend on Miller, a much farther time runs away on earth. Let us first understand time dilation.

Science:

Time dilation is the primary concept of Albert Einstein's theory of relativity where he explains the time difference observed by a person standing on a platform and seeing himself travelling in a train which just passes by. The core idea behind this is the gravity. Whenever there is an increase in gravity, time slows down. This idea may be far-fetched for some people but we have a real time application of this concept - GPS Satellites.

GPS satellites are positioned in a geostationary orbit around the earth. To know our exact coordinates, ideally we would need inputs from a minimum of 3 satellites. This is easily obtainable with so many numerous satellites used for global positioning purposes but with a technical glitch. The area around an object which contains other objects which can be influenced by the first object's gravity is called as its Sphere of Influence. For eg: Sun has all planets under its Sphere of influence, Earth has moon under its sphere of influence,etc., Similarly both ourselves or our car and the GPS satellites are in the spheres of influence of earth but the gravitational force acting upon things on earth's surface is much higher than the gravity on objects which are farther away from the earth's surface. So, time in GPS satellites will have difference (in this case, in millisecs) when compared to time on earth. For accurate results, the GPS satellites are pre-corrected to an error margin so that the time dilation is taken care of and accurate results are obtained. This is a simple example of time dilation.

Back to the movie, Cooper and team decide to travel to planet Miller and spend as less time as possible there and come back with the results of habitability of the planet. Miller is a watery planet with more than 80% of it covered with water. Their spacecraft lands in one such shallow water body and Amelia and one other scientist start searching for information left behind by the astronaut Miller. Cooper stays back in the spacecraft as he is the pilot. As these two scientists search in the waters, they see  gigantic tidal waves, which is capable of destroying anything, rising at unimaginable heights. Cooper asks them to come back as the situation is becoming hostile. Amelia in the process of collecting more information delays the return which results in death of the other astronaut by the tidal waves (above). They return back to 'Endurance' with a negative result but in the process they have spent 7 hours on the planet which is equal to an exhausting 23 years on earth. By this time, Murphy has grown up and become a scientist in NASA and the professor gets very sick and unable to proceed with his studies.

Science:

 You may have a question that whether such huge tidal waves are possible, The answer is yes and gravity is the culprit again here. We know that the tides in oceans on earth are created by moon's gravity on earth. So, when a planet is situated so close to a black hole, the gravity is infinitely higher in such a planet which influences the occurrence of big tidal waves.

With fuel just enough to visit only one of the two other planets, the crew has to come to decision. Amelia favors to go Edmunds as it has more promising data whereas Cooper and the other astronaut votes for Mann from where data is still being transmitted. Cooper blames Amelia for letting her love for the astronaut Edmunds come in between the goodness of the mankind and she informs him back that they can visit both planets with the existing fuel if they don't return to earth. Finally they decide to go to Mann but to their bad luck, they find it icy and not worthy of human survival. They meet up with the astronaut Mann (Matt Damon) who had put himself into induced sleep hoping someone will come looking out for him.

Mann reveals that there is no Plan A (returning back and transport the people from earth) and the only mission was Plan B (to use the fertilized eggs and start the human race in new planet). He had been sending falsified data in order to lure people to come and rescue him. Mann attacks and breaks Cooper's suit visor and leaves him to die there and flees in the shuttle to 'Endurance' to proceed with Plan B to Edmunds. Amelia finds Cooper and saves him in another shuttle but unable to save the other astronaut who dies in blast which was triggered by Mann in one of his research robots. But by the time they reach 'Endurance', Mann misjudges in docking his space shuttle which explodes the airlock and kills Mann. Endurance goes off in an uncontrolled spin which is then brought under control by Cooper with his piloting skills.

Meanwhile on earth, the professor reveals to Murphy that he has already given up on Plan A as he finds it impossible and all his life's research was devoted to Plan B. Murphy thinks the problem can be solved and Plan A will be possible if she can introduce the concept of Black Hole Singularity in Professor's equation but it is not possible, as no one has ventured into a black hole before and details of the singularity can be known only at the unknown depths of black hole from where nothing can be transmitted.

Nearly out of fuel due to the sudden turn of events, Cooper & Amelia think of a dangerous plan in order to reach Planet Edmunds. Before that, let us see some fact check about black holes.

Science:

Black holes are one of the dangerous & mysterious objects in the universe. To understand Black holes, one should understand the lifecycle of a star. A star is formed in stellar cloud and it may have a lifetime ranging from millions to billions of years when they continue to burn out the hydrogen fuel in them. Once they burn out their stock, two major things can happen for a star based on the mass of the star. If it is low & intermediate mass star, it grows bigger & bigger in size to form a red giant and if it dense and has a lot of mass, it degenerate continuously to form a white dwarf. 

Some white dwarfs have the most painful ending. Chandrashekar Limit (named after Nobel Laureate of Indian Origin, S.Chandrashekar) is the maximum mass of a stable white dwarf star. Once the white dwarf keeps on degenerating, it accumulates mass till the critical mass of Chandrashekar Limit is reached and its core starts collapsing due to the effect of its own gravity which results in a violent explosion called Supernova which spews Stellar matter and powerful cosmic rays all over the universe. This supernova explosion results in formation of highly dense neutron stars which includes pulsars or quark stars and in some other cases, it results in Black holes.

