Abhiyum Naanum

Many of you might not know the fact that Prakash Raj, the most demanding actor in south India is also a producer. He has given films like ‘Dhaya’, ‘Azhagiya Theeye’, ‘Mozhi’, ‘Poi’, ‘Vellithira’ etc. under the banner Dute Movies (‘Duet’ being his debut tamil film)


Now the team behind ‘Mozhi’ works together again. Duet Radha Mohan has casted Prakash Raj, Thrisha, Aiswarya (Lakshmi’s daughter) and Prithwiraj (in a special appearance) in his new film ‘Abhiyum Naanum’. From the title itself it is clear that it is a family subject deals with the father-daughter relationship. The father’s intimacy with the daughter is told in his viewpoint.


The story starts when Abhi (Thrisha) is born to Prakash Raj and Aiswarya. Her father has got more concern for her than anyone. The different stages and the various incidents happened in the life of Abhi is shown by the director in an adorable way. She also selected her pair when she is grown up and this caused some worries on the father’s mind that had got some dreams about her daughter’s marriage. Though disliked this matter, he has to give green signal for Abhi’s decision. The tension happening to him on these days are presented in a lighter way here. There is even a dialogue in the film, which tells that, some times children will show right path for their parents.


We have to look into our neighboring state where movies like ‘Abhiyum Naanum’ are producing. A variety in each subject is evident there. The story here is not extra ordinary. But the neat and smooth presentation of this movie with the help of many humorous situations has to be appreciated. Choosing a hill station as the location for the particular subject is also appealing.


Camerawoman Preetha has given some excellent visuals. Vidyasagar’s songs and bg-score suit the mood well. Performance of Prakash Raj and Thrisha is excellent. The casting and characterization of new face as Thrisha’s lover itself is a different expereince.


‘Abhiyum Naanum’ is a nice family film. The story and its presentation is straight, no chance for any gimmicks.


Rating : 4 / 5

Nammal Thammil

The name is familiar to us the name of a talk show in a leading television channel. I already told you about the bitter experience in watching the film ‘Aayirathil Oruvan’. Along with the treatment, the late release of the film has caused the main damage there. Now ‘Nammal Thammil’ is another project which is now released was proposed to release during 2003. The film starring Prithviraj and Indrajith is special to me, since I got a chance to associate in the technical side of the film 6years before. I had also watched 75% of the shooting process of the film. But I can’t claim credit for a single frame in the current version of the film released.


‘Nammal Thammil’ is directed by Viji Thamby and produced by Evershine Mani. Sanjiv Shankar handles the camera. The scriptwriter of ‘Nammal Thammil’ is Alex Kadavil (late) and John Paul has penned the dialogue. M.jayachandran has give n5 songs for different moods; among them “Junile Nilamazhayil…” is a hit romantic duet.

Vicky (Prithviraj) is a union chairman in an Engineering college. He is in love with his classmate (Geethu Mohandas). The villain (don’t know the name, he has acted in ‘Sivam’) wants to win the heart of the heroine, when failed he makes plan to destroy the image of the hero. Thus the chairman’s career is spoiled, without knowing he gets responsible for whatever negative things happen in the college.

This causes the break in the relationship of the lovers. This time, John (Indrajith) gets admitted to the college as a new student. As her old friend, she gets closer to John, which is not liked by Vicky. Both of them fight each other while the villain takes advantage of the situation. In the end the real truth is revealed, John is the elder brother of Vicky. Vicky is the son of Balachandra Menon and Revathi, while John is born to Menon and his ex-lover Suhasini. There ends a happy ‘Nammal Thammil’.

We have seen this story a 1000 times through films in hindi, tamil and Malayalam right from 1970’s. In the opening scene, it is written on a black board that “College Elections 2003”, there itself viewers felt uneasiness since that they are made fool. The climax in which heroine reveals the truth is too dramatic and looks non realistic. In the beginning title card, it is written as “Seevidhanam – Viji Thamby”, why the director left as it is a big question. As expected there is an old feeling in each and every scenes. Using an English song bit in the re recording for pathos situations in such a film is a childishness. The sound quality of the film is not up to the mark.

In an argument scene, Geethu tells Prithviraj, “…or else Aiswarya Rai will come to sit with you…” Though it was a dialogue written in 2003, when Prithviraj’s career grown to a remarkable level in 2009, Maniratnam’s new film which is to be released soon has got Aiswarya Rai as his pair and one promotional still of the film showed Aiwarya sitting on Prithviraj’s lap. Thus in the movie world, what happens tomorrow is unpredictable.


Going to the theatre to watch a six year old film like ‘Nammal Thammil’, which deals with an uninteresting subject, is not a wise decision.


