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!!!

India @ T20 World Cup 09 - A MidSeries Analysis

As we are in the middle of the Twenty20 World Cup Series, let us analyse what is currently the chance of the Indian Team to retain their title this time.

Well, this year whether it is a boon or bane, we had the IPL 2 conducted just before the T20 World Cup. So most of the players got into the mood of T20 before the World Cup began.
This experience gave a new dimension to the Indian Team with players like Rohit Sharma moving up the order, RP Singh among wickets eventually emerging purple cap holder, Suresh raina stabilising the middle order and a lot of part time bowlers at disposal of whom Yuvraj & Rohit had hat-tricks against their names. Anybody who sees this side will be sure that they are tailor-made to be the champions.

With that prelude, we enter into the phase of T20 World cup.
Being the Champions of initial edition of World cup held two years back, India was grouped into a much easier group in the League table with likes of Ireland & Bangladesh.

1st warm up match against New Zealand saw the emergence as Rohit Sharma as a replacement for Sehwag in the opening slot. But still India went on to lose the match.
Note: India has lost all its T20 Encounters against the black caps.
Then, came the warm up match with Pakistan where India tore away the opposition to comfortably win the match.
So as hot favourites, India faced the young Bangladesh team. Remember? Bangladesh initiated the downfall of India in ICC World Cup 2007. With Bangladesh batsmen hastily chasing the runs, it was some clinical spin bowling in the middle that helped India to salvage a victory.
India also beat Ireland to go into Super 8 comfortably but even in this match, the Irish Batsmen scored heavily in the death overs bowled by Indians.
At this stage, we were able to see some negative things which were evident in most of the Indian matches:

• India gave too many runs at the death overs
• Very much dependent on the slower bowlers
• Dhoni's below par batting which reduces the run rate and makes the task to score runs much steeper for forthcoming batsmen
• India yet to face a quality side hence the performance of the team has not actually been tested under demanding situations

But these were not properly addressed and since the opposition were of not a niche quality, it didnt show its magnitude.

To crown it all, the injury of Sehwag was also a kind of blow to the Team.

Once India reached Super 8, it was drawn against West Indies, South Africa & England. 2 out of 3 wins will see them through to semis somehow.

In first Super 8 encounter, India lost to Windies in a big margin.

This match brought most of the problems with the Indian team into limelight.

• Once top order failed & Dhoni's sluggish batting continued, India was looking down to score somewhere around 110 to 120. Thanks to Yuvraj & Yusuf, India got much more.
• Once again the faster bowlers' balls were frequently sent out of the park. India was dependent on spinners but a much experienced side like Windies tackled the guiles of the spinners to a very good extent.
• Dhoni had a lot of bowling options which actually made him not to rotate the bowlers properly.
• Knowing the maraudering nature of Gayle, Team India had plans of taking him. Good. But they concentrated too much on Gayle, so didnt have a proper gameplan to tackle players coming in after Gayle.
• Dhoni missing one important run out chance which if effected could have sent back Bravo home who ultimately settled the match with a good 66.

So now India is in a must win do or die situation against England & South Africa.

Some of the corrections that could be made so as to avoid a humiliating defeat

• Dhoni should bat down the order and promoting Raina to 3rd slot, the position in which the southpaw is very much comfortable in scoring runs.
• Should juggle the main bowlers efficiently & bring in the part time bowlers only when it is very necessary. Some times we could see, very decent performance not utilized properly. For someone like Praveen who bowled a very good initial two overs but still at the end of Innings he s left with an over or two.
• Should have someone to bowl with good variations in the death overs in order to reduce the scoring rate.
• RP Singh could have been given a chance. It really feels odd when your faster bowlers are getting the thrashing but ur purple cap holder of IPL is kept in bench for all the matches.

So today its gonna be the second super 8 match for India against England. So if the above rectifications are done,we could expect India defeating England pretty comfortably.

With matches left with teams like England & South Africa, even a smal error will cost the Men in Blue very dear.

Lets hope they do win the match today against England and then win South Africa in the same fashion as they did in 2007.

It all depends on the "Captain Cool" to revisit and realign the strategies so as to reconcile & validate the loop holes in the Team & administration.

Lets hope for the Best & keep our fingers crossed !