Black holes are highly dense regions of spacetime exerting enormous amount of gravity due to which it starts pulls the matter near to it (planets,moons,etc.,) towards its center even light cannot escape from them. The point from which there is no return is called the event horizon and the area around event horizon emits high radiations called Hawking radiations. As the matter fall into the black hole, it creates a bright disk of aura around it called the accretion disk.

Amelia & Cooper decide to slingshot the 'Endurance' around the accretion disk of Gargantua closest to the event horizon and use the force to inject their spacecraft in the trajectory towards planet Edmunds thus saving fuel consumption. This idea may feel familiar as ISRO used the same concept to use earth's gravitational force to make MANGALYAAN reach Mars in a slingshot path whereas NASA followed a conventional trajectory for MAVEN ot rech Mars faster at the cost of fuel.

As soon as they start their maneuver, Cooper along with the robot TARS separate from Endurance in a shuttle thereby giving more force for Amelia to escape the black hole's gravity and propel towards Edmunds. Cooper & TARS gets sucked into the depths of the black hole.

Till this instant, there are scientifically proven theories which had helped to justify the story-line. Since no one has traveled into the black hole, the director has taken the creativity of a filmmaker to introduce concepts that are not proven but are proposed as scientific assumptions.

Normally in a black hole, as per scientists, a person can be pulled from head to toe and crushed from the sides as well thereby snapping into multiple pieces in the process. In the movie, Cooper ends up in a tesseract with TARS. Tesseract is like a four dimension cube. Let us see the idea of fifth dimension in order to understand what Cooper envisioned in a tesseract.

Science:

Dimension is minimum number of coordinates required to specify any particular point. For eg, a line with length is a single dimension whereas a rectangle with length & breath is two dimension. If you add a dimension of height to it, it becomes 3 dimensional.The fourth dimension is time. Humans normally stay in the fourth dimension and has the ability to perceive any object in three dimensions and manipulate them (in this case, length, breadth & height). They cannot manipulate time. Fifth dimension is when man starts perceiving things as four dimensional model like a tesseract where he can not only move through the 3 dimensions but can also access along the fourth dimension, time like a timeline. For eg., if required, he can go ten years back and see what is happening at the exact same instant.

So, Cooper ends up in one such tesseract which is actually a timeline of events that happens in Murphy's room. Cooper tries to push a book in the bookshelf at the timeline when the small girl Murphy is in her bedroom hoping her father doesn't leave and voila, the book moves. Now, Cooper realizes that it was never a ghost that was trying to contact Murphy but it was Cooper from the future. Now that Cooper is inside the Tesseract and TARS had managed to collect the singularity data, Cooper finds the timeline for the current earth time where the scientist Murphy visits her room for one last time. 

Cooper looks for a way to transmit the singularity data to Murphy before she leaves which will complete the equation and make Plan A a possibility. Cooper finds a watch which he gave to Murphy before leaving and sends the singularity details as Morse code with the help of its gravitational property. Murphy decodes it and finally solves the equation and helps in setting up a space colony habitat close to Saturn from where humans can continue to survive and look for opportunities across the wormhole to settle down.

The question of how Cooper ended up in Tesseract instead being teared down by forces in the black hole is answered by who planned the whole journey. It was not the work of any extraterrestrial aliens, as suggested by professor at the beginning, it was rather the future generation of mankind who enables Cooper to help the survival of mankind.

Now can you see the beauty of a paradox that can be introduced by time travel? Cooper was able to save the mankind because the future gen people put him into the tesseract and made him to send the signals to Murphy but for the thing to happen, Cooper should have initiated the voyage even before the future gen people started sending signals like setting up the wormhole.

This creates a paradox where Cooper is acting on something at two different instances which cannot exist as a continuous events for reasons mentioned above but still influences each other. One of the possible solution for this paradox problem is existence of parallel universes where same person does different kind of activities based on the series of events that are happening within that universe. 

This justifies the final scene where Cooper returns to find a very old Murphy in a space station set up near Saturn and Murphy asks him to start the search for Amelia who has started researches on Edmunds planet for human habitat. I believe the director tried to show that this is Cooper & Murphy from a completely different universe.

With all these science going around, the movie still has an emotional undertone that Love transcends time and it could be the fifth dimension which enables Cooper to reach out to his daughter with the help of other four dimensions.

Note: For people who compare Interstellar to Gravity, both these movies are great in their own aspects. People may tend to connect more to Gravity as the emotional drama is much higher in it where science takes a step back. Interstellar is a science fiction movie where the director wanted to tell an unbelievable space time travel story which still obeys majority of the laws of modern physics.

This has been the longest post of my blog and I feel that I have rediscovered 'Interstellar' as I am signing this off. If you had been patient enough to read till this, I am happy that you have traveled along and hope to see in more adventurous journeys.