Rating : 2 / 5

Laadam

A month before when I saw the promotional stills of a film named ‘Ladam’ and when I saw the posters of the particular film, which highlighted the glamour scenes of heroine, I though it was a malayalam dub version of a telugu film. Two factors made me think like it since this is the time of remakes here and moreover the actress of the film is Charmi. (After acting in ‘Kattuchembakam’, she flew to Hyderabad and then started acting in telugu movies). I failed to identify the hero also, since he was a new face and moreover he has got some similarity with the body language of Ravikrishna (‘7G Rainbow Colony’ fame). Anyway such a misjudgment regarding movies has never happened in my life. After few days, I recognize the truth only when I read the director’s name as Prabhu Solomon. He has given different films like ‘Kokki’ starring Karan and ‘Lee’ (inspired from hindi movie ‘Iqbal’) starring Sibiraj.

The opening scene of the film itself gives us the mood. The film presented in bluish tint gradient style is different; it tells the story of Chennai ruled by two underworld dons. Kota Sreenivaasa Rao (‘Sami’ fame) and Jayaprakash played those roles respectively. The second gang kills the first gang leader’s son, thus the latter wants to take revenge on the former by taking the pledge to kill his rival’s son within 16days. At that time, the hero (new face Aravindan) reaches the city for an interview. He stayed in his friend’s house. He reaches the hands of first gang, when asked to let him free, the gang leader assign the job of killing his enemy’s son to him. The cool hero reaches the rival gang and told the truth, they tried to kill him. He escaped from them and how he manages to spend those days and whether he got succeeded in his job is the story of ‘Laadam’ deals with.

In between he meets the heroine. Being an orphan, this naughty girl spends her life by doing different things. At night, she enters those houses without owners and spends there. Though her situations and surroundings felt non realistic, it is created in a humorous way. We can see her mimicking various actors from MGR to Vadivelu. She gives the support to hero in finishing his job. In the end their romance is told through a song (those glamour stills were only highlighted here in posters, giving a wrong information to us; but we are lucky that such a tamil film without any big star cast is also releasing here).

The film won’t make you boring. Moreover it will make you more interested since the script writer- director had conveyed through the scenes that this is the story happening within 16days. The performance of the new hero Aravindan is good. He doesn’t have the body weight necessary for a real hero, but the character is modulated in such a way that we will like the innocence in his character. Charmi is charming and her animated nature gives her domination over the hero in some scenes. Some of her comedy scenes can make you restless, since you are watching an action movie. Kota Sreenivasa Rao as performed in his usual style.

Cinematographer Sukumar and Editor Harsha had worked excellently to give the real action mood to this movie which does not have big action sequences. Music director Dharan had given good rerecording and some fast remix numbers here. The director of the film Prabhu Solomon needs special mention to make this film an entertainer without many artists.

‘Laadam’ is a time pass for those who love action oriented films.

Rating : 3.5 / 5

TN 07 AL 47777

Don’t you feel that the name of the film looks like the registration number of a vehicle? Yes, it is the reg: number of taxi owned by one of the heroes (Pasupathi). The other hero of the film is Ajmal. Being a malayalee he has got ‘Pranayakalam’ as his debut film and then acted in ‘Madambi’, reached tamil through ‘Anjaathe’. No need to have such an introduction for Pasupathi. He is familiar through films like ‘Virumandi’, ‘Kuselan’ etc. ‘TN 07 AL 47777’ is the remake of hindi hit film ‘Taxi No 9211’ acted by Nana Patekar and John Abraham. It was released almost 3 years before.

For those who have not seen the hindi verision, here is the plot. It starts when a rich man (Ajmal) enters the taxi (driven by a middle class man, Pasupathi) for a journey. In that moment you are shown what happened to these two persons till that moment through a flashback, with the voice-over of Jeeva (actor). The rich man wants to reach court immediately for settling an issue based on his wealth and belongings. He gave more cash to the driver demanding to go fast. On the journey an accident occurs and the passenger leaves from the scene. The driver was taken to the police custody. When Ajmal reached court, he came to know that the lost his locker key in the vehicle. He reaches driver’s house to collect it, met his wife (Simran) and told the happenings, she came to know the truth that his husband is a taxi driver and not an LIC agent as he told them. This caused a crack in their relationship. On the other side, rich man wants to get the will-document which is in the locker. The taxi driver is not ready to return his key. What happens to them in such a situation is told here through ‘TN 07 AL 47777’.

