Manmadan Ambu

Medium : Tamil
Starring : Kamalhassan, Madhavan, Kunjan, Trisha, Sangeetha, Urvashi, Manju Pillai
Director : K.S.Ravikumar
Music : Devisree Prasad

Universal Hero Kamalhassan's new venture 'Manmadan Ambu' has got some peculiarities to be noted. After 'Unnaippol Oruvan', (not the best remake of a neatly made hindi movie 'A Wednesday'), this is Kamal's next release. K.S.Ravikumar is directing the hero after both of them did movies like 'Avvai Shanmughi', 'Panchathanthiram', 'Thenali' and 'Dasaavatharam' before. Madhavan is acting with Kamal after 'Anbe Sivam'. This is Trisha's first chance to act in a Kamal movie. Young music director from telugu, Devisree Prasad ('Singam', 'Kanthasamy, 'Santhosh Subramanyam' fame) also got the lucky chance to do a Kamal movie for the first time. Malayalam actors Kunjan and Manju Pillai are placed in roles that comes through out the movie here and there. Young and big producer Udaynidhi Stalin has produced this movie under the banner Red Giant Movies. This is the first tamil movie where the majority of the portions is shot in a cruise ship. New comers Manush Nandan and Shaan Mohammed were given the major roles to do the cinematography and editing parts. The scripting of the movie is done by the hero himself.

Nisha (Trisha) is a leading actress who got engaged with Madan (Madhavan), a rich business man. He is not interested in allowing her to continue the profession after marriage. She defended it, the difference in opinion caused a split up between the two. After three years, she is on a trip to London to meet her friend Deepa (Sangeetha). Madan still doubts that his fiancee might be having an affair with some one else. He is appointing a private detective, Major Mannar (Kamalhassan) to watch her proceedings and give updates. Nisha joins Deepa with her kids for traveling in a cruise ship, Major follows them. What is the feedback obtained to Madan, what happens to Major etc are the portions through which the story travels in rest of the part.

When Kamalhassan joins with K.S.Ravikumar, you will naturally expect many humor oriented situations happened in the case of 'Panchathanthiram' or 'Thenali'. Here, such situations are coming in the end portions of the second half only, that too are not shown in the best way. The major drawback of the movie is the spot sound. The facility of using the sounds on location can give a natural feel, but the additions of noise and the cross talking in few areas had affected badly. As a result, you are not able to understand few humor dialogues in between (Adding more situation comedy scenes accompanied with necessary sound effects and punching bg score, should have given a good output for the movie).

While drunk, Madhavan's dialogues are not conveyed properly. The taxi driver's talk in the beginning, tv scenes in the bar episode featuring Madhavan and friends, a couple of scenes featuring Madhavan and police persons etc are those areas that are not presented neatly. The continuity of the movie is lost in certain portions. The confusion drama set in the climax scene has not created the required tempo, some dialogues caused big laughs, while there are many that left unnoticed. The story is not ended in the best way. The necessity of malayalam actors Kunjan and Manju Pillai in such a story is not understood. The need for three action directors in the movie can be questioned as you have got a small action sequence in the hero's introduction scene only.

The story is good. Even though you have got some problems in the execution side, the movie is not a boring one. Nearing the 60's, Kamalhassan is there in his usual style, he has got a couple of sad situations also to do. Trisha has done well, after giving a good performance in 'Vinnaithaandi Varuvaayaa'. Madhavan and Sangeetha are ok. Her combination scenes with Trisha is good. The first song 'Oyyale...' is notable due to its presentation. 'Dhagidu Dhattam...' song is placed in a correct situation. 'Neela Vaanam...' song won't sounds excellent in Kamal's voice, but the song sequence featuring the hero's story is done in an excellent way. The scenes featuring the hero's friend and his wife are shown in a touching way. Manush Nandan's cinematography is colorful, especially the foreign locations, the helicopter shots and the cruise scenes are shown good. Editor Shaan Mohammed has done his duty well.

'Manmadan Ambu' has not reached up to the expectation created by Kamalhassan - K.S.Ravikumar combination before; a hard core fan of Kamal and a regular follower of kollywood comedy flicks can watch it.

Rating : 6 / 10

Jaggubhai

Medium : Tamil
Starring : Sharath Kumar, Goundamani, Shriya Sharan
Director : K.S.Ravikumar
Music : Rafi

The film 'Jaggubhai' was in the news recently, as the pirated CDs of the film were available in markets, even a month before its release. Sharath Kumar and his wife Radhika, who is also the producer of the film, supported by the whole film industry asked the help of the government. As a result of the police action, some of the culprits were jailed. We always tells about the influence of piracy in affecting the business of a movie after its release, but in the case of 'Jaggubhai', it was un believable, as the pirated CDs got released well before the film got released, it shows the deep roots of the cancer that affected the movie medium in the past decade.

Before doing films like 'Sivaji - The Boss' and 'Kuselan', Superstar Rajnikanth was actually planning to do a film for director K.S.Ravikumar with the name 'Jaggubhai'.But due to some reasons, it didn't happened and the director might have taken the name for his new film, probably with a new theme. This is the second time that Sharath Kumar is getting a chance to act in a movie rejected by the Superstar, the previous one being 'Ayya' (director Hari) which was also not originally framed for him.

