Naan Mahaan Allai

Medium : Tamil
Starring : Karthi, Kajal Agarwal, Jayaprakash, Soori
Director : Suseendran
Music : Yuvan Shankar Raja

Director of super hit movie 'Vennila Kabadi Kuzhu', Suseendran is back with his 2nd project. This time he took a city based subject with Karthi and Kajal Agarwal in the lead roles. Karthi is here after enjoying the success of 'Paiyya'. Though a pupular figure in telugu, Kajal Agarwal ('Magadheera' & 'Darling' fame), has not got any big break in tamil so far, her pevious movies in lead roles being 'Modhi Vilayaadu' & 'Pazhani'. The title, 'Naan Mahaan Allai' is borrowed from a Rajnikanth starrer movie in the 80's. Dayanidhi Azhagiri for Clud Nine banner, has distributed this movie.

Jeeva (Karthi) is an easy going guy who is not interested in doing job and earn money. He lives happily with his father (Jayaprakash), a call taxi driver, mother and sister. He met Priya (Kajal Agarwal) in a marriage function, which later developed into love. As per advice of her father, he started doing job. He was not at all serious in his life until his father met with an accident and had to take bed rest for quite sometime. It has changed Jeeva's life pattern. At one stage Priya's father, who is a leading lawyer, stood against her relationship with Jeeva that later developed into a series of incidents.

The specialty of 'Naan Mahaan Allai' stands in the way in which it is presented. Director Suseendran needs special appreciation for developing two separate tracks in the story which meets at a certain point in the second half. The characterization of the new faces who comes in the negative roles are also different. The comedy situations shown in the movie are also good. The main attraction lies in the natural action sequences directed by Anal Arasu. The whole episode gives us a breathless feel. The violence shown in the movie is too realistic and heavy, since it is an adaptation from the happenings in the real world, no need to raise complaint. Cinematographer Madhi ('Paiyya' & 'Nepali' fame) did a good job, so as editor Kasi Viswanathan.

Karthi is good in the lead role. The jolly type character is developed in an attractive manner. His chemistry with Kajal Agarwal is impressive. Jayaprakash ('Nadodikal' & 'Pasanga' fame) did the lovable father role with ease. Another big name to be pointed out is the music director Yuvan Shankar Raja, who gave the 'life' for the movie with an excellent background score; a couple of songs are also good.

'Naan Mahaan Allai' is a real time pass. It starts slowly with a romance, emotionally travels through the second half to reach its real pace towards the later portions.

Rating : 8 / 10

Paiyya

Medium : Tamil
Starring : Karthi, Thamanna, Milind Soman
Director : Lingusamy
Music : Yuvan Shankar Raja

Karthi, younger brother of actor Soorya, has done the lead role in 'Piyya', after films like 'Paruthiveeran' and 'Aayirathil Oruvan'. So, this is the first modern youthful role for the hero. Thamanna, who acted in films like 'Kalloori', 'Ayan', 'Padikkathavan', 'Kandein Kathale' etc has acted opposite him. She will rise as a successful heroine in the south, with films like 'Thillalangadi' with Jayam Ravi, 'Sura' with Vijay also has to be released soon. After 'Pachaikkili Muthuchiram', once again Mumbai model Milind Soman comes to the south for doing a special role here. After giving films like 'Aanandam', 'Run', 'Sandaikkozhi', 'Ji' and 'Bheema', Director Lingusamy has come up with this new project. It is produced by Thirupathi Brothers (director's brothers) and distributed by Dayanidhi Azhagiri under the banner Cloud Nine, after giving the super hit film 'Thamizhppadam'. The younger representative from the 'Raja' family, Yuvan Shankar Raja, who worked with the same director for 'Sandaikkozhi', is the music director in 'Paiyya'.

Shiva (Karthi) searching job in Bangalore. There he sees Chaaru (Thamanna), happens 'love at first sight'. On one such occasion, he even left the office without attending an interview, when he saw her passing by that way. One day, while waiting for her friend with the car in the railway station, she and his uncle came, asking for a trip to Chennai by misunderstanding him as a taxi driver; seeing the girl he agrees. On the way, when the uncle got down at petrol bunk, she requested him to take her alone. She asked him to take her to Mumbai. She told the reason why a gang is following her. On the contrast, another group from Mumbai is in search of the hero. They found him on the way, but he got succeeded in winning them physically. Shiva's flashback is shown in the second half. During the journey, Shiva and Chaaru became close to each other. Finally they reaches the destination and what happens to their relationship is shown in the climax of 'Paiyya'.