The story of two sections of people in the society is shown by the director Lakshmikanthan. While the rich man wants to clear the tensions happened due to money, the poor man wants to solve the problems in the family. The story is presented almost identical to the original version. Since I have seen both, I will say that the current one is not up to the mark. Pasupathy has done the role in his usual style. Ajmal is quiet; he should have been more expressive. Simran, in the wife’s role is good but doesn’t have much to perform.

Music director Vijay Antony has done the re-recording well. He has also sung another notable number after “Naakku Mukku…” in the form of “Aathichoodi…”song. It is neatly choreographed and performed by Shobi.

If you have seen ‘Taxi No 9211’, then no need to waste time for ‘TN 07 AL 47777’; if not… you can enjoy this ride.

Rating : 3 / 5

Sagar Alias Jacky Reloaded

Only few directors in Malayalam like Blessy and Anwar Rasheed has got the golden opportunity to cast Mammootty in their first film and Mohanlal in their very next venture. This time it is Amal Neerad’s turn; he had created ‘Big B’ with Mamootty. The camera, editing and the background music areas of the particular film has altogether created a different experience.

‘Irupathaam Noottaandu’ directed by K.Madhu, scripted by SN Swami and produced by M.Mani was an important film in achieving the stardom in Mohanlal’s career. The film released in the later areas of 80’s had got Suresh Gopi also, playing the villain role. Now Amal Neerad has planned to take the main character Sagar from that film and made a new subject as ‘Sagar Alias Jacky Reloaded’. The script writer is retained and the new producer is Antony Perumbavoor under Ashirwad Cinemas banner.

After watching ‘Big B’, one can easily identify the potential and style of the creator. It is very clear that he doesn’t believe in the conventional way of story telling. So before watching the new Mohanlal film also, I had an expectation that these all are going to happen in the story in this way only. Anyway the outcome was almost similar to my thoughts.

The underworld don Sagar alias Jacky has got roots in India and the middle east. Sometimes he travels in chartered flights; on some occasions through sea and while on roads he will take the most costly vehicles ranging from Prado to Hummer (thus the credit for showing the costliest Hummer on Kerala roads goes to Amal Neerad and Mohanlal).

The story starts when Jacky saves his friend (Manoj K Jayan) from a kidnap incident. It causes the enmity of two gangs. Some of the incidents which happen later created a rivalry between them. The villain group started destroying those members who are attached to Jacky. This causes the hero to take revenge and he takes weapons, in the end total disaster. From the beginning hero and the villains are shown, villains attacking the hero at occasions, in the end hero wins the battle. This is the story in one line.

As usual Amal Neerad did the superiority in direction; his camera work is also good. Editor Vivek Harshan has got some neat cuts. Gopi Sundar’s fine background score adds the violent flavor.

The signature of SN Swamy is evident in only few occassions like the introduction scene of the hero, scenes in which Jagathi's character telling telugu dialogues and the journalist heroine (Bhavana) identifying the hero when latter tells his name; those scenes are taken from the old movie. Some of the incidents like the journalist’s car getting accident lack stability. The performance of the hero (in slow motion he looks frightened) in front of the Commissioner holding dog in one hand looks amateur. One can’t tolerate the nature in which the young journalist started loving the middle aged don.

In whole, the film has got Mohanlal’s heroism projected in different style. When Suman, Rahul Bose and Sambath ('Chennai 600028' fame) got placed in the villain side, you can call this as a very big project. I had got few negative comments for promoting Mohanlal’s previous action venture ‘Red Chillies’, what to do successive film for the hero has also more heroism (only) to show…

(there is a biline in the posters of the film saying "Any Questions"......the reply from the viewers will be like this, "there are many... but we are not asking!!!")

‘Sagar Alias Jacky Reloaded’ is Mohanlal’s heroism shown in Amal Neerad’s style. Don’t expect big logic, story sense or family sentiments here. If you really desperate to see this, then don't hear for anyone else, just watch and come.

Rating : 2.5 / 5

Kancheevaram

Starting with a comedy flick ‘Poochakkoru Mookkuthi’ in 1984, director Priyadarshan (part- time script writer also) had grown with the experience to attain a well known position in the Indian film industry. After doing many comedy films in the beginning, Priyan is notable through films like ‘Thalavatom’, ‘Chithram’, ‘Kilukkam’, ‘Kalapani’ etc. In the second half of 90’s, he reached bollywood through the film ‘Muskurahat’, remake of his own ‘Kilukkam’. The credit for making maximum remakes in hindi could probably go for him and he is now a days the most valuable directors in our country. Now the 60+ films old technician feels that it is time for him to do something different. With such an intention, he has written and directed ‘Kancheevaram’.

