Kadal... Manirathnam's Movie...

.

Manirathnam, movie 'Kadal' had been featuring in many magazines before its release.  Very rarely we go to a movie so early after its release.  This movie is playing in a nearby theatre, a good theatre (Old Thyagaraja, now into Sathyam theatres group) and so I went with my relatives, yesterday.

The first scene itself shocked me...I felt as if I was watching an English movie!

Old Tamil Actor Karthik's son, Gautham,  is playing the lead role of Thomas, a prostitute's son, living in a fishermen's hamlet.  The next scene of the fish market is very natural.  Their, fishermen's  slang...you can learn some swear words in Tamil(!) and the expectation of a good movie develops. No, not because of the swear words but because of the natural acting of the fishermen characters! You can see these characters near Thiruvanmiyur beach, which is just a few kilometres from our area!  Then the priest Arvindswamy enters...and the expectations develop still more! Then the story begins.  The story is mainly about the rivalry between Arvindswamy  (Sam, the priest) and his childhood friend, Arjun (Berchmans, the villain).  The character of Thomas  gives a bit different angle to this story.  His rogue-like character changes the routine for some extent.  Then comes the heroine (!) of the film, Beatrice,  which is played by the old Tamil actor Radha's daughter Tulasi.  Because of some childhood trauma she gets upset often and Thomas is trying to help her.  Now, let me not write 'spoilers'!

The best things in the movie is, Arvindsway...his acting is very good. He has come back to acting after 12 years!

Arjun, is a good actor and plays the negative role very well.

Gautham, has done a good job.  He was trained in an acting workshop before the shooting for  this movie it seems, along with Tulasi.

Tulasi, hasn't got much scope for acting...a plump 16 year old girl!

THE AREA I liked the most in this movie is Rajiv Menon's Cinematography! I thought I was watching an English movie.  The climax scene in the sea is THE best.  I can still visualise it today.  Beautiful! Tsunami waves were used in this scene, it seems.

The dialogue by Jeyamohan is good.

A.R. Rahman's music is good.  I loved 3 songs.  Vairamuththu and his son's lyrics are very good. Others, OK!

The weak part is the STORY! Nothing is new there.  No Manirathnam's touch except in a few scenes.

Next weak part is, the fishermen's coloquial language. Though I know Madras Tamil very well, I was not able to follow their language in many parts.  Too fast for us to decipher!  And A.R. Rahman's background music didn't help  us to understand the language...it was a bit loud!

The whole movie is based on Christian Fisher folks.  So, the Christian community has lifted the flag of protest now (link here).  Already the bad precedent of banning 'Vishwaroopam'  because of the Muslim protest, is hovering, though it is cleared now with major cuts! Manirathnam is lucky, the movie is already released. The last scene of the Christian festival is new to me and looked nice.

Now, here are some songs from the movie:

This is a good song sung by Rahman himself.  You can have a taste of the movie here.  I couldn't get the whole song.  Notice the picturization.  Beautiful.





I liked this song first in MTV unplugged prog.  Have a look at the song by the creator Rahman and singer,  Shaktisree (lovely voice). You don't need to know the language.  The song is a background song in the movie, though.  So, we were not able to enjoy it there.  The tune is very good to the ears:





Lyrics by Vairamuththu in this song is good. Rahman's tune is perfect for the mood.

This is one more trailer of the movie:





Well...the verdict is, you can watch this movie once, if you know Tamil very well! Or watch it once for the beautiful climax scene!
 


Poster courtesy: Google

I Want To Add This Man In My People Whom I Admire List!

.

