Uthama Puthiran

Medium : Tamil
Starring : Dhanush, Genelia D'Souza, Vivek, Bhagyaraj, Ashish Vidyarthi, Ambika, Rekha
Director : Mithran Javahar
Music : Vijay Antony

Director of remakes, Mithran Javahar had come up with another one for his favorite star. This time it is 'Uthama Puthiran', borrowed from the telugu hit 'Ready' by Raam and Genelia. Previous projects from the director like 'Yaradee Nee Mohini' done by Dhanush and Nayantara (remake of 'Aadavari Matalaku Ardhalu Verule' by Venkatesh and Thrisha) and 'Kutty' done by Dhanush and Shriya Sharan (remake of 'Arya' by Allu Arjun and Anu Mehta) had done fairly well at the box office. Hence Dhanush wants to continue his luck with the same director. They had kept Genelia D'Souza ('Boyz', 'Unakkum Enakkum', 'Santhosh Subramanyam' fame) here also, the girl who acted in the original version. Vijay Antony is the msuic director and Balasubramanyam is the cinematographer.

Siva (Dhanush) and his companions are kidnapping a girl from the marriage hall for her friend. Later, he came to the know that she was not the right girl to be brought. When got up, the girl named Pooja (Genelia D'Souza), was not ready to go back and she also thanked them to take her out of a function that is not interested to her. The villains are also chasing them. Siva and Pooja spend some days and as per former's idea, she is reaching Siva's house. Her uncle (Bhagyaraj) is allowing her to stay there. Siva and Pooja stayed there without revealing others that they know each other, a love track was developing within them. At one stage, Pooja's family members reached there and take her away. How Siva got success in his love is told in a lengthy second half.

The story and the family situations here reminds us of movies like 'Unakkum Enakkum' and 'Santhosh Subramanyam' which were also telugu remakes. The heroine's character is having the flavor of those movies and Genelia had done well in charming role in her style. The family scenes sometimes felt a cinematic thing (such a big canvas is a part of the telugu industry). The second half is told in a comedy background, Vivek had stolen most of the scenes there with his performance. The cheating scenes done by the hero's family have been shown many times before.

Dhanush is ok for the role (his continuity in the appearance is affected in some areas). Ashish Vidyarthi and telugu actor Jaya Prakash Reddy who comes in the role of brothers did a good job. Master Bharath, who comes as the latter's son and his activities are good. Vijay Antony had given some fast numbers. His bg score is also good. Action scenes are not the best. Cinematography by Balasubramanyam ('Maja', 'Azhagiya Thamil Magan', 'Ninaithaale Inikkum', 'Kutty' fame) is colorful. The director should have taken care to cut short the length of the movie, which would come nearing three hours. Comparing the two, I felt that the original version is the
best.

'Uthama Puthiran' is a family entertainer having ingredients like comedy, songs, dances, fights, sentiments etc.


Rating : 6.5 / 10

Angaaditheru

Medium : Tamil
Starring : Mahesh, Anjali, Paandi, A.Venkitesh
Director : Vasantha Balan
Music : Vijay Antony, G.V.Prakashkumar

Director Vasantha Balan, who has given the romantic family story in his debut hit movie 'Veyil' (done by Pasupathi, Bharath and Bhavana, produced by director Shankar) has come up with new project named 'Angaaditheru' meaning Market Street. This time Ayngaran International has produced the movie, new comer Mahesh and Anjali (she did some films in telugu, kannada and tamil, but didn't get a break so far) comes in the lead roles. The story is happening in the background of a big shop in T.Nagar, the biggest commercial street in Tamilnadu. The distributors has not yet taken steps to release 'Angaaditheru' in Kerala, even if it has been released months before and caught many positive responses there, I waited patiently for weeks, then found my own ways to watch it.

Linkam (Mahesh) is a bright student living in a poor family in a village near Thirunelveli. After the death of his father, he moved on to Chennai with his friend (Paandi) to work as a sales men in a big shop. The free accommodation and food were given to all laborers by the shop owner. They all adjusted with in the very limited environment provided to them. Mahesh meets Kani (Anjali), a sales girl who is a native of Thiruchendur. Though they quarreled each other for simple things in the beginning, circumstances make the way to become close to each other. The manager (A.Venkitesh) was very strict at the shop proceedings and behaved rudely and even slapped the workers there. At one stage Mahesh had to fight with him for the sake of Anjali. How the lovers survives in such a situation is shown in the later portions of 'Angaaditheru'.