Kancheevaram is a place in TN situated near Chennai. The story of the film happens in the pre- independence period. The place is notable for cloth industry; the hero of the film (Prakash Raj) is a weaver. He lives with his wife (Shreya Reddy) and a daughter. Though these poor weavers make costly clothes using silk, they are paid only a very minimum amount by their landlords. They realize this only when a communist worker (P.Sreekumar) reached the village and made them aware of the fact. The hero has got the wish to present a silk saaree for his daughter on her marriage. In the middle of poverty and strike how the hero achieves his dream is where ‘Kancheevaram’ ends.

It was heard that the director was planning to cast Mohanlal in the lead role. Later when Prakash Raj heard the story, he agreed to do the role, free of cost. With the former didn’t have much artistic value in tamil, Priyadarshan who happened to be the producer also, was happy to give the role to one of the important actors in south india and he has come out with an excellent performance.

Cinematographer Thiru has shown his efficiency irrespective of the nature of the film. Some of the late evening visuals from hero’s hut are extra ordinary. Ediotor Arunkumar's work is also good. This is debut film for MG Sreekumar as music director; there is a lullaby song and without having much experience he had given the background music also. Anyway I can’t point out anything bad in his work.

The presentation of the film is very slow, as expected. It seems that the director wants to add his name along with the list of parallel stream of film personalities also. That is a good thought, it relies in the freedom of the creator only and he has succeeded in it…but some where I felt... “Was it deliberately created?!”

‘Kancheevaram’ is a different attempt by the director who goes behind remake subjects and slapstick comedies most of the time.

Rating : 3.5 / 5

Siva Manassile Sakthi

Vikadan, the big name in the tamil media world is producing the film ‘Siva Manassile Sakthi’ under the banner of Vikadan Talkies. It is directed by M.Rajesh; hopefully a new name in the cine world. The hero of the film is Jeeva, heroine being debutant Anuya. Santhanam, Ilavarasan, Urvasi etc are the supporting artists. Yuvan Shankar Raja has also got an important role to play on the music side.


Hero and heroine meet during a railway journey from Kovai to Chennai. Both of them introduce themselves as a military officer and an airhostess respectively. When reached Chennai, both of them came to know that they had made fool of each other. Heroine being a radio jockey in an FM radio and hero is a courier boy. Their hatred gradually turns into love.


Hero’s character is fluctuating most of the time, sometimes he behaves rudely to the heroine as if she is his sole enemy, on some occasions she treat her as a dear lover. The scenes in which both of them trying to bully each other are shown lightly, but later for some silly things she tries to avoid him. Hero becomes a drunkard man. Later when her father tries to arrange a proposal for her, she came to the hero begging for his life. The hero takes advantage of the situation and tries to take revenge on her, later only we knew that it was not genuine. At this situation heroine once again escapes from him. Anyway after few blocks we are provided a happy ending.


‘Siva Manassile Sakthi’ goes smoothly till first half, it has got a weak and unarranged way of finishing. It looks like the film loses its good tempo as it goes on to the later portions. Usually heroine tries to avoid the hero most of the time, in the end as usual she claims that she loves him from the beginning. It is a cliché thing. Even after hating his character, sometimes she slept with hero’s family at night. Also we don’t know the logic in his indifferent behavior towards the heroine in the end. The reason told by the heroine to get separated is acceptable, but the reason shown in the climax for the reunion looks childish; thus the whole end portions will make you restless. The scenes in which hero breaks the cell phones of his friend one by one, the one in which he asks his friend to pay the wine shop bill etc creates laughing at that time, but on a second thought it is non sensible.


Jeeva has performed as far as he can. Anuya, the new heroine doesn’t show much emotion in her face, her performance is satisfactory. Notable star Aarya, who has done the guest role in a scene, is charming. Santhanam (hero’s friend) and Ilavarasan (heroine’s brother) have created some laughing sequences. The innocence of the hero’s mother has been done exceptionally well by Urvasi.


Sakthi Saravanan’s camera work,especially in the train scenes in the beginning is good. Yuvan Shankar Raja has given some good fast numbers and bg score.


Watching ‘Siva Manassile Sakthi’ you won’t feel boring. But the creators should have been more conscious in neatly arranging the second half portions.


Rating : 2.5/ 5 (revised)

Vennila Kabadi Kuzhu

Tamil Film Industry has always tried experimentation in different aspects. Irrespective pf the caste and crew, they had given variety on the story and technical sides. Now the latest film to join such a group is ‘Vennila Kabadi Kuzhu’ acted by many new comers and directed by Suseendran.


This is the story of seven friends who lives in a small village in Madhurai. All of them hail from lower middle class families, are busy with their own occupation in different fields. Some of them run shops, some working as helpers in rich men’s bungalows, some of them worked in their paddy fields etc. But, all of them get united in one activity, while playing the “Kabadi” game. Their team will never miss an opportunity to play a Kabadi tournament happens in their district. Most of the time the end result will be a failure for the team.