Our whole family had been fans of this man for so many years now! We have watched many of his films in theatres which is a rare thing now, since we get everything...DVDs in our doorstep.  He was always experimenting new things in making films, in acting, in singing etc. I am talking about our Kamal Haasan, the actor, director, singer of Indian Cinema! Many times he had lost lots of money...still he has not stopped experimenting.  Even now, he is into a new experiment, with the movie  'Vishwaroopam'  The release date is again posptponed in Tamilnadu! Is it  Politics or the muslim agitation which is stopping this ? Both, they say.  We had watched so many movies with terrorist background.  Why this new agitation?  God only knows...sorry, Kamal is a 'non-believer'...He has nearly pleaded to the muslim agitators (which is a very tiny percentage of the muslim population here in Tamilnadu)saying that the muslim character in the film is a good muslim one.  The tiny percentage is affecting the whole muslim people's reputation. Rajinikanth gave a supporting statement only yesterday.  Others are keeping mum.

Now, to some of my favourite songs from his films! All the best, Kamal...waiting to watch the movie!

1. This is not the first time I am mentioning this song as my favourite! I love this song and Kamal's  acting!  The film is, 'Guna'!





2.  Kamal had said that this is one of his favourite movie! He had produced this movie, Raaja Paarvai and acted like a blind man...one of his best movies ever with Ilayaraja's lovely music!





3. I love this song and never get bored of watching this! The film is, 'Michael Madana Kamarajan'





4. This is one of my favourite film of Kamal.  He is entirely different here.  The film is 'Anbe Sivam':





5. You can see the baby Kamal Haasan (just 6 years old!) here! Take note of his expression and the film is 'Kalaththur Kannamma' 


 

6. '16 vayathinile'...this was a very different movie of Bharatiraaja.  I think Kamal started acting 'differently' from this movie.  You can see a very young Kamal and Sridevi in this movie and they became a hit pair after this and acted together in many movies!





7. 'Salangai Oli' This movie showed Kamal as a dancer which he really is! It was a famous movie in those days.  Have look at this song:





8. 'Avvai Shanmugi' A re-make of 'Mrs. Doubtfire' - made to suite Indian audience.  The Hindi version was 'Chachi 420' which got Kamal a good name in the Hindi belt. Kamal acted very well in this movie.  I am not very fond of this song.  But you can see a 'different' Kamal here:




9.  'Thenaali' This is a hilarious but 'different' movie.  Kamal speaks Sri Lankan Tamil and the acting is superb! I watch it again and again!





After '16 vayadhinile' in most of his movies, he did something 'new'. I should mention director Shankar's 'Indian', Mani Rathnam's 'Nayagan', K.S.Ravikumar's 'Sathi Leelavathi' (comedy), 'Apoorva Sahodarargal' in which he acted as a circus dwarf and Balu Mahendra's 'Moondram Pirai' (Sadma in Hindi).  I liked 'Unnal mudiyum Thambi', 'Nammavar', 'Pammal K.Sambandam', 'Virumaandi'. 'Thevar Magan' was one of his best movies with Sivaji Ganesan.  They competed with each other in acting. Wikipedia says he won 19 Filmfare awards apart from 4 national Awards. Have you watched his silent movie,  'Pushpak'? You will know his calibre there.  'Mahanadhi' was one of his classic movie. The story is so strong that I get upset whenever I see this movie.  His acting is superb in this movie.

I have got a longer list of Kamal's songs, but I have given importance here to the different roles he played in different movies. We should be proud of him, instead he is being punished for experimenting different types of cinemas.  I heard from a relative of mine that her relatives are going by two cars to Bangalore to view Viswaroopam!  Problems are there for screening this movie in Kochi and Hyderabad also, it seems. He had screened this film to the agitating muslim group, last week according to their time.  He let them do namaaz in his office itself because it was time for evening namaaz, before watching the movie. I feel very sorry for him. This is just a movie, people! He is an extraordinary actor.  Support him!

10.Well...let me show a normal Kamal Haasan song, no, two songs(!) in which a beautiful Sridevi also acts! This movie, 'Varumayin niram sivappu' was also a most talked about movie of Kamal! His acting was superb in this K.Balachandar movie!  The second one is from 'Moondram Pirai' (Sadma in Hindi). Now, to the songs!






