Madrasapattinam

Medium : Tamil

Starring : Arya, Amy Jackson, Alex O’Nell, Cochin Haneefa, Nasser
Director : Vijay
Music : G.V.Prakashkumar

A movie which is very relevant in this week, when our country is celebrating its independence day, has got released, the venture is titled 'Madrasapattinam'. The story happens in the pre-independence days and ends in the current period. Arya and the English lady Amy Jackson did the lead roles along with many foreign actors. After movies like 'Kalapani', 'Lagaan', 'Magal Pandey', 'Hey Raam', 'Rangde Basanthi' etc; once again the mix of freedom fighting and romance forms the back bone of a project.

'Kireedom' and 'Poi Solla Poram' fame director Vijay (former associate to Priyadarshan) is the writer and creator of this movie. Nirav Shah is there with a good support as the cinematographer. Star editor Anthony has done the cuts. This periodical subject demands equal contribution from V.Selvakumar (art), Deepali Noor (costumes) and the much experienced Pattanam Rasheed (make-up). Music is given by G.V.Prakashkumar. This big budget production comes from Kalpathi S.Aghoram for AGS Entertainment.

The film starts in London, when an old lady attending the funeral of her husband, fainted and the doctors giving a half chance for surviving the brain surgery. She wants to see Madras city again,where she lived once. Thus the old lady reaches Chennai with her daughter. Her life, as the daughter of governor general is shown in the flashback. She (Amy Jackson) gets in touch with Paruthi (Arya), a wrestler from the group of dhobis (washermen), who stays in the locality. Amy is being forcibly engaged to the police chief (Alex O’Nell) by her parents. Amy doesn't like that relationship, as she is aware of the cruel behaviors of her fiancee. She also opposes the decision of evacuating the dhobis from their home ground. At this time, the country becomes independent and the girl's family members decided to kill Paruthi. What happens to Paruthi's affair, whether the old lady is able to meet any one who lived along with Paruthi has all shown in the later portions.

After giving of couple of remake subjects, Vijay has given an extra ordinary venture that helps to put his name also in the list of promising directors. The boldness to mix a subject happening in the pre-independence period with the current era, is notable. The movie involving a bulk of chroma sequences (to do the computer graphics sequences in creating the old Madras), has been excellently done by Nirav Shah. Editor Anthony did his job in style. The visual effects sequences has also been managed to the best way it can. The works by art director V.Selvakumar (railway station, trams etc), costumer Deepali Noor and make-up man Pattanam Rasheed are neatly evident in each and every frames. The songs goes with the mood, but it is the bg score section that gave the real life for the movie, which are done well by G.V.Prakashkumar. Fight scenes are also done well.

Arya has done good for the lead role. Amy Jackson is charming and she also suits well in the character. Alex O’Nell has got the usual body language of the negative English character. Late Cochin Haneefa is there in his usual style as the translator, the notable thing is that Kottayam Nazeer has dubbed for him in this movie, which also felt realistic. Haneefa's continuity in appearance is affected in certain scenes, when taken into account the fate happened to him, it is a negligible thing only. Nasser, M.S.Bhaskar and Bala Singh also did their job well.

The wrestling sequence resembles the situation in 'Lagaan'. The second half lags a little, which should have been avoided. The old man in the ICU identifying the lady all on a sudden is a cinematic thing. The cliche situations happening while telling such a story, like the love matters, the angry of the family members, the foreigners speaking the local language etc has happened here also (I am not criticizing by simply avoiding the creative effort).


'Madrasapattinam' is a story starts in the pre-independent period and ends up in the current Chennai city. This is another 'feather' in the hat of tamil movie industry...


Rating : 8.5 / 10

Sura

Medium : Tamil
Starring : Vijay, Devgill, Vadivelu, Thamanna
Director : S.P.Rajkumar
Music : Manisharma

The new tamil film 'Sura' (meaning Shark) is a special one, as it is the 50th film of the most popular actor in the kollywood today, Vijay. Born as the son of director S.A.Chandrasekhar, he has reached the field in the early 90's through the films directed by his father. He has acted in action masalas like 'Rasikan', 'Deva', 'Vishnu' etc (all directed by S.A.C) in the beginning and later on achieved a romantic image through some good films like 'Poove Unakkaga', 'Love Today', 'Kaathalukku Maryadhai', 'Thullaatha Manamum Thullum', 'Kushi', 'Priyamaanavale' etc. He has given many hit films in a row like 'Gilli', 'Thirumalai', 'Madhurai', 'Thiruppachi', 'Sivakasi' etc. These days, he has acquired the real action hero image with a minimum guarantee market and most of his films including 'Pokkiri', 'Vettaikkaran' etc were hits in our state also. Now his new film 'Sura', released in 600 centers world wide, shows the popularity of the young star, nick named 'Ilayadalapathy'. In the middle of the strike between the exhibitors, producers, distributors and other related groups in the film industry, release of some malayalam films are delayed, but the Vijay film got succeeded in releasing in as many centers here.

After the success of 'Vettaikkaran', mega banner Sun Pictures once again bagged the distribution rights of a Vijay film. It is directed by S.P.Rajkumar, who gave average films like 'Azhagarmalai', 'Kaarmegham', 'Ponmanam' and 'En Purushan Kuzhanthaimaathiri' before. Anyway, this former assistant of director K.S.Ravikumar with an experience of more than 15years in the field, is good enough to write-direct a Vijay film. Top heroine in tamil, Thamanna is pairing with Vijay for the first time. Telugu actor Devgill, who is notable through hit film 'Magadheera', does the negative role.