2 States - Movie Review

  There are some habits which makes you wonder why on earth you left them. One such for me is Blogging. When my last post said Apr 2012, I realized that I have been away for too long! So, here is the first of hopefully many-s to come.

Genre: Romance/Drama
Cast: Arjun Kapoor, Alia Bhatt, Amrita Singh. Ronit Roy, Revathy, Shiv Kumar Subramaniam
Direction: Abhishek Varman
Music: Shankar Ehsaan Loy

After 'Hello', '3 Idiots' & 'Kai Po Che', another Chetan Bhagat novel has transcended to silver screen with a great support from the masses. This time, it is '2 States', the real life story of Chetan's marriage to his wife Anusha.

The story involves a college couple from two different cultures of India falling in love while studying together in IIM Ahmedabad. Arjun Kapoor plays Krish Malhotra, a Punjabi boy and Alia Bhatt is Ananya Swaminathan, a Tamil Brahmin Girl. Like all the college romances, it becomes the responsibility of the lover duo to make their parents accept this relationship and get them married.

Arjun says in the movie, 'The girl's parents have to like the boy, the boy's parents have to like the girl, then both girl's & boy's parents should like each other and by the end of this process if some love remains, they get married'. It was never an easy task when the boy's mom is typical Punjabi Mom (Amrita Singh) who regards all South Indian as Madrasis and a grumpy father (Ronit Roy) who had not been in good relation with his son for years. The girl's family (Revathy & Shiv Kumar Subramaniam) is equally difficult to subdue - An orthodox Tamil Brahmin family with cliched affiliation towards Carnatic Music and Degree Coffee.

With goals set and plans awry, how Krish & Ananya persuade each other's parents and convince them for the marriage marks the journey of the movie till the end credits.

The plot of the story is a giveaway as the book got released 5 years back but the way the director has adapted it to a family entertainer demands a big round of applause. Also the casting was near perfect with all the actors delivering good performances. Me being a Tamilian, I felt Alia Bhatt didn't look like a real Tamil Brahmin but she did pull off the role naturally compared to the attempts of other North Indian Heroines to act as Tamil girls.

Songs composed by Shankar Ehsaan Loy complimented the story-line and the placement of the songs were spot-on. Background score was also handled well with the Chennai related scenes having a South Indian Classical touch. The pace of the movie gets slowed down as the second half switches to a melodramatic mood. Art Direction also deserves a mention  for creating a good replica of a Tamil Brahmin Household and grand wedding setups.

This movie is definitely worth a watch and a good weekend entertainer.
For Chetan Bhagat fans, this would be a good experience of seeing one of their favorite novels on screen.

Rating: 3.5/5

Verdict: An honest adaptation bolstered by some good performances

Disclaimer: I claim no ownership of the picture published. It is used in this review as a supporting element and never intended for any copyright infringements

Vinnaithandi Varuvaaya - Movie Review

GENRE: Romance
CAST: Silambarasan, Trisha Krishnan
DIRECTION: Gautham Vasudev Menon
MUSIC: A.R.Rahman

After frustrated with the Red Smudges in the websites of Sathyam Cinemas, Inox, etc., I was lucky enough to find tickets at Mayajaal !! [ Obvious in a multiplex where a film runs 35 shows/day!]

Expectations were high in the air and I could sense as it was contagious.

2.40PM..

Movie started to roll with a credit to Director Rajeev Menon!! [for using the line "Vinnaithandi Varuvaaya" from Rajeev's directorial debut "Minsara Kanavu"! Good Gesture Gautham!!]

Love! A topic which has been used by Tamil filmmakers to vivid dimensions is once again brought to the forefront by director Gautham Menon who catapulted his career with a dashingly romantic "Minnale".

Vinnaithandi Varuvaaya [VTV, in short] is a romantic story between a straight forward guy and a much confused girl. As it has been promoted, VTV is a love story with difference.

The curtain raises with a Scene in a church where Jessi's[Trisha] marriage is taking place and Karthik[Simbu] hiding & standing as one among the guests & watching it! Then the pin wheel moves to the past.

Karthik, a mechanical engineer with a heart of a film maker, stays along with his family in a rented house owned by a christian family. This gives a lead to the story and your assumptions turns out to be right but the director scores in how he unfolds the story.

Cupid strikes Karthik on the first sight of Jessi who is one year older than him and he falls in love. Jessi works in a software company [Adhukaga kaila eppa pathalum oru Laptop bag!!]. Karthik makes sure to get atleast a glimpse of Jessi everyday when she goes for office and on her return. He also tries hard to open the gates to his career in film making by trying chances with some directors. At that time, he finds acquaintance with a cinematographer, Ganesh [played by Ganesh, one of the producers of VTV] who helps him pursue his passion.

One fine day, Karthik proposes to Jessi and she just gives an angry look and walks off. The next day, Karthik got the news that Jessi has gone to her Grandma's home in Alappuzha. So our hero starts off to kerala to woo Jessi. I liked the dialogue "Avan Avan grilfriendkaga Americavukke poran!!"[Remember Vaaranam Ayiram!] Ganesh's dialogue delivery keeps the humour quotient in the movie alive with timely one-liners.