 

Hope you enjoyed this post! You can add your favourite Kamal song in the comment section please!

Hope he comes out of the current problem without much hassle.  Reviews seem to be positive.  The movie is running full houses in Hyderabad.


EDITED TO ADD ON 30.1.13:  This should not happen to him, he doesn't deserve this.

Reacting to the controversy surrounding the film, Leela Samson, chairperson of the Central Board of Film Certification, said that it was 'unjustified'.

"This puts the entire film industry and the artistic creative spirit of Indian people under a strain. How will people express themselves freely? And he (Haasan) is not irresponsible. I have seen a lot of irresponsible film but this is not one. So I think it is absolutely unjustified," Samson said.
http://www.rediff.com/movies/report/emotional-kamal-haasan-says-tamil-nadu-does-not-want-him/20130130.htm

EDITED TO ADD ON 1.2.13: 

As soon as I woke up in the morning, I remembered the Vishwaroopam controversy! What is happening is not good. This is not good for us Indians. Kamal is ready to cut more portions from the film. This is going to be a bad precedent. Jaya is not doing the right thing. Her name is maligned now in the whole country. A fraction of muslims is promoting hatred for other peace loving muslims too. I have muslim friends but all are normal people like us. God save us and our country. Feel sorry for ourselves. Have a look at this  http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Vishwaroopam-row-How-the-truce-came-about/articleshow/18283262.cms

 

Two Movies' Review!

I have never watched two movies in 3 days in my life until now...I watched a Tamil movie, 'Kaadalil sodappuvathu yeppadi', on Sunday and a Hindi movie, 'Kahaani', today, i.e. Tuesday! I liked the Tamil one a lot and the Hindi movie just 'one time watch' movie!

Let me tell you about today's movie first...Kahaani.  It had rave reviews everywhere.  This is totally a Vidya Baalan movie.  The hero, or the male main character, Parambrata Chatterjee, a new face also has acted very well.                       

The story goes like this: Vidya Balan, a Tamil girl married to a Bengali, both software engineers, live in London.  The husband comes to India, (Kolkata), on an assignment and goes missing.  He was keeping contact with her for about two weeks, speaks to her continuously, then no contact at all.  Vidya Baalan,  7 months pregnant now (film name Vidya Bagchi which was pronounced as Bidya Bagchi by Kolkatans), comes to Kolkata in search of him and how much trouble she gets into, is the story.  To give colour, she comes during the famous Dusshera festival of Kolkata!  This is a 100%,  thriller.

I liked the way, Parambrata Chatterjee, a police officer who helps Vidya in her search, gets attracted to her though it is shown subtly, was not elaborated, which I liked a lot.   Vidya Baalan, everybody knows now, is a very good actress and has done very well here too. The director of the movie is Sujoy Ghosh.  But for a Hindi movie, this is a good thriller.

This is not going to be an unforgettable movie. Music is just OK.  But I liked this song of Amitabh, a Bengali song (Robindra sangeeth?) which was played in the end, a lot. Music directors,  Vishal and Shekhar have done well here:



The movie I watched on Sunday was a Tamil one, 'Kaadalil sodappuvathu yeppadi' .  I loved this movie.  The hero of the movie is Siddharth who acted in 'Rang de Basanthi' .  His acting is superb here, in this movie.  The actress, I am seeing her for the first time, Amla Paul also has done her role very well. The story is a simple one.  The hero tells us how he bungled in his love affair.  He tells about his friends' experience also in their affairs.  The whole theatre was laughing for each and every sentence/dialogue.  This is a simple movie but taken interestingly.  Sometimes I felt as if my dialogue with my husband was repeated there! We have fights like these at home! If you follow Tamil very well, don't miss it.  I noticed repeat crowd since the dialogues were shouted before they came in the screen!

Both hero and heroine did not have much make up also.  They were looking very homely and natural which is very rare in our movies! I knew that Siddharth was a good actor but Amala Pal also has acted well here, it was not looking like acting at all! This is being re-made in Hindi too, I read somewhere.  Ranbir Kapoor would suit well for Siddharth's role!