We usually blame for the lack of a good stories in our movies. You look around, the is life in each and every individual that can be converted to a good story, this is what director Vasantha Balan has done here. We all do shopping and met many sales persons in our day today life, but nobody had tried to think about the sort of life these workers are spending. The incidents happening in the street are realistically done by the director. The behavior of the manager, the incident happened when the love letter was caught, the intimacy in relationship between Anjali and her sister, the shooting of the shop advertisement, the pathetic condition of an ex salesman, the happiness of the street lady when she gave birth to a son who looks like his handicapped husband, how the poor shabby person finds his own job as the in charge of the public toilet, the motivation done by the blind sales man etc. The director might have given an exaggerated picture of the mess environment, but since we are not aware of the real situation, no negative comments on it.

The melody numbers done by music directors Vijay Antony and G.V.Prakashkumar are good. Back ground score by Vijay Antony is excellent. Debutant cinematographer Richard Maria Nathan and Sreekar Prasad (editor) have done commentable jobs. Mahesh, Anjali and Paandi have done their job well. The surprise peformance came from director A.Venkitesh ('Bhagavathy', 'Kuthu', 'Aye', 'Chanakya', 'Vaathiyar' fame) who comes in the negative role of the shop manager. The created sets and the real outdoor locations of the street have been so neatly blended in such a away that it is difficult to differentiate between the two.


'Angaaditheru' is a simple subject done in the best way it can. It is also a part of the big experimentation in finding unique themes, happening in the tamil movie industry in this decade.


Rating : 8 / 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

Ninaithaale Inikkum

Medium : Tamil
Starring : Prithviraj, Sakthi, Karthik Kumar, Priyamani, Bhagyaraj
Director : Kumaravel
Music : Vijay Antony

'Ninaithaale Inikkum' is the name of a super hit film in the olden days acted by Kamalhassan ans Rajnikanth. Not only this, there are many other factors that has made this project big. 'Ninaithaale Inikkum' is the remake of malayalam super hit film 'Classmates'. The film is produced by Gemini Film Circuit and another biggies in the current industry, Sun Pictures distributes the film after 'Ayan' and 'Maasilamani'. Usually we have seen many examples where heroine doing the same roles in both languages. Shalini ('Niram' and 'Piriyathe Varam Vendum' ), Kavya Madhavan ('Oomappenninu Uriyaadappayyan' and 'En Mana Vaanil'), Trisha ('Nuvvasthonthe Ninnoduthana' and 'Something Something Unakkum Enakkum'), Asin ('Gajini', both versions) etc. But, Prithviraj got a chance to repeat his role in the tamil version of 'Classmates' also.


The story is not changed in the new version also. The friendship is the main thing higlighted here. They had change the situations where the incidents are happening. The flashback is shown during the flight journey. Some songs and fight songs has been added. The main story happens 8years before in a college where all the characters are studying. There, you are having friendship, hatred, love, competetion, success, failures etc. Now in the current period, they all assembles in their college again in memory of their beloved friend who left them years ago and the real truth between some contreversial incidents happened in those days were revealed.


'Ninaithaale Inikkum' stands below 'Classmates' in all aspects. The genuineness and the stability in the friendship or the feelings related to each and every characters is not evident here. The hatred and romance between Prithviraj and Priymani's charecters is not shown clearly. The sympathy that is obtained for Narain's role won't be there for Sakthi (son of director P.Vasu). Razia's character is also not pleasing as the original one. There is no difference felt in the appearance of all the charecters (excluding the hero) even after 8 years, which can be shown as a failure on the make up section. The director had tried to show the scene in which the friends watching the film 'Kushi' to give an idea about the period in which the story happens; but that won't be enough to give a nostalgic feeling about the past days (it was there in the original version). Even the hostel scenes where not shown seriously. Prithviraj has done well, but the national award winning girl, Priyamani didn't have much to perform here.


Half of the songs have got the colorful visuals it demanded. Music director Vijay Antony ("nakku mukku..', "dialamo dialamo..." fame) had got the songs in his style. Since the distributors had got their own tv channel, they will make them hit by playing repeatedly. Cinematographer Balasubramanyam had given colorful visuals.


'Ninaithaale Inikkum' is an youthful film which has got every ingredients needed. If you have seen its original version, then it is more than enough.


Rating : 6.5 / 10