Hero Vishnu (new face), who always observes such matches, finally gets a chance to be a part of the team. Heroine (Saranya Mohan, ‘Yaaradi Nee Mohini’ fame) reaches the village for a short visit on a festival season; she gets in touch with the hero, they loved each other. The team got a chance to participate in a big tournament as per recommendation from a well-wisher (Kishore, ‘Pollathavan’ fame) who had roots in their native. Later he became their coach. He motivated the team to overcome hurdles and failures. With his help whether the weak team achieved their dream is where ‘Vennila Kabadi Kuzhu’ ends. The writer might have inspired such a situation from the super hit hindi venture ‘Chak de India’.


Excluding heroine Saranya Mohan and Kishore, who comes in a crucial supporting role, all others are new faces. So, usually such a film based on village subject filled with many new artists won’t be so attractive. Here the new director had presented the film very well. Frames set by cinematographer Laxman Kumar helped him to tell the story without boring. Kabadi games are shown remarkably. All the actors have done well, among them the performance of heroine Saranya Mohan and Kishore needs special mention. Songs by Selvaganesh is fine in such a mood.



In ‘Vennila Kabadi Kuzhu’, we can witness the real village culture; their happiness, sorrows, love, hatred etc are equally incorporated. The climax scene of the race between the bus and the cycle, the dialogue between hero and his friend regarding the mother’s cooking, the scenes in which the villain’s personal grudge gets changed etc are some examples. The scene in which the hero’s childhood period (shown in 35mm) changes to the current area (cinemascope) and the different passage of the bus showing the journey of time shows the caliber of the ace director. Such a climax for the film cannot be easily digested on the cinematic side, but on the realistic sense it is acceptable.


‘Vennila Kabadi Kuzhu’ is a love story told in a different way using the backdrop of Kabadi games.


Rating : 4 / 5

Thee

Last week, we discussed the comment by a friend when I planned to watch a film acted by Sundar.C, so now this time I didn’t tell anybody about my plan to watch another one named ‘Thee’ by the same actor. This time the pair was almost same, Namitha once again works with the star. Another girl, Ragini is the second heroine. My experience with ‘Perumaal’ was not so good, but two factors gave me an extra interest to go for this movie. This film is the remake of a telugu hit film, ‘Operation Duryodhana’ acted by Sreekanth (telugu actor) and moreover the film is distributed by the notable banner Sun Pictures.

The hero (Sundar.C) has got two phases in his life. In the first area, he is the sincere police officer who leads a good family life with his wife and two kids. He serves for the betterment of the society and tried his best to give justice for the poor. In the meanwhile, he came across the villain polictian (Sayaji Shinde) and his firend (Ponnambalam). Their enmity leads to the quarrelling between the two groups and his whole family is being destroyed by the gang and he is also killed.

From there, the second stage of the hero’s life happens. He took a different appearance and reached the same politicians by showing loyalty and supporting his enemies. They were unable to identify him in the bald and beard appearance. With in the political circle, he started doing the bad things and fortunately behaves like a criminal. When people question him, he asked them the reason for selecting a bad guy like him through elections. He also warns those people who are not casting their freedom to vote. Anyway in the end there happen the fight between the bad politician (hero) and a real police officer (Manoj K Jayan). It causes the police to be desperate and thus they started strike. So the criminals started leading a free life and this cause a break in the tidy life of the society. Thus the people and the politicians came to know about the value of police and in the end the villains are destroyed, hero returns to his old job.

‘Thee’ has got a good story that is necessary for a commercial hit. But here the hero Sundar.C is not a minimum guarantee actor and also heroine like Namitha which is placed to show extra glamour (one of her scenes suits well for an Adults only movie) can destroy any reasitic film. The film directed by Kitcha contains some excellent dialogues, which forms the backbone. Music is by Sreekanth Deva

‘Thee’ has got a good subject, but here it is shown as a masala film for the front benchers.

Rating : 2.5 / 5

Chocolate

This sweet name has been used in almost all the languages as the name of films. The first time, I heard this was in tamil for a film acted by Prasanth. Later it was in hindi for a multi starrer film lead by Anil Kapoor. Then, a Prithviraj starrer in malayalam came with the same name. Now the english film from Thailand has also been released with the same name.

Jeeja Yanin, a girl in her teen age has done the central character in ‘Chocolate’. This is the story of a lady who got in love with a key member of the under world gang. When some resistance came from the team leader, she left the place and got settled in her native place. Later she gave birth to a baby girl, who showed some extra powers in her childhood. Her sense of hearing was exceptional compared to others. She has also practiced martial arts right from her childhood.