Sura (Vijay) is a fisherman living in the coastal area. His ambition is to build concrete houses for the entire families living there. He came across the heroine (Thamanna) and started loving her. At this time, a minister (Devgill), who is involved in illegal activities and real estate business, tried to buy the land, where the hero lives. Sura opposes this and the minister tried many ways to evacuate the families. The hero is adamant that he will build the houses for the fishermen at his own cost and how he succeeded in it is shown in the climax of 'Sura'.

The dullness in the environment selected to tell the story is evident in most areas. Vadivelu, who is placed for comedy scenes, has given a below average output only. The heroine is as usual a 'product' for the hero to sing duets. The suicide attempt scenes and the reason told by the heroine for doing make up are all childish. The villain character lacks stability and Devgill, who came in such a role is not flexible also. The revenge episodes are not done in a thrilling way. The inclusion of foreign girls in the temple song is not an attractive sight. The introduction shot of the hero and the song followed it, are not done neatly. The walking style of the hero (imitating Mammootty in 'Oru CBI Diary Kuruppu') is not good.

The only good thing for Vijay to select this project might be, some of the hero oriented dialogues related to the the theme of 'building houses', which he thinks as an added advantage, if he enters the politics in the near future (?). The experienced actor or his father or the director himself should have been aware of the fact that they have chosen an usual theme with an ordinary presentation only for a 'mile stone' project like this.

Action director Kanal Kannan, who has given notable punches in recent hits like 'Paiyya' and 'Vettaikkaran', had given a couple of fast sequences, especially the first one where hero chasing the villain is excellent. Music director Manisharama had given some peppy numbers (many of them are his own tunes borrowed from telugu) and the bg score is also healthy. Choreography by Robert for 'naan nadnathaal...' song and Prem Rakshit for 'thanjavoor jillakkari...' song, needs special mention. Ekambaram, who did recent films like 'Drona' (M), 'Den Dena Dun', 'Kanthasamy', is the cinematographer and Donmax, the malayalee editor, who worked in 'Aadhavan', 'Jaggubhai', 'Silambaattom' etc gave some neat cuts.


'Sura' might be a prestigious project for the actor, not for the viewers. Even a die hard fan of Vijay can't promote a movie like this.


Rating : 4 / 10

Vettaikkaran

Medium : Tamil
Starring : Vijay, Anushka, Sreehari, Ravishankar, Salim Ghouse, Sayaji Shinde
Director : Babu Sivan
Music : Vijay Antony

Being born in a movie family (father SA Chandrasekhar is a director, mother Sobha Sekhar is a singer, story writer and producer), actor Vijay's career which got started in the early 90's, his fame has reached its peak in the last few years. His stardom is in the top position these days. The success of films like 'Gilli', 'Thirumalai', 'Thiruppachi', 'Sivakasi' and 'Pokkiri' had increased this young actor's popularity in South India. After giving flops like 'Kuruvi' and 'Villu', the actor desparately needed a hit here.

Vijay had now chosen new director Babu Sivan (former associate to Dharani, 'Gilli' fame) for his new venture 'Vettaikkaran', his 49th film. The actor has no need for a big worry this time, since the well known banner AVM is producing the film and more over mega distributors Sun Pictures, who has got the magic to make an average film into a super hit by their promotion strategies is behind 'Vettaikkaran'. The female lead role is done by the busy telugu heroine, Anushka who has done the film 'Rendu' with Madhavan before. For the first time, Vijay Antony ("nakku mukku..." fame) has been appointed as the music director.

The hero, Ravi (Vijay) hails from a middle class family in Tuticorin. He is a die hard fan of a police officer, Devaraj IPS (Sreehari). His ambition is to become an honest police man like him. With such an intention, he reached Chennai and got admission in a college. He meets the heroine (Anushka) and his grandmother (Sukumari) there. He spends his livelihood by running an auto during his free time. The circumstances gave him chance to came across the villain gang headed by Vedanayakam (Salim Ghouse) and he fought with his cruel son (Ravishankar), who has been admitted seriously in the hospital. Ravi has been taken into police custody by the corrupted ACP (Sayaji Shinde) with some false charges. He escaped from the custody and met Devaraj. He was surprised to see the true officer in such a position. The later areas showed the revenge episode and the villains were destroyed in the climax of 'Vettaikkaran'.

Like every Vijay film, here also you have an introduction song (Vijay's son also appears in few shots there). The difference is that, here you don't have Vadivelu or Vivek or Santhanam, rather the comedy sequences which comes in the first half is single handedly done by the hero himself. As usual, heroine doesn't have much to do, she is there for few scenes and the songs (her make up in some shots felt over loaded). The songs are average only, among them "karigalan..." is a catchy one. Vijay Antony had managed well in the bg score area. Action scenes by Kanal Kannan is good, especially the hero's first punch on the iron post felt different. The "puli urumuthu..." songs reminded the Rajnikanth's behavior in few areas. The choreography of the songs should have been more attractive, especially introduction song by Shoby.

Vijay has done the role in his usual style. The villain roles done by Salim Ghouse ('Thazhvaaram' fame) and new face Ravishankar (brother of telugu actor Saikumar) are also good.

The story and situations here are not new, but the new writer-director Babu Sivan had made this film exploiting the actor's image. Gopinath's cinematography is also excellent. This film is far better compared to some of the hero's previous films.

My friend's young daughter is a fan of Vijay. Every time, when she watches the hero's face on TV, she will be saying loudly," 'Kuruvi' " !!! This is where the disadvantage of the hero lies. Since Vijay can't experiment much on his appearance, it is not easy to identify the film seeing a single scene. Moreover the majority of the films had got almost identical theme. Anyway these all factors had not reduced the popularity of the star.


'Vettaikkaran' is an action masala entertainer. Those who are very particular about Vijay films can watch it for a time pass.


Rating : 7 / 10