The director of the movie is R.Balaji.  This is his debut movie.  You can know more about him from my blogger friend, Kanagu's review of this movie here.  In fact I went to this movie because of his recommendation!

Have a look at this video sample and you will love it:

P.S.: For once, both are clean movies. We can watch with the family, one thriller and one romance! Both films are box office hits! (Wrote this morning of 18th April, '12)
.
Images courtesy: Google
.

'Karnan', The 1963 Tamil Classic Movie Part II - Theatre Experience!

We went to the theatre and watched 'Karnan', the famous Tamil movie classic, yesterday! I have already written about this movie here.  Like they did with Mughal-e-azam, this, 1963 movie has been digitalised and screened now.

We went to Sathyam theatre, here, in Chennai, which was houseful on a working day! The audience was mostly of elderly people and some came with small kids, one, with a 2-3 month old baby! It was very very cold inside the theatre during the second half of the movie.  The vegetable puff, the theatre sold was salty (Rs.40!) and the muffin was cold and tasteless. We used to love their puffs until a few years back.  This theatre has got many screens, but Sathyam is the biggest and it had been full for this movie for the past many days, I was told! They have got huge parking lot and online booking service makes going to this theatre, a pleasure.  The food in their small restaurant is very good.  As it is now with all the latest multi-plexes, the sound system is very good.  It was not hitting the ears.

I told my husband that I wanted to watch this movie in the theatre just to look at the eyes of Shivaji Ganesan! I really enjoyed watching him in his famous role.  The first half of the movie was not very clear - it rained in the screen - looked like a typical old movie.  We were not very happy with the sound of the dialogues also. They were not very clear. But the second half which is mostly about the Mahabharata war, was very clear and beautiful.  We can watch this movie just for the second half and the songs! MS Viswanathan-Ramamurthy's music to Kavi Arasu Kannadasan's lyrics... ever greens!

The second half looked like digitally mastered and very clear.  The war scenes were superb! Quite huge armies of elephants (each and every elephant had minute drawings on their faces!) and horses were used.  Overlapping war scenes were beautiful! B.R. Pantulu, the director must have spent a lot of money for this war scene alone.  Many soldiers from our Indian Army were used (read from my earlier post on this subject).  So many colourful chariots!

Actor Savithri Ganesan (Duryodhana's wife in the movie and Gemini Ganesan's name is included with hers in the title!) is beautiful and her Tamil is superb.  She has justified for her title as 'nadigaiyar thilakam' and everybody knows about Shivaji's acting, the 'nadigar thilakam'!  Asokan, the famous actor who was famous for his roles as villain, did very well here as Duryodhana. 

The best was NT Rama Rao, the late-Telugu super star.  I know that he studied here, in Chennai.  Still, I am amazed at his dialogue delivery in Tamil and his acting was superb. I must mention about Kunti, Karnan's mother (M.V.Rajamma).  Nobody else would have done justice to Kunti's role other than her.

I liked the audience yesterday.  Many claps were heard for the way Shivaji was walking (I too admire!), Krishna's and Arjuna's war field dialogues (they were quoted often in those days - Geethopadesha verses - and revived once more now!) etc.

We enjoyed this movie.  Watch at home at least...this is worth watching, esp. for the 'Iravum nilavum' song! It looks beautiful on the big screen.

The video shows the quality of the movie.  Enjoy!





P.S.: The last movie I watched in the theatre was 'Enthiran', I think! For many years now, I had never seen 'Films Division' clips or State Government's 'what we have done to the people' clips. Yesterday they showed Jayalalitha's speech for full 15 mts. about how much she has helped for the Cuddalore Thane relief scheme.  Every dot and wrinkle on her face was clearly visible! But nobody can beat her intelligence...her Tamil was flawless and we didn't feel bored at all!

'Karnan', The 1963 Tamil Classic Movie - Unforgettable Movie!