Karthik meets Jessi at a church in Alappuzha and apologises for his behaviour and they decide to be friends. Jessi introduces Karthik as his classmate to his relatives in Kerala and their friendship[??] grows.
Everything is going on well, now what do you expect? A Villain! Here Villain comes in the form of Jerry, Jessi's brother. He senses what is perspiring between Karthik and his sister and this triggers a fight in which Jerry ends up beaten black and blue. This bitters the relationship between the families.

Such problems wipes down the chances of Karthik and Jessi getting married and Jessi had no other choice but to come out of the relationship. Jessi's marriage gets fixed to a wealthy christian guy.

"Will Karthik get back his lost love? Will Jessi take a strong decision about her future life? Did Karthik's ambition to become a filmmaker get washed out amidst this furore??' The Second Half of the film provides answers for all the questions in a much slower pace.

The main highlights in this movie is the cast. Simbu as Karthik has given what is expected for that character and does not cross the danger line even at one instance. This script provided a big scope for acting and Simbu has utilized it to the maximum. It is very rare to see Simbu underplay fitting himself to the character and he has done that in style in VTV. His ability to emote the situations is very much vivid while getting angry over Trisha, making Trisha to understand his love,etc., Simbu has proved his acting skills right from the first frame in VTV.

Trisha as Jessi, a malayalee christian looks very cute in her sarees [All credits to Nalini Sriram, the costume designer]. She plays just the perfect confused girl with an oscillating mind and doubtful decision making [ She leaves audience confused at many places, but thats what Jessi is!!]. She delivers perfectly how the character is portrayed and has made her strong presence in the screen with some really good acting. Trisha takes the heart of the audience with homely looks and elegant gestures.

Ganesh will his humourous dialogues keeps the viewers' bone tickling especially his dialogues when caught in the police station and during the journey to Kerala.

Also Uma Padmanabhan, Kitty and Bob Antony had done justice to their roles.

There are no words to laud the lens works of Manoj Paramhamsa who has picturized Malta, Kerala, USA in their utmost beauty. Each frame is a picture perfect filled with vibrant colours of nature. Hats off!!

"The Mozart of Madras" ARR has created a masterpiece with all the songs already scorching the charts as chartbusters. His re-recording and background score has provided the much required flavour to the brewing romance. "Hosanna" and "Omana Penne" shot at Malta has been the pick of the songs and other songs are equally good in their own class. One important thing I could clearly notice is that the lyrics of any of  the song played depicted the current situation of the story. Totally the music of VTV is magical.

Now its time for the Helmsman, Gautham Vasudev Menon. The first thing to appreciate him for the way he has taken the story. Without this clear characterization and charming dialogues, VTV would have been just another love story. Though the narration is on the slower side which gets more slower in the later half, it is acceptable to an extent  for such a smooth story. Gautham has proved his élan in creating romantic flicks yet again with VTV.

As we already discussed a lot of pluses,  a few pitfalls in VTV:

• Though romantic movies normally are bit slow, the pace of VTV gets slower as it progresses.
• In many of the places just to keep the logic intact some of the scenes are included.
• Though the climax is a different try, many of the audience are left confused. Some of my friends actually left the hall thinking the movie was over when actually 10 to 15 mins was still left !

On the whole, A good romantic movie which makes you nostalgic if you have been in love and will make you to love if you have not yet been in one.

Surely worth a watch!

VERDICT: விண்ணைத்தாண்டி வருவாயா! உள்ளத்தைத்தாண்டி உயிருக்குள்!!

RATING: 3.5/5

Unnai Pol Oruvan - Movie Review

UNNAI POL ORUVAN

Genre: Thriller

Cast: Kamal Hassan, Mohan Lal, Ganesh Venkataraman, Lakshmi

Director: Chakri Toleti

Producer: Rajkamal Films International & UTV Motion Pictures

Storyline: The anger of a common man over the Government's soft approach on terror

Bottomline: Unnai Pol Oruvan - Ungalil Oruvan!!

Kamal Hassan is back after the huge success of his magnum opus "Dasavatharam" and this time he join hands with the Malayalam superstar Mohan Lal in "Unnai Pol Oruvan". The duo prove why they are deemed as pioneers in South Indian Film Industry.

Unnai Pol Oruvan is a joint venture of "Raj Kamal Film International" & UTV Motion Pictures". This is a remake of the Bollywood movie "A Wednesday" starring Anupam Kher & Nasirudheen Shah. Though it is a remake, it still gives a feel of a fresh movie mainly due to the characters donned by Kamal & Mohan Lal. The director is Chakri Toleti. For people who dont recognize this guy, he is the one who played a small role as Ram, Kamal's friend in US in "Dasavatharam".

The story is a simple one-liner. It depicts how a common man frustrated with Government's action on terror takes up the law in hands to show terror can be eradicated only with terror. Though this mode is bit difficult to accept, Kamal has shown the actual anger of the common man in each of us and to what extent it can lead a person to react with utmost fury.