The girl grew up,later her mother became ill. As they need money for the treatment, a relative took her to the debtors. They started collecting money by using her physical strength. Her aggressive attitude in using whatever she knew in martial arts helped them. Soon, the villain gang leader reached there. The reunion of the girl and her father happens after the climax fight.

Names like Bruce Lee, Jackie Chan, Jet Lee and Tony Jaa has always been familiar to us. Their films have got a good response here, since we can witness the ultimate possibilities for action sequences in it. Martial arts like Karate and Kung Foo etc form the main ingredients there. In ‘Chocolate’ also the theme helps the creators to arrange maximum situations related to this.

The heroine here has got much to perform using her hands and legs for fighting. The action scenes were done using ropes and wires and the computer graphics has also done neatly. The hard work done by the actors, with the help of director and action choreographer while shooting this film has been exposed along with the end credits.

Those who love watching action films packed with martial arts can try ‘Chocolate’ also.

Rating : 3.5 / 5

Aayirathil Oruvan

Last week, one of my friends asked me whether I have watched the new film, ’Aayirathil Oruvan’ by Kalabhavan Mani. I told him that I have not and also corrected his statement by informing that the film is not new; it is an old movie by Sibi Malayil, which was censored almost 6 years before and was about to release at that time. But due to some unknown reasons it was unreleased. This film also bagged state award for the best story writer for TA Razaak at that time. Now the distributor Siyad Koker feels that it in the current era of films like ‘Veruthe Oru Bharya’, ‘Makante Achan’, ‘Bharya Santham Suhruthu’ etc; this is the right time to release ‘Aayirathil Oruvan’ also, which is a pakka family subject.

The team behind had also arranged an aggressive marketing strategy for the film, so that the hero himself, who is always ready to cry in public for the popularity, took the initiative by taking part in maximum number of promotional programs in TV channels. The publicity poster is designed with faces of many top most directors and a superstar in malayalam and they even claim that “this is the Oscar of Malayalam”.

The poverty of lower middle class families has always been a sure bet theme for the malayalam films in the past. Here also the hero (Kalabahavan Mani), who hails from such a family, runs a ration shop. The story mainly revolves around his wife, his mother, his other relatives and their whereabouts, the dowry issues, loan repayment troubles, failure of settlement and problem with the financiers etc. The first scene showing the broker visiting the hero’s house, seeking an alliance for him and the reply given to him is a cliché and we will be able to understand what is going to happen here after.

Director Sibi Malayil with the script of TA Razak, has tried his best to allocate maximum sentiments and crying in each and every scenes till the climax. The previous hit given by the same pair was ‘Kaanakkinavu’ and I still believe that it is the only script that the latter can claim as his best work so far. Maybe he has written ‘Perumazhakkalam’, but a variety of films like ‘Parunthu’, ‘Mayabazar’, ‘Aakasham’, ‘Nadodi’, ‘Vesham’, ‘Bus Conductor’, ‘Valkkannadi’ etc. also came through his pen.

There is no big star cast in this film. The heroine role is done by Suchetha. Some of the familiar faces from the serial field has done the sister characters. Mother role is done by KPAC Lalitha, she is crying or harassing her daughter-in-law through words, most of the time. Shoby Thilakan and Senthil (tamil actor) plays the financier’s role. Thilakan comes in the end, as a person with helping mentality. Anyway after so many hazards and sadness, there is some happiness comes for the hero in the climax. Since this film stayed in the lab for years, it lost its freshness; such an old feeling can be quoted using a saying in malayalam, “aariya kanji… pazhankanji.”

‘Aayirathil Oruvan’ is for those people (especially ladies) who want to see family oriented films which contains problems, sorrow and troubles happening to the hero from the beginning to the end.

Rating : 2 / 5 (revised)

Yaavarum Nalam

Introduced by Maniratnam through ‘Allaipayuthe’, this actor has grown up with the experience he got from the tamil and hindi film industry. Madhavan has done a variety of roles in films like ‘Anbe Sivam’, ‘Minnale’, ‘Rang de Basanthi’, ‘Kannathil Muthamittaal’, ‘Mumbai Meri Jaan’, ‘Guru’, ‘Evano Oruvan’ etc. Now his new film ‘Yavaraum Nalam’ is produced by big banner Big Pictures and it is scripted and directed by Vikaram Kumar.

The story starts when the hero and his brother started living with their wives and mother in a flat recently bought by them. As days passed, something unusual started happening in their place. Other than the hero, nobody is aware of such things. He tries to find a solution for the problem. I am not going into the story details. The cause of negative things got revealed in the climax and how they all get rid of the problem is the theme of ‘Yaavarum Nalam’.