Karnan, Tamil Classic Movie

When my children admired English movies and discussed about how they were made, what class they have got, etc. I went defending our regional movies, saying that we don't have that much funds or technical facilities, world viewers, etc.  But after reading about the movie, Vijeta (1982), I did a post on it here), wherein I came to know that some of our films were made with great effort.  I take a passage from my review:

The film is notable for some rarely seen aerial photography of combat aircraft active with the IAF in 1980's.  The central character of Angadh himself, is a MiG-21 pilot and is shown flying the aircraft in ground attack role in the 1971 India-Pakistan war.  Much of the movie, including the climax involving MiG-21bis, was shot at Pune.  The IAF No.4 squadron (the Oorials), provided the pilots and planes for the film's aerial sequences.  The movie included good colour footage of the Oorials aircraft in fight and in operations.

But even before that, in 1963 Tamil movie 'Karnan'  a lot of effort was taken for the authenticity of the war scenes.  It was not given much light until now, or I have never read anything about it.  The Hindu article about the Centenary celebration of the Director of that movie, Shri B.R.Panthulu, his son said this:

“The money involved was on a mind-boggling scale. For the first time, a story from an epic was shot in opulent locations such as the palaces of Jaipur. Huge moving chariots were made in Chennai and transported to Kurukshetra, where the war sequences were filmed.Government permission was sought, and cavalry and infantry from the Indian Army were brought to the locations at Kurukshetra and the first rows of the charging armies on horses and elephants had soldiers from the Indian Army” 

I still remember the war scene where in Karnan speaks to Krishna...Bheeshma in the arrow-bed etc.  We keep seeing the movie at home too, often.  Shivaji is a great actor and the Andhra super star of those days, N.T.Rama Rao acted as Krishna in that movie.  As everybody knows, Karna is a story in Mahabharata, our Hindu classic epic. Karna is the son of Kunti from Surya Deva...wikipedia gives a short summary here!

The music for the movie is by the famous M.S. Viswanathan and Ramamurthy duo.  They used Hindustani ragas for all the songs and rare instruments which were never used earlier in Tamil films like sarangi, dilruba, Santoor, Shehnai etc. Each and every song is a gem of its own.  Now, let me show some videos of the songs.  You can see the grandeur of the picturization here:




The above song is in raaga Hameer Kalyan.  Savithri looks so beautiful...lyrics is interesting! Shivaji is best for historical movies...his features, his accent suit them very well.



You can see the Beluru (Karnataka) architecture as the backdrop in the above song. Raag Saaranga, I think.

The next one is sung in the war field.  Krishna says that the whole world is acting according to his wish, whether good or bad.  Seergaazhi Govindarajan is singing:




I searched for other beautiful songs from this movie, but couldn't get them.  I love the song 'aayiram karangal neetti' a lot.  But couldn't get it.  Anyway, the above songs show the calibre of the music in this movie.


Edited to add (21.2.12) a scene where Karnan and Duryodana's wife (Savithri) are playing chess.  As you know, Karna and Duryodana are very close friends.  Still, when Karnan took the liberty to pull his friend's wife's waist chain, he feels awkward, she too. But Duryodana ignores it and discusses about the game.  This story is often quoted for true friendship.  I wanted to include some war scenes but no, I couldn't get any in you tube.  So this scene will show the people who have not seen the movie, a glimpse of how it will be.  This movie was made in Telugu(Karna) and Hindi (Daanveer Karna) too!




P.S.: Second part of this post is here

Top still courtesy: Google

These are the few of my favourite movies!

Destination Infinity asked me to do the tag 'My top three movies of all time'. I had been writing this post for a few days now, keeping on changing the movies. Even now, I am not 100% happy about the list...tonight more movie names will flash in my dream!

English: I keep forgetting the names of the movies all the time, as you all know by now, my name is 'maradhi manni'! So, I decided to ask my son 'which movies do I talk about a lot?' and he gave a list and I picked up just 3, from the list!