Mr. I.G.R.Marrar (Mohan Lal), Commisioner of Police, Chennai gets an anonymous call from a person (Kamal Hassan) , who calls himself to be "common man". He claims that he has placed bombs at five different places in the city which will go off by 6PM in evening. The deal which he wants to make to prevent this from happening is the unconditional release of 4 most wanted high profiled terrorists. Mr.Marrar initially shows some hesitation towards this as it could very well be a hoax. But once a 3kg RDX bomb is found in the station coming under his control, the grimness of the situation sinks into him.

The issue is taken to the Chief Secretary of Chief Minister (Lakshmi) and finally it ends up with the commissioner to take up the task of handling the issue. He gathers the best lot of his men to plunge into action.

The rest of the story revolves around the events happening during rest of that day which bring this thrilling situation to a halt.

Ganesh Venkatraman (Yogi in "Abhiyum Naanum") as Arif makes a good impression in his role. The cop of name Sethu has also done a good job.

The character of Natasha played by Anuja Iyer is well portrayed especially at the scene when she try to smoke in front of the police commissioner.

Also Lakshmi shines in her role of Chief Secretary with her command and attitude of a prime official in a government body.

A surprise package is the computer geek guy. After May Madham, he has come into limelight again. In the scene where Mohan Lal asks whether he is accustomed with these PCs, the way he says, "Idhu ellam enga munnorgal madhiri venumna abhivadhaye sollitu try panraen." Cool! Good Work!!

Apart from these characters, the protagonists Mohan Lal & Kamal have really come up with a mind-boggling performance. Kamal lining his conversations with a sarcastic humour and Mohan Lal equally retaliating the same. It was great to see the two great actors sharing the same canvas.

Especially that short climax in which these two ppl meet, it speaks volumes about their talents.

One of the special things is the way Kamal has shared the screenspace with all the characters without dominating anywhere in the movie.

This movie shares a lot of facts like Best Bakery case, 26/11 attacks, etc.. Many of us even dont know about the Blast that happened in Menambakkam on 1984. I got to know from Wikipedia about this after seeing this film.

Since there are no songs in the movie, Shruthi Hassan has concentrated on the Background score well. The Re-recording is also excellent. She has proudly included herself in the list of young music directors of this age.

Overall, it is a good film with no punch dialogues, item numbers, duet songs or acrobatic stunts. The strength of this movie are its characters & their dialogues are its soul.

From my perspective, it is a must watch for the message it conveys & for Kamal - Mohan Lal pair.

Plus: Kamal, Mohan Lal, Screenplay

Minus: Many dialogues are in English which may not convey the message properly to all Audience

Rating: 4/5 Must Watch

If you watch the movie, you will find the common man inside you trying to come out to bring an end to this terror by some way or the other. There lies the victory of this movie.

I end this review with one of my favourite dialogues from this movie,

" Terrorism is instant. Then why can't the justice be so?"

Think about it!!

Pasanga - A Movie Review

Once again, a show in Mayajaal. But this time we were in a dilemma to watch either "Sarvam" or "Pasanga". To our surprise, tickets were available for "Sarvam" but for "Pasanga" we had only the first row tickets. But due to the timely warning given to us by our friends, we decided to drop the idea of watching "Sarvam". Thank goodness!!
Coz "Pasanga" was one such movie which really gave a feeling of a good movie this summer.

PASANGA
Genre: Family Drama
Cast: Sriram, Kishore, Vimal, Vega
Director: Pandiraj
Producer: M.Sasikumar
Storyline: All about the children's mindset and their pranks
Bottomline: Not only for Pasanga. Wholesome entertainment to all age groups.