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.

A.R.Rahman - The Global Indian !

A.S. DhilipKumar! Nobody would recognise this name on hearing it for any number of times. But even ppl in the remote areas of India will know the name Allah Rakha Rahman (shortly A.R.Rahman). A man who has proved that music has the capacity to bridge the gap between the continents. Now he has made us proud by winning the prestigious golden globe award for the film "SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE". To add to his achievements, now he has been given three nominations in Two categories for the Academy Awards (Well Known as Oscars). The nominations are for: The Best Original Music Score -"SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE" and two nominations in the Best Original Song - "Jai Ho" and "Oh Saaya" from "SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE". The best thing in him is even after these achievements, he is still down to earth with his feet firmly on the ground which is a very rare trait.

Born to a Tamilian Hindu family on Jan 6,1966. His father R.K.Shekar was a musician by himself. Rahman lost his father in a tender age of 9 after which their family earned their living by renting out the musical instruments they had. Rahman started to work as a keyboard player to "Isai Gnani" Ilayaraja who was also one of the persons who gets Rahman's instruments for rent. His early days with Ilayaraja provided him a platform to flourish. He also got a degree in Western Classical Music from the Trinity College of Music, London.

In 1991, he got an offer from director Mani Ratnam to do musical score for the movie "Roja". Being a debutant in film industry, he caught the audience dumbstruck with his awesome songs of which "Chinna Chinna Asai" has been listed one of among the "Top 10 movie tracks of all time" by the Time magazine in 2005. He was the first ever debutant to win the National Award in Best Music director category.

After Roja, the progress chart of Rahman was always up with his great numbers in films like Kadhalan, Kizhakku Cheemaiyile, Kadhal Desam, Bombay, Muthu, Minsara Kanavu, Iruvar, Sillunu oru kadhal, Sivaji and the list is endless. Especially the song "Mustafa Mustafa" from Kadhal Desam was patroned as a national anthem for friendship those times. He has the ability to give the best in whatever category of music he chooses. He entered the world of Bollywood with "Rangeela" which turned out to be a blockbuster. After that Rahman become an important asset to the Hindi film industry. His works in Hindi includes films like Lagaan, Guru,Rang De Basanthi, Yuva, Ghajini, etc. He is an ardent believer in Sufism. So he converted to Islam. He loves the Qawwali type of music of Sufi saints. The song "Khwaja" from Jodhaa Akbar was fully composed of that style which will fill ur heart with divine spirit on hearing. He worships Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan as his guru and promptly he dedicated the song "Tere Bina" from "Guru" to his Guru.

One of the other big traits of Rahman is that he brings up a lot of aspiring young talents in the field of playback singing especially in Tamil, singers like Karthick, Benny Dayal, Chinmayee, Naresh Iyer, etc. are all finds of A.R.Rahman. He also proved that language is not a barrier for music by introducing singers like Udit Narayan, Sukhwinder Singh, Sadhana Sargam, Shreya Goshal and more to Tamil Film music. His achievements are endless including 3 national awards in Tamil for "Roja", "Minsara Kanavu", "Kannathil Muthamittal" and 1 national award in Hindi for "Lagaan" (totally 4 which is the highest ever by any music composer), six-time Tamilnadu state award, eleven time each in Filmfare award and Filmfare award south, IIFA award, Mauritius national award, Malaysian award and also recieved a honorary award from Stanford University for his contribution to world music. The most recent one being the "Golden Globe" for the music in "Slumdog Millionaire" and three nominations for the prestigious and most coveted Oscar awards.

Apart from film music, his albums have also been chartbusters like "Vande Matharam", "Jana Gana Mana",etc. His song "Pray For Me Brother " was chosen as the UNO's song for eradication of poverty in world. He also scored a theatre musical "Bombay Dreams" produced by Andrew Lloyd Webber. He also charted the music for the theatre production of "Lord Of The Rings". These achievements got him the title "Mozart Of Madras" from TIME Magazine.

Rahman still remains the same god fearing, humble and pious person what he was when entered his career. Mother India is really proud for her son who has taken India to the Globe with the magic of Music which needs no language. As Indians, we salute this great brother for bringing laurels to the nation with his golden globe award and wish him best for winning the Academy awards.