1. Gods Must be Crazy-II:


We repeatedly watch this movie, when some get together is at home or if we are depressed and not in mood, this movie lifts up our mood! Every frame was shot with so much thoughtfulness, in this movie. The story happens in the Kalahari desert in South Africa. The super hero in the movie is Nixau, who was (he is no more now), from the Kalahari desert itself. His South African language is funny to the ears with lots of clucking sounds. The story starts with his two small children chasing the elephant poachers' truck and lose their way. Nixau starts looking for them and encounters many weird people...the movie is hilarious!

I love the different types of background music which is given for each and every character. Have a taste of it here and please watch this movie if you haven't watched it yet!





2. Rain Man:



Both Hoffman and Tom Cruise are my favourite actors. I don't get bored of watching this movie again and again. Dustin Hoffman has lived the character of a person affected by autism. Tom Cruise is his brother and wonders why his father bequeathed a huge amount in the will in Hoffman's name, whose whereabouts, he did not know, until then. So he looks for his long lost brother and the drama begins. We can understand why the two characters are behaving the way they are, in this story. Truly believable story.

I was wondering if I should name 'Philadelphia' as my favourite too, then thought this one is better.

3. Catch Me If You Can:


This movie is based on a true story. DiCaprio acts as Frank Abagnale Jr., a conman who changes his name and character, at the drop of a hat and the main job of his is, cheque forgery. He became so skillful that the FBI eventually turned to him for help in catching other cheque forgers. Steven Spielberg has directed the film. Tom Hanks acts as the FBI agent and he is a natural actor and my favourite too. You can notice DiCaprio changing from a small innocent boy to an adult with a cunning face, later. A very interesting movie.

Hindi:

1. Ek Ruka hua Faisla: I looked out in imdb for this movie and it says, it is a TV movie, directed by Basu Chatterjee. This is a remake of '12 Angry Men' but the Hindi version is equally good, without any female character or jhatka matka songs. Very interesting till the end. KK Raina, Pankaj Kapur and Annoo Kapoor have acted very well.

2. Bhumika:

Smita Patil and Amol Palekar's movie. Anant Nag, Naseeruddin Shah and Amrish Puri also have acted in the great Shyam Benegal's movie. I can never forget Amol Palekar's eyes, the way he looks at Smita...couldn't sleep at night on the day I watched this movie for the first time. The story of the film is based on a Marathi actress and you can see how Smita transforms from a young happy, innocent girl to a matured, wise, adult woman. A serious movie, though.

3. Chupke Chupke:

Dharmendra, Sharmila Tagore, Amitabh Bachchan, Jaya Bachchan have acted in the Hrishikesh Mukherjee's comedy movie! I was a great fan of Dhrmendra when I was a teenager. When I think back, I like this movie and a couple of other movies of him, that is all. I wonder how I was crazy enough to collect his photos from the 'picture post' magazine and save them (I have got them even now...feel funny looking at them now!) All the four of them acted very well in this movie, even Sharmila Tagore! The songs are good too! And the famous Om Prakash is also there in the main role!

We watch it again and again, whenever it is screened in our TV!

4. Sarfarosh:

I was shuffling movies in my mind, whether to name 'Dil Chahta hai' or 'Lagaan' (some friends have already mentioned this movie as their favourite and this movie is in the top place in my heart, but I wanted to mention some other movie) and came to 'Sarfarosh'!

Aamir Khan and Nasiruddin Shah acted equally well. The film is based on Pakistani terrorists infiltrating into our country with arms via Rajasthan. Nasiruddin Shah acts as a famous ghazal singer from Pakistan. Aamir's family members are killed by the terrorists and he quits his medical college and concentrates in finding the terrorists by joining the Police force.

The story develops like a thriller. This movie was released during the Kargil war and became talk of the town. As usual, Aamir and Nasiruddin Shah competed with each other in acting. This movie will have an important place in my heart.