First of all hats off to the director Pandiraj for such a good movie and to producer M.Sasikumar, the director of another trendsetter "Subramaniapuram" for making this film happen.
As the film name suggests the film is all about the rivalry, friendship, innocence among children with a small love story and a strong message to parents.
Sriram playing the character of Jeeva Nithyanandham along with his sidekicks reminds me of "16 Vayadhinile" Parattai just by his looks. His father being the teacher in the school, using that as a tool, he tries to be the leader among the students. Introduction of Jeeva and his sidekicks especially "Pakada" gives us the glimpse how the movie will be.
Then comes our hero Anbu played by Kishore who has moved from a private school to the school where Jeeva is studying. From Day one, the rivalry between Anbu & Jeeva heats up. Anbu tries to go in peace but Jeeva loaths him to the very extent as his uncle's daughter also started to talk and help Anbu a lot.
Right from being the class rep to the progress report, Anbu fares much better than Jeeva which increases Jeeva's fury.
If it would have been a normal movie with action stars as the protagonists, now the story would take a line like villain bringing up a group of people and beating up the hero. Then hero speaks a few punch lines and defeats the villain!!
Thank God its not so here. Here the steps taken by Jeeva to defeat Anbu shows the inner innocence of children apart from the rivalry. He sorts up to measures like trying to pour honey on Anbu's hair so that it would turn white, asking a boy with black tongue [ I m sorry if that has been translated wierdly as I dont really find a substitute for the word "Karunaaku"] to curse, as it is a belief among children if a person with "Karunaaku" says something it will happen.
Every single child has given his/her best in the movie and the so close resemblance to the normal life really made this movie a must watch.
Amidst this rivalry between Jeeva and Anbu, there is a love story between Anbu's uncle Meenatchi Sundaram(Vimal) & Jeeva's sister Shobikannu (Vega). A simple love with no duets in the deserts of Namibia or in front of the Eiffel Tower!!
The pranks between Meenatchi & Shobi are very engrossing. Especially the mannerism of Shobi to raise the eyebrows is really cute and the mannerism of Meenatchi to attend phone calls saying "Ingittu meenatchi angittu yaaru?" is new & different. Storing each other's mobile number as "Purush" & "Pondatti" is something which we had seen in our college days. The song "Oru Vetkam Varudhe" is very melodious and once again it is James Vasanthan of "Kangal Irandal" fame who scored music for this movie. When this love gets to the knowledge of the family members, we normally expect a clash, lectures on arranged marriages, locking up the girl in home, beating up the hero,etc. But here it is again a different line. Both the families sit over and decides about the matter. These kind of different approaches have given this movie good reviews.
Apart from these lighter moments, there is also a strong message of how problems in a family can affect the minds of children,how to build up confidence in the young hearts of children, how encourangement plays a role in child's growth and mouch more.
Finally the child which plays the role of Anbu's brother makes us giggle with his stylish dialogue "Eppudi!!"
The way Jeeva & Anbu join hands together and how the love of Meenatchi Sundaram & Shobi ends up in marriage gives a happy ending to the movie.
This is really a good movie to watch which rolls back ur mind to your halcyon childhood days and brings back pleasant memories.
I give a two hand Thumbs-up to this movie which is really a good entertainer with some sensible message to all.

Plus: Cast, Storyline, Music
Minus: Screenplay drags a bit in the middle
Rating: 4/5 - Must Watch

Meet u all again in next movie review. Ba Bye!!!

Abhiyum Naanum - A Review

Two weeks back, we went for the movie "Abhiyum Naanum" @ Mayajaal with other Chennai Guys & our classmate Madura from TCS Mumbai. Here is my review of the family entertainer "Abhiyum Naanum".

ABHIYUM NAANUM
Genre: Family Drama
Direction: Radha Mohan
Cast: Prakash Raj, Trisha Krishnan, Aishwarya, Ganesh Venkatram (introducing)
Storyline:
An emotional bid of the relationship between a father and his daughter
Bottomline:
Slightly Sentimental but worth a watch

The Production Banner "Duet Movies" of Prakash Raj has always been giving a standard, heart-warming movies which comes as a refresher amidst normal movies which has violence and super heroic action sequences. "Abhiyum Naanum" is one another movie which ensembles the image of the production house. Director Radha Mohan is back after the huge success of "Mozhi" with this family entertainer. The story revolves around the various phases of a daughter's life from the perspective of her father.

Prakash Raj takes care of his daughter, Abhi like a princess right from her childhood. He hasn't said no to anything she asks as he believes that the decisions made by her will be perfect. As time rolls by, when the talk of marriage comes, he feels very insecure about separating from his daughter. Above all, his daughter had taken a decision to marry a Punjabi journalist which he cannot accept for the simple reason that he had to send her to Delhi where her in-laws home would be and he wanted his daughter under his care for the rest of her life. This being the core idea of the story, all the other characters are just contributing to the life of the story.

Prakash Raj (Raghuraman) takes the lead role of the father who narrates about the various snippets of life that he had faced as a father of a daughter. Whether it is the time when trying to get admission for his daughter, reluctance in accepting a Punjabi as his son-in-law or while explaining how to face problems in life to his daughter, Prakash Raj lives to his character and brings out a charismatic performance. Aishwarya (Anu Raghuraman) ably supports the role of Prakash Raj by providing proper space for Prakash Raj and Trisha but also shows her presence in some scenes.

The character of Abhi portrayed by the small child was excellent. With her childish laugh and naughty looks, the girl captures the mind of the audience. Especially when she brings the beggar to stay with her, the expressions are very cute. Trisha acting as elder Abhi has understood the role well and has given her best for it. The character being a cool girl-next-door type, Trisha has done with flamboyance and ease.

The well known "Chithappa" of "Azhagiya Theeye" fame has taken the role of a beggar turned caretaker. Though the portions where he comes is very sentimental, Radha Mohan has taken care that it didnt go as an overdose. The hero of this film, debutant Ganesh Venkatram looks smart as Joginder Singh. Though this is a father-daughter story, he scores in the places wherever he gets a chance. Prithviraj plays a guest role as a father of a small child has also given a good performance.

The director has taken care that he doesnt change this film to a serial like those in our local channels by placing timing humours. Especially the scenes where Manobala comes, it gives you a hearty laugh. Apart from this, director also delivers the message that helping hand should be lent to those in grief. Radha Mohan has this unique ability to bring you to the verge of tears and then turning it to tears of happiness.