In the film, Jagannathan (Sharath Kumar) is an IPS officer. His senior (Vijayakumar) always asked him to get married to a bar dancer (Kiran), who is madly loving him. He always refuses the request as he is still having memories of his lover who is in abroad now. One day, he gets a call from a lawyer in Australia, who asks him to reach there immediately, as his lover got died in an accident. He reaches Australia and came to know about the last wish of his lover. He realizes that he is having a daughter (Shriya Sharan) in his lover and Jagannathan alias Jaggubhai became the care taker of the girl, without revealing his identity. He got the help of his friend (Goundamani), who is working in the police department. He saw the villain gang chasing his daughter always and also came to know that his lover was actually killed. How he safe guard his daughter from the baddies is shown here.

More than 95% of 'Jaggubhai', happens in Australia. Shriya Sharan in the daughter's role is glamorous and also has a freak and flirt attitude in her character. The director has even asked her to do fashion show rehearsals in front of his father. Goundamani as hero's companion is not flexible, his witty dialogues didn't have an effect here. The villain character is not strong and the new face who did it is not impressive. It look like, the director is still wandering with the hangover of his previous film 'Aadhavan', seeing the climax. Such a scene in the air, featuring the hero, heroine and the villain hanging in the helicopter, is a style of films in the 80's. Songs by the new music director Rafi is not at all up to the mark. RD Rajasekhar is the cinematographer here. Don Max is the editor.



I feel sad for the producer and the team behind 'Jaggubhai'. The issue of piracy was the first blow affected them, next one being the outcome of the movie, which is also not a positive one...


Rating : 4.5 / 10

Aadhavan

Medium : Tamil
Stariing : Soorya, Murali, Vadivelu, Nayantara, Rahuldev, Sayaji Shinde
Direction : KS Ravikumar
Music : Harris Jayaraj

The popularity of a hero in any language changes, due to which his stardom may increase , it all happens within a matter of time. It is evident in the case of Soorya. Born as the son of yesteryear actor Sivakumar, the young star didn't have much hits to his credit alone, until the release of 'Ghajini'. Later came films like 'Perazhakan' and 'Vaaranam Aayiram' which proved his caliber in acting. The value of the hero is really understood when an average film like 'Ayan' also became a super hit. In the middle, the fell down of Vijay and Ajith films have helped the young man to rise up. Now his latest film 'Aadhavan' is released with a big opening. Also the dances by the crowd inside the theater shows that Surya has got big fans in our state.


Super hit director KS Ravikumar has directed the film. Those who have not heard this name before should know that he is the director of big films like 'Naattaamai', 'Muthu', 'Avvaishanmukhi', 'Padayappa', 'Thenali', Dasavatharam' etc. Since Sun Pictures is already a big production banner, their rivals in the field had also decided to enter the big screen and thus Udyanithi Stalin, the younger member of Mr.Karunidhi's family has produced the movie. Music is given by the hero's favorite music director Harris Jayaraj. R.Ganesh is the cinematographer and this is another work by editor Donmax in tamil after 'Silambattom'.


The film starts with the introduction of the hero through a fighting sequence, the title credits gives the maximum boost for his heroism, followed by a song. He works for the Bhai (Sayaji Shinde) gang in Calcutta. He is shown as a professional killer. His latest assignment is to kill a judge (Murali), who is the head of an enquiry commission. Though he tried, his attempt is failed in the first time. Now he is decided to complete the mission within 10days and thus reached the target place. What happens in between these days is what shown through the film 'Aadhavan' which is presented in KS Ravikumar's style with a mix of comedy, romance, songs, dance, action with a couple of suspense elements later.


However, the climax sequences of the film have got the touch of an old masala movie. Also the majority of the scenes happening inside a house, won't give the freshness as expected. The usage of old songs by MGR and the scenes regarding Ramesh Khanna, who is also the story writer won't be easily accepted here. The combination of Vadivelu with Soorya has given many comic situations here and there. I usually love to watch such comedy sequences in tamil. I am doubtful whether an average viewer or a die hard fan of Soorya will accept such situations. The scenes inside the judge's house resembles director's old film with Arjun, 'Kondattam'. Like before, this time also the director appears after the climax scene; here the young producer also accompanies him. That area is too lengthy and it gives us restlessness in the end also. An average malayalee won't have any nostalgic feeling seeing the old actress Sarojadevi in a major role.


Soorya did well in the main role. He has performed well in the songs and some of them are visualized in the style of recent films by the same hero. As usual Nayantara is not confident in dance scenes. This is the last film for malayalam actor, late Murali who comes in a character role. Songs by Harris Jayaraj is not popular like the hero's previous films, which can also affect the project.


The action scenes by Kanal Kannan and Farnz (Australia) is fast. The visuals captured by cameraman Ganesh are colorful. The visual effects done in making the hero looks like a young boy is ok and it is maintained well using cut shots; for such a different effort small negatives in it can be pardoned.


Compared to the very recent films by the hero, 'Aadhavan' is not the best. The tempo created in the beginning is also lost in the second half which affected the outcome of the project; but you can watch it for the rising star Soorya.


Rating : 6.5 / 10