Tamil:

1. Moondram pirai:

Sridevi, Kamal Haasan and Silk Smitha (Silk Smitha acted very well in this movie, she is very beautiful too!) combination in Balu Mahendra's direction. Superb movie. I somehow like Sridevi in Tamil movies than Hindi movies. Her voice also is natural while speaking in Tamil. Kamal is Kamal always, the superb actor. Sridevi's innocence is natural. We get so involved in the movie that we switch it off during the last train scene because we can never avoid the tears in our eyes. The movie is full of melodious songs.

2. Anbe Sivam:

I was wondering whether to mention 'Vedham puthithu' or 'Devar Magan' or 'Mudhalvan' or 'Muthal mariyaathai' or this one. But Shivaji in 'Mudhal Mariyaadai' should be here, I felt. In Bharathiraja's direction, Shivaji did a mature controlled role and Radha's full potential came out in this movie. But, a big BUT, 'Anbe Sivam' cannot be left out!

In 'Anbe Sivam' (Love is God), Kamal is a communist and Madhavan is a capitalist and both are just opposite in nature. Kamal has a distorted face with a twitch and many other complications after he met with an accident. Madhavan is a chocolate boy, pampered by his parents and who has never faced with any problems until he was stranded this time at the airport because of the heavy rains, in Bhubaneshwar. Then, they show how the two of them clash with each other (many funny occasions are also there!) because of their opposite nature. Madhavan's attitude slowly changes in course of the movie. Sunder, C. has directed the movie but everyone knows that Kamal is the one who has done that. A very good movie to watch.


3. Ramanaa:

I am not very fond of Vijayakanth...don't like his red-tinged eyes and his dialogue delivery at all. But in this movie, he acted very well as an anti-corruption police official and blended into the character. The storyline is superb and we can relate to all the incidents with our lives...esp. the dead body 'being' treated at the hospital with a bill for a hefty sum.

This movie is directed by the now 'Ghajini' famous, A.R. Murugadoss. He has done a very good job. The incidents shown in the movie are so well directed that we feel that they are true incidents. They can happen to us too.

4. Guna:

One more movie of my favourite Kamal Haasan! I had to list this movie in my favourites! Kamal acts as a mentally affected person and is in a mental hospital. His room mate tells him that an angel named Abirami will marry him after he gets out of the hospital. So Kamal starts looking out for her and 'finds' her and gets obsessed with her. He is very intelligent otherwise but is surrounded by people who try to use him for their advantage.

This is a beautiful movie which shows the love between him and his Abirami, like a poem. Take a look at this song and you can see for yourself!

Sorry, D.I., I didn't stick to the 3 movie tag! I added one extra movie in Tamil and Hindi! I like most of Manirathnam's movies. I didn't list them here because you have already done so!

Whoever reads this post and feels like doing this tag, please do. If you inform me, I will be very very happy to read and know about your favourite movies and if I had missed a good movie in your list, I can watch it!

Image courtesy: Wikipedia and Google.

Edited to add (19.12.10): If you are interested in the movies, please click on the movie and read the gist of the story.

Raavanan... is Manirathnam happy with this movie?

I had been waiting to see this Tamil movie 'Raavanan' (Wiki link) of Manirathnam for a long long time now! I had read so many tidbits about the movie before its release. When my niece came home during her semester holidays, we planned and went to two movies without much gap in-between, which is very rare, for me. I am not a movie buff! The other movie was 'Rajneeti' (I don't feel like writing a review for this movie!). Here, I am not going to mention the story much, it is in the Wiki link.

The movie starts, with Vikram jumping down from a cliff into deep water, head down. The scenery is beautiful. He swims like a wild animal and kidnaps Aishwarya. Then the storyline slows down. We had known that story of the movie resembled the Ramayana. Vikram acts as Raavana, here, a modern Robinhood-like character. He has done his job very well. But reminds a lot of his role in 'Anniyan' (dubbed in Hindi as Aparichit), when he is shown with dirt and anger on his face and like Sethu, when he blabbers 'bakbakbak', like a madman. Aishwarya is the Seetha in this modern Ramayana! Ram is Prithviraj, quite a good actor, who did very well in 'Mozhi'. He acts like an 'encounter specialist' who is after Raavana who kidnapped his pretty wife Seetha!