Vidhyasagar has scored well in background score but only few songs remain in our mind as most of the songs were not upto the mark. Cinematography by Preetha has captured the cool estates of hill station with utmost beauty. It is really encouraging to find women wielding cameras for films which is really a positive sign for Indian cinema.

I will go with 3.5 out of 5 for "Abhiyum Naanum" for bringing out the emotions of a father & daughter and for portraying that this life is not just for earning money and living happily ever after but to respect the values of the relationships in the society and to uphold them.

Plus : Story, directions & lead characters

Minus: Songs

Rating: 3.5/5 - GOOD

I really felt that I should have a daughter in my life after seeing this movie and this tells the depth the movie has given you. But opinion differs. Though "Abhiyum Naanum" doesnt equals "Mozhi" in its calibre, it really a heart warming family entertainment which makes you feel the other tamil movies with violence and irritational songs are nothing but crap.

Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi - Jodi No. 1

Hi all..

After a tiresome November with a pretty long working hours, it was time for me to have a break n go back home. We decided to go for a movie this weekend and it was SRK starring "Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi" - [means "A couple made by God!!"]

Below is my review of "Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi"..

RAB NE BANA DI JODI

Genre: Romance/Comedy

Direction: Aditya Chopra

Cast: Shahrukh Khan, Anushka Sharma, Vinay Pathak
Storyline:

A common man's yearning to express his love for his wife after their accidental marriage.

Bottomline:

SRK's versatility makes you watch it inspite of logical flaws and slow screenplay.

ShahRukh Khan join hands again with Yash Raj Films for yet another romantic movie "Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi". My first thought of romantic movies from Yash Raj Banner is the likes of "Veer Zaara" which had the romance with a lot of sentiments going. But this one is a bit refreshing with humour being a part throughout the movie but sentiments are also there in it [After all it s Yash Raj Films!!]. Also no foreign locations like those in typical Yash Raj Films. The film rolls over in the midst of city of Amritsar.

Surinder Sahni [ShahRukh Khan] , a common middle-class man working for Punjab Power, is so attached to his work as he always attend his calls greeting "Punjab Power! Lighting up ur life!!"[Even he shows his pride on his job by having his scooter labelled Punjab Power and his bag spelling out "I Work for Punjab Power"]. He goes to attend the marriage of the daughter of one of his college professors. The bridegroom dies in an accident on the way to marriage and Surinder marries his professordaughter as it was the last wish of his teacher. The bride Tanni[Anushka] lives in a separate room in Suri's home and Suri tries to do everything that will make her happy. It was very difficult for Tanni to forget her fiance as it was a love marriage and she couldnt even think of loving another person even her husband, Suri.

At the time, Tanni sees a reality dance show ad like Jodi No 1 in Amritsar and joins for it. Suri gets the help of his friend Bobby [Vinay Pathak] to change himself [Moustache removed, Specs replaced by Coolers and formal dress to casuals!!] as a cool dude Raj who joins Tanni as her dance partner. Its really surprising how couldnt Tanni identify that Raj is her husband [A big logic flaw in the movie which director is justifying that Rab (God!) is the one who s starting a new love story for Suri and so due to his wish, Tanni couldnt identify Suri! Rubbish!!]. Whether Suri got back his love reciprocated from Tanni? How did Suri disguised[??] as Raj made it happen? What love story did God write for the couple he made?? The answers for these questions lies in the rest of the movie.

Shah Rukh Khan proves again with his acting that his success is just not due to any six-pack abs. Whether it may be yearning for love of his wife, staring all day the tiffin box which his wife gave or the transformation of Suri to Raj, SRK personifies the character in every slightest movement of his body. SRK is the big plus of this movie.

Anushka Sharma being a debutante does her work well but due to some inconsistencies in the portrayal of her character, she scores average in her debut performance.

Another refreshing character is Vinay Pathak. He makes us with giggles of laughter with his small pranks n dialogue delivery.

The music being taken care by Salim & Sulaiman Merchant was finely done but it missed something to make the songs to feature in top charts. 'Haule Haule' was sparkling with SRK act and 'Dance Pe Chance' was a foot tapping number. The "Om Shanti Om" type song "Phir Milenge Chalte Chalte" had a good cinematography by Ravi. K.Chandran. "Thujme Rab" 's melody is soothing.

Much more was expected from director Aditya Chopra's come after 8 years. It was sloppy comeback for somebody who gave film like Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge as his debut. But the name of Rab(God!) was taken each n every instance and Rab was always there as a justification of Addi Chopra's logical flaws.

If you are real lover of celluloid love stories, this is a really new look to it. You can watch this atleast for Shah Rukh as Surinder. For ones those who had faced love in their life, u can find few instances of resemblances in this movie.

The tagline says "There is an extraordinary love story in every ordinary jodi". But this is a normal story but surely not an extraordinary one.

Surely 3 out of 5 can be given for this film especially for Shah Rukh's portrayal of Suri.