The theme must be familiar to you through some of the horror films directed by Ram Gopal Varma. Yes, here also the director has followed the RGV style of making. Those who have seen films like ‘Bhoot’, ‘Raat’, ‘Kaun’, ‘Darna Mana Hai’ etc might be able to know why Varma is being differentiated from other directors. It is good to see that director Vikram Kumar who has given an action film like ‘Alai’ with Silambarasan, Trisha before has been inspired by RGV style. The most of the scenes are happening inside the flat apartment. There we can see different type of characters like a dog, television, lift, mobile etc. which has also “performed well “, as the script demanded. So as a whole the film is presented in a different style.

The senior cinematographer PC Sreeram has given a good support to the director with some excellent shots. The placement of camera inside the lift is an example. Tubbi Parik’s background score goes well with the temper. Editor Sreekar Prasad, Art director Sameer Chanda and Audiographer Lakshmi Narayanan also played their roles well. Madhavan, who has done an important character, shines exceptionally as usual. Neetu Chandra comes in his wife’s role. This north Indian lady has performed brilliantly in her debut tamil film. Their husband-wife chemistry has also worked out well. The conversation between each members of the family is also good and straight. The grading (color tone) of the film matches the mood very well.

There is no need to look for a big logic in such a theme. We have seen many horror subjects. But here the director had tried a different type of imagination. (Only one negative one can point out is the fact that what all things which are aware by the hero are not known to the rest of the family members; but those ladies who are serial maniacs won't have such an IQ as expected...)

‘Yaavarum Nalam’ is a horror-psycho subject presented in the best and different way it can. The creators have raised the issue and also mentioned the solution there itself, so you please don’t interfere in such things; just enjoy it and come.

Rating : 4 / 5

Poo

Director Sasi who gave films like ‘Sollamale’, ‘Rojakkoottam’ and ‘Dishyum’ within a span of last 10years has got a good success rate so far. Those three films were theme wise different and it gave good name for actors like Livingston, Sreekanth, Jeeva respectively. Now the director has given his latest film ‘Poo’, which is a heroine oriented subject. He chose a new heroine to do the pivotal role. Malayalam actress Parvathy who acted in films like ‘Notebook’, ‘Flash’ etc has done the lead part here. Sreekanth has also done a main character.

In the 8o’s and the early 90’s we have seen many films in tamil which gave importance for village subjects. Directors like Bharathiraja, Mahendran etc belongs to those set of directors that has given much value for traditions and cultures in the rural areas of Tamil Nadu through their realistic stories. Through last many years, such a sensible style has changed and these days the importance has gone for the visuals and the presentation of the stories and the environment is changed to the city backdrop for most of the films. Hence the film ‘Poo’ is different, since the director has chosen the interior parts of central Tamilnadu to tell the story.

This is a love story in the real village back drop. The heroine Maari (Parvathy) who stays in a nearby village with his husband, who is a shop owner, reaches her native for the festival season. At that time she wishes to see her relative and ex-lover, Thangaraasu (Sreekanth). What happened till that moment is shown through a flashback. She wished to marry him even from the childhood. Though the two families agreed, later due to oppose from the boy’s father, the marriage didn’t happened. Whether such a parting has benefited both is what we are shown here.

What is different in ‘Poo’ is that, the way in which the story is told. The heroine character that stays in a village is presented in a very dull make up. She has got every attitude of the real tamil village girl. Also other than the hero-heroine, all the characters are done by new faces. The writer-director Sasi should be appreciated for taking such a risk and to come up with a good performance from all of them. The location used as a backdrop gives us a real taste of the culture in the interior part of the Tamil Nadu. The area in which the heroine works, the explosive manufacturer unit shown is also new to us.

Moreover there is no gimmicks used here and we can’t spot out a single shot which contains computer graphics. The simplicity in the presentation is the notable thing here (some of you might feel lagging due to this). New heroine, Parvathy who has done modern characters in her previous films in malayalam has performed exceptionally well in such a dull costume and make-up here. Sreekanth has also done well. New music director S.S.Kumaran has given some nice songs which match the situation well.

‘Poo’ is not an entertainer, but it is a portrait of the tamil village culture on celluloid using many new faces.