The best part of the film is cinematography which is done by Santhosh Sivan and Manikandan. The story is very weak. It is as if some clippings are joined together without any proper thread. Maybe they think that we know the story of Ramayana and we will understand!

Aishwarya, doesn't show any emotion. It takes a long time for us to register that she had started loving Vikram after she knew why he had kidnapped her! She just utters 'bakbakbak' in a weak tone, to express her softness towards him! They show her falling from the cliff, head down and hanging on a branch of a tree and walking back on rocks...she must have done some hard work, here.

Even Vikram's story about how his sister was gang-raped by policemen, doesn't make us feel sorry for him...some drawback here too. All these things are shown in short clippings! The storyline doesn't flow smoothly. In-between, suddenly Vikram acts like a madman and shouts 'bakbakbak' or 'dandandan'...we have to assume he is half mad! His role could have been shown as a strong leader who wants to avenge the police who were killing his people, raping their women, unnecessarily, without proper reason.

Here, the character of Ram is not shown as a good man! He uses everyone, even his wife, to kill Raavana!

The camera work is very good. Stunt shows are amazing, esp. the last rope bridge fight. Most of the shooting was done in the forest areas of Kerala, Ooty, Maharashtra etc., it seems. The dance sequence under actor/dancer Shobana's choreography, to A.R. Rahman's beautiful music is quite memorable. Very normal dialogues by Suhasini Manirathnam, doesn't add life to the movie.

During the intermission break, we were asking each other, if anyone understood the story? The last half hour had SOME story!



Photo courtesy: Google

Dasavataaram - Movie

I am a bit upset! 'Dasavataaram' was not as good as I expected it to be. I am a great fan of Kamal. He has taken lot of effort to make a good/different movie. It happened like this in 'Alavandaan' and 'Hey Ram' too. We went to these movies also with great expectations. I think he must give his ideas to a good director and just act. Whatever type of nuances you do, the story line should be catchy. Continuation should be there. So many avataars of Kamal are coming and the link to the story is very very feeble. The story is like episodes.

I loved the starting story of the 12th century. The Shaivite King tried to destroy the Ranganathar (Vishnu) idol and Kamal as Rangarajan (Writer Sujatha's original name and Kamal is a great fan of his, so he must have used this name) tries to save the idol. The grandeur was superb, photography was superb and Kamal was there in full form. Then the bio-chemical weapon story started and it could have been a good story line. Hmmm. Then the last 'tsunami' scene - simply superb. The photography is too good. That's it. I don't remember anything else today - just one day after watching the movie.

I must say Asin was good. I remember a dialogue of Bush - an official tries to explain Bush about the bio chemical weapon and says 'it is a bit complicated'. Bush replies immediately 'then don't explain'! Hey, I remember this dialogue!

I am not able to understand Kamal's thoughts. In this movie, Kamal tries to save Lord Vishnu's idol, but fails. The idol is in the sea. Then, in the 21st century, the god saves mankind by destroying the chemical weapon, in the shape of tsunami -the tablet form is swallowed by one villain character, Fletcher(Kamal) and he oozes blood in different colours, on the sea coast of Nagappattinam. The chemical can be destroyed completely only with NaCl, which is in abundance in sea water. Does he say God will come and help the world, when in trouble?! He also asks Asin why her god let people to create bio- chemical weapon. Confusing, indeed.

I loved his films - Anbe Sivam, Guna, Mahanadhi, Nayakan, Devar Magan and comedies like Thenali, Sathi Leelavathi and many many other movies. I am particular about seeing his movies in the theatre too. Now, I will wait for his next good movie! I know he will not fail his fans!