Plus: SRK as Surinder Sahni

Minus: Simple story with logic errors, An as expected climax

Rating: 3/5 - Average

After this film s over while waiting for my bus, I saw a blind beggar taking his wife's hand as support and asking for alms in the bus stop.

There I saw the real love! After all filmy things cant ever match those in real!!

Dhaam Dhoom - A Review

Hi frenz..

After a great struggle by my friends to get tickets for the movie "Dhaam Dhoom", we got our chance to watch the movie last evening at sangam cinemas.
Its long time I wrote a review so consider this as a work of amateur.
The movie created a lot of hype as its songs charted in the Top Hits right from day one of the music release.

Cast:

Gautham -" Jeyam" Ravi
Shenba - Kangana Ranaut(Introducing)
Arthy - Lakshmi Rai
n many more..

Review:

The film starts with a homage to the late cinematographer-director Jeeva whose memories linger in our mind whenever we come across the beautiful shots of Russia in the film. The way of dispalying titles portrayed novelty. The first shot showing the flow of the phone number from Shenba's(Kangana) phone to that of Gautham's(Ravi) was a new try n worked good. The first song "Pudhu Pudhu" started then.
Along with Ravi, there was a rapper whom I first failed to recognize. It was Guna, one of the members of Hip-Hop Group "Yogi B n Natchatra". A good song n a highly commendable camerawork.
Gautham(Ravi) who is a doctor by profession and expecting his marriage in a fortnight, starts for Russia half-heartedly to attend a medical conference. The "Bride-to-be" Shenba(Kangana) keeps on talking to him thru mobile. Then the second song comes ( in a span of 15 t0 mins after the first one!!). A beautiful song "Aazhiyilae" composed on the basis of the Anandha Bhairavi rocks u.
Then zoom!! The story goes to Russia. The director shows u the strict conditions of Russia where terrorism, drug smuggling, etc. is very much prevalent. There Gautham meets a model n another song "Thiku Thiku"(Oh my God! Not Again a Song!!). The next morning, the model is found dead at Gautham's Room n he gets arrested. It turned out that the model was none other than the daughter of Asst.Commissioner of Police there. Gautham s unable to explain his situation as the Russians speak nothing but their native language and lands up in Jail.Then comes flashback. The director has placed the flashbacks cleverly so that one doesnt get too much bored.
Raghavan Nambiar(Jayram), an officer in the Indian Embassy tries his best to comfort Gautham that his case will be well taken care by the Embassy . Jayram comes up with a good show in the movie but still lack the aggressiveness of a villain(Yup! Believe me!! He s playing the negative role!!). Amidst all these chaos comes Aarthy(Lakshmi Rai) as the attorney for Gautham. While returning from court, a mob tries to take down Gautham during which he escapes from police custody. Then it is a continuous Cat & Rat show. Gautham is being chased by police as well as the mob. Meanwhile, Aarthy develops a liking for Gautham which lasts for only one song "Sakiye"[Ha.. Ha..] after which Gautham tells about his engagement and Puff! goes the one-side love out of air.
Lot of flashbacks follow showing how Gautham fell for Shenba and the both the families reactions n other stuff. And Srinath, the actor who played "baachu" in "Ullam Ketkume and as the Indo-Australian in "Unnale Unnale", comes as Ondipuli more commonly known as "Chinnadhu"[??]. He keeps the bone tickling with his cheeky timing comedies. And Of course, second half has its own share of songs!! Till the day of marriage, Shenba hopes Gautham will return and waits for him.
How Gautham realises the dirty play of Raghavan and how Aarthy assists him to escape from the clutches of Russian law is the climax?
And since this is a tamil romantic film with Jayam Ravi in the lead, the end should be a happy ending and so Gautham and Shenba lived happily ever after.

One Hitch is that the song "Uyyalalo" didnt feature in the movie. But it didnt matter as there were song, songs all the way.
Jayam Ravi has given a consistent perfomance especially stunts and dance.
Kangana Ranaut as a debutant plays a girl next door character but still doesnt fit into the shoes of the likes of Meera Jasmine in "Sandakozhi". But a really fresh start to her career in Kollywood.
Lakshmi Rai has donned a really good character role unlikely to her previous movies where the glamour quotient was more than scope for acting . Here she has grabbed her chance and given her best.
"Pithamagan" Mahadevan, Bose Venkat, Nizhalgal Ravi, Chetan, Anu Hasan and company filled their roles to expectations.

Jeeva has written, directed the script well. And most importantly it didnt remind me of any other foreign or indian movies. He has caught the beauty of Russia in every frame and it is really a bad fortune for Kollywood to loose such a great technician.


PLUS: Cinematography, Screenplay, Stunts in Russia
MINUS: A desperation at last 15 mins to end the movie which results in a flurry of events, weak and guessable climax.


Though this film had most of the right ingredients in the right proportions, it still leaves a feeling that something is missing!
Anyway it provides a good entertainment and joins the loooooong[Pretty Long!!] line of always-welcomed romantic movies in Kollywood.
So this weekend, grab a movie ticket or two and enjoy the "Dhaam Dhoom" with a bag of Popcorn and Dhoom!!