The way in which the hero seeing the heroine in many places in the beginning, is a cliche. After being departed, once again hero finds her standing in the street in the later portion, is a cinematic coincidence. The scene in which painting is done on the car to save from the villain gangs should have been done on a more realistic way. In the climax fight, villain hitting the hero to the maximum and then hero arises from that position, has happened in Indian films unlimited number of times. Karthi is not flexible in the songs and dancing sequences; he needs more practice in such an area. A couple of songs in the post interval area happens in short intervals, which can make few audiences restless.

Hope you remember the thrilling action sequences in 'Run' composed by the debutant Peter Hain; this time director has asked Peter's guru Kanal Kannan, an experienced one in the field, to repeat the same thrilling effect on the action sequences. As expected the output is extra ordinary, the best of this kind we have seen in the recent past. Almost all the songs by Yuvan Shankar Raja are good and his background score is excellent to give a good pace. This is cinematographer Madhi's best work after doing films like 'Veyil', 'Nepali' and 'Silambattom'. He gave some colorful visuals, most of the scenes inside the car (tough task for a person behind the camera) are portrayed well. The most expensive editor in the south, Anthony, gave a good support in 'Paiyya' with his fast cuts. After the big flop 'Bheema', though there are some hurdles here and there in this story and its presentation, director Lingusamy can relax to a certain extend, by giving a road movie like 'Paiyya'.

'Paiyya' is a time pass movie, mixed with romance, good songs and excellent action scenes. No need to rethink on the logic in its theme, you can watch it once.

Rating : 7.5 / 10

Aayirathil Oruvan

Medium : Tamil
Starring : Karthi, Parthipan, Rima Sen, Andrea
Director : Selvaraghavan
Music : G.V.Prakash Kumar

As a viewer, I was having expectations on the movie 'Aayirathil Oruvan' for some reasons. It is director Selvaraghavan's new project after giving notable films like 'Kathal Kondein', '7G Rainbow Colony' and 'Puthuppettai' and it is the second film for actor Karthi (Surya's brother), after 'Paruthiveeran'. Also the news regarding the unusual theme of the film related to the 12th century and shooting of the particular film that happened for around three years created the hype. It was heard that a tug of war happened between Selva and his favorite music director Yuvan Shankar Raja at the composing time and G.V.Prakash Kumar came in place of Yuvan, who stepped out of the project.

The film opens when the Govt appoints a team (lead by Rima Sen, Azhagamperumal etc) to find out the missing archeologist (Prathap Pothen). They had got a helper (Karthi) and the daughter (Andrea) also joins the group to find his father. Another aim of this journey was to find out the remainings of the old Chola civilization. The journey started with a group comprising of many members. On the way, they have to face many hazards and difficulties. They were attacked by some unusual creatures in the ocean, they have to fight against the tribal people who lived in the forest, many poisonous snakes attacked them, they have to face some magical happenings in the desert, they spent days without food or water and in the end when they were able to reach their destination, only a few people (hero and the two heroines) remained in the group.

After this portion, whatever happens here is not convincing and also not understandable to me...

From there the story takes a twist and these people get into the hands of the king (Parthipan) along with his people who were living there. They were taken into captivity. The people in that area is having an unusual dark looks like the tribal people, they are shown as man-eaters also. They tried to kill them, but for some reasons, they can't (?). The missing archeologist was found in their custody. The army reaches there, a war happens between them and the king's group. In the end, victory is for the army, the king and his remaining people were taken into the custody. They were also killed on the way, some committed suicide.

The end frame has got hero running with a child in his hand, written in the frame as "the journey will be continued...!!!" What does the director mean by that ?

Cinematographer Ramji and Editor Kola Bhaskar had done an excellent job here. Bg score by G.V.Prakash Kumar is also good. Fight master (late) Rambo Rajkumar had also done some serious job here. Prime Focus had also got a bunch of visual effects scenes to do. Karthi had done his character similar to that of 'Paruthiveeran'. Andrea ('Pachaikkili Muthuchiram' fame) and Rima Sen are also good in their roles.

It is sad to see that such an enormous amount of time and a mega budget has been wasted for such a project. A new actor like Karthi also have a long gap after his first film and he also might have faced difficulties in arranging dates for another film, which has been blocked by the director here. It is definitely a different attempt by the script writer - director Selvaraghavan. But if it is not clearly communicating with the audience, then what is the use. The end product which has got a length of almost 3hours, raises a bulk of questions, which I think, no one can answer at this time.

'Aayirathil Oruvan' is one such movie I saw in my life, where I don't understand the story or the sense in the majority of incidents associated with it. I was looking at the watch every minute, to get out of the theater in the second half...

Rating : 3 / 10