Rating : 3.5 / 5

1977

Sharath Kumar, a prominent actor in the kollywood has done a wide variety of roles so far, both on-screen and off-screen. He was the Mr.Madras title holder for years in the later 8o’s. Then he entered the tamil cine field as a villain. After doing the baddie characters in many films, he got the break as a hero through the film ‘Sooryan’, in which he has done the bald appearance also. 10years before, he has entered politics, also served as Rajyasabha MP. Now he has formed his own political party. His wife, Radhika is a notable actress; she is the owner of Radaan Media Works with many big screen and small screen productions. Sharath Kumar has also directed a movie named ‘Thalaimakan’ recently, which doesn’t caught much attention. His previous films like ‘Vaitheeswaran’, ‘Namnaadu’ etc didn’t ran well. Now this 75+ films old star’s latest film ‘1977’ is produced by the actor himself.

‘1977’ is another double role project for Sharath Kumar. He has done the father-son role again. After the death of the father, his son reaches Malaysia, where the former once worked as a police officer. He searched for the actual culprits and the villains who were behind the mishap occurred in 1977, in which his father was caught as an accused. On the way, he found his mother (Jayasudha) which was disappeared in his childhood. In the second half the flash back role of the father’s role is carried away through most scenes. The truth is revealed in the end and the real villain is caught.

There is also the presence of Vivek, who comes as hero’s friend. He has nothing to do with the story line, but to create some situations which can cause laugh. Inability in understanding the Chinese language is the main situation handled here. Those scenes are not much impressive also. New heroine Farzana, who has done few films in telugu, gets in touch with the hero through some colliding scenes, which later turns into love. Such situations are usual only and we have witnessed it many times before. She has got some songs to expose her ultimate glamour. Namitha, who comes in the role of an advocate, got a good introduction in very minimum clothes as expected. She has also got a song with the hero. Sharath Kumar's body language, in his 50's is not flexible as before.

From the first few scenes itself, we get the taste and the standard of the film. The introduction scene of the hero along with the song is not striking. ‘1977’ has got a story which can be converted to a guaranteed hit, if all the ingredients necessary are added in neat proportions. The script writer - director Dinesh Kumar (not heard this name before, so probably his debut film) has failed here miserably, in converting such a story line to an action entertainer. The performance of the villains in two appearances is dramatic and immature only. The song situations are also weak. Vidyasagar has not given any memeorable songs here. Camera by Bhubathy and Editing by Antony is satisfactory.

The pre-release reports of ‘1977’ gave big hope and expectation, but the output ended in a failure.

Rating : 2 / 5

Bharya Swantham Suhruthu

Actor turned director Venu Nagavally has given some notable films like ‘Sukhamo Devi’, ‘Lal Salam’, ‘Aye Auto’etc in the past. He wrote script for the box office hit ‘Kilukkam’ also. Now he has come up with a new film after a long gap of 8years. The name of the film is ‘Bharya Swantham Suhruthu’. It was originally titled as ‘Suhruthu’. Since you can’t spot out big stars here, no one was ready to distribute it for almost 2 years, a new title is given using the word “Bharya”, assuming that the success of ‘Veruthe Oru Bharya’ might help them in promoting the stuff?

The story of the film revolves around two families. Jagathi-Urvasi and Mukesh-Padmapriya couples are the key members. Mukesh is doing textile business. Though he shows very deep sincerity and love for his wife, his attitude outside the home is different. He had got dishonest relationship with some ladies. He also provokes his friend (Jagathi), a finance company owner, to change his character and appearance, as a result the latter’s attitude is also changed. He doesn’t get time to look after the office and family activities. His daughter (Shruthi) who studies in the high school also gets into some false friendship and this cause the mother (Urvasi) lot of tension and worries.

The business man’s wife wants to adopt a child, which was opposed by her husband. This caused some split in their relationship which ends in her suicide. Meanwhile a lady (Jothirmayi), who is a chat friend, comes to the life of the financier. Their relationship becomes deep. Later it developed into the usual black mailing issues and in the end the house wife herself reached for the husband’s help.

The story line and most of the scenes shown are relevant in today’s life. But the way in which the director Venu Nagavally presented the story for a weak script written by him and Cherian Kalpakavady is amateur only. The presentation of ‘Bharya Swantham Suhruthu’ has not even got the good flavor of family oriented films released in the earlier 90’s. So in this period, it is not possible for us to tolerate it.

The director’s previous films have got much importance for songs. But here the songs given by ONV-Alex Paul team are not suitable for the situations. More over, they are also not picturised well. The placement of some of the characters like the office staff lady in the finance company, boy friend of financier’s daughter etc shows the fault happened to such an experienced director like Venu Nagavally. The tragedy happened to Padmapriya might have been avoided. Performance by Urvasi in the house wife’s role is good. The black mailer guy Vijay Menon’s character is repetitive (same as in ‘Mukham’).

Treating like a friend as if in the title of the film Bharya Swantham Suhruthu’, you can’t recommend your wife to accompany you for such a boring film…

Rating : 2 / 5