There are only few movies that become a cultural icon for generations. When a movie is slated in that list, the people anticipate it to have a path breaking story or a social message (Mother India is a perfect example). But how a simple love story that talked about post-marriage relationship between a girl who doesn’t want to get in to wedlock due to an unrequited love and a husband who falls in love with her, can become a movie celebrated even after 38 years after its release. It happened and the movie was Mouna Raagam.

Mouna Raagam (1986) – (The Silent Symphony)

The story starts with Divya (Revathy), a happy go lucky girl and the parents inform her that a potential groom, Chandrakumar (Mohan) would be waiting to see her in the evening. In order to avoid the whole process, she arrives late after enjoying the entire evening with her friends. Surprisingly, Chandrakumar waits for her and meets her in private. Despite of her requests, Chandrakumar says he likes her and Divya is emotionally forced by her family to accept the wedding proposal after her father has a heart attack.

Chandrakumar, a loner, takes her to New Delhi after the wedding. From day one, Divya shows her repulsion towards Chandrakumar despite his repeated attempts to impress her. When he asks her what first gift she would like, Divya asks for a divorce and because of Chandrakumar’s insistence, at an emotional moment, she opens up about her unrequited love of the past.

The story gets back in time when Divya met Manohar (Karthik). Divya implicated him in a street brawl and robbery case. After realising his good intentions, Divya bailed him out. Manohar expressed his love towards her at the first instance and although she couldn’t approve of his revolutionary activism, she fell in love with him as he was irresistible. At one point, Divya stopped him from an attack he was planning. Manohar proposed her that he would stop his activism if she accepted to marry him the next day. Police arrested him the next day for the attack he was not part of and to keep his word to Divya, he tried to escape and was shot dead by the police in front of her eyes. Divya could not overcome the loss and that’s the reason she had been putting off her marriage for so long.

Chandrakumar understands her and they meet a lawyer who informs that they have to be together for a year to file for divorce. They start living apart in the same house and one day Chandrakumar gets attacked by his factory workers. Divya saves him and nurses him during the recovery. While nursing, she understands him and gradually falls in love with him. Chandrakumar becomes indifferent and hurts her at every moment. He arranges for her travel back to Chennai and at the railway station, he hands over the divorce papers. Divya tears them apart, breaks down and expresses her love towards Chandrakumar. He chases the train and they both unite to restart their life.

Mouna Raagam had Mohan, Revathy and Karthik in the lead supported by VK Ramasamy, Ra Sankaran, Vani and Kanchana. The movie had a brilliant musical score from Ilaiyaraaja with PC Sriram wielding the camera. It was produced by G.Venkateswaran (in short GV, brother of Mani Ratnam) under Sujatha movies banner and directed by Mani Ratnam.

Why is it so special?

1. Honestly, the theme of the movie was nothing new when Mani Ratnam worked on it. Multiple interpretations of love that blossoms after wedlock had been made in Tamil cinema but Mani Ratnam showed his finesse in the way he maturely handled the subject.
2. The two love stories in the movie are completely opposite in nature. If the love between Divya and Manohar can be termed as a storm that every girl would expect to sweep off their feet, then the love between Chandrakumar and Divya is a breeze that is mellow and matured.
3. The other notable divergence that Mani Ratnam made was that movie was made from the women’s perspective and not the two men. And Revathy carried the role with aplomb. There are two scenes that stand testimony to the brilliance of Revathy – one when she breaks down to express her anguish that she had been keeping in her heart for so long for Manohar. It’s even a surprise for the audience because until then her character is shown as a girl who is happy go lucky, prankish and some might even hate her for not liking Chandrakumar. The other one during the climax when she expresses her love to Chandrakumar.
4. Probably, most of the audience, when you utter the movie’s name, they would immediately scream in unison, ‘Karthik!!!’. Karthik as Manohar stole the heart of people with his effervescence and irresistibility. I can bet that women would have wanted a lover like him (if your mom was in 20s or teens when the movie was released, don’t forget to ask this question). Mani Ratnam arguably wrote the best cameo ever in Tamil movie history with Manohar’s character. The total time on the screen for Karthik is around 25 min but the impact he creates is humungous. Mohan’s character had to be played with subtlety and he cake walked it with deftness.
5. The dialogues of Mani Ratnam. According to him^[1], short, one line dialogues came in to his repertoire with this movie. One of the best scenes in the movie is the one when Divya asks her mom before her first night after marriage, “Thaali kattina mattum ellam sariya aayiduma, rendu nalaiki munnadi enna avarkita ippadi anuppichiruppiya” (Is it enough that he tied a wedding thread? Would you have sent me to him two days before)? Mani Ratnam’s screenplay started with this one thought.
6. If you ask any music lover who knows Tamil music, this movie’s songs and score by Ilaiyaraaja will rank in the top 5 of anyone’s list. It’s not an exaggeration and  if I start writing about the score, I have to dedicate my entire blog post to that. It’s just awesome.

Mouna Raagam Audio Jukebox

Mouna Raagam Original Score

Why it should be on the list?

1. Mouna Raagam announced the arrival of one of the most prolific auteurs that Tamil cinema ever saw (check the trivia why I say so).
2. For showing the story of unrequited love and the problems of arranged marriage through the eyes of a woman.
3. For producing one of the most loveable characters of Tamil Cinema that is unbeaten till date.
4. For Ilaiyaraaja’s music.

Trivia

1. Mouna Raagam was Mani Ratnam’s fifth movie and third TamiIl movie after Pagal Nilavu and Idhaya Kovil. In Baradwaj Rangan’s book “Conversations with Mani Ratnam, he candidly admits that Mouna Raagam was his first hit movie. In fact, he didn’t want to make Idhaya Kovil and he admits that the only thing that was great about that movie was Ilaiyaraaja’s music^[1].
2. Mouna Raagam was the second script of Mani Ratnam and was originally titled “Divya”. The original idea was to make a movie about how a timid young girl coping with an arranged marriage. Karthik’s character was an afterthought (yes it is true) and his character was inspired by Anil Kapoor’s character from Pallavi Anu Pallavi (Mani Ratnam’s debut in Kannada). In fact, Mouna Raagam would have been a Kannada movie but it didn’t work out. This is the first script that he wrote in Tamil and was originally written as a short story^[1].
3. Mouna Raagam won the Best Regional Film National Award for 1986 and was the official entry for foreign film oscar from India^[2].
4. Mouna Raagam has inspired many movies after its release. The recent one I would say is Raja Rani.
5. Mani Ratnam comes from a family of movie producers. He completed MBA from Jamnalal Bajaj Institute of Management Sciences (JBIMS) and started his film career with Pallavi Anu Pallavi in Kannada which won a state award. It also served as the debut movie of Anil Kapoor^[2].
6. Mouna Raagam was dubbed in Telugu with the same title and was remade in Hindi as Kasak with Rishi Kapoor (playing Mohan’s role), Neelam Kothari and Chunky Pandey (playing Karthik’s role). Needless to say, the movie didn’t do well at the box office^[3].
7. The song from Idhaya Kovil “Naan Paadum Mouna Raagam” gave the title for the movie^[1].
8. Kanchana did a small one scene role of a lawyer in the movie. Mani Ratnam has used actors in small roles but change the shape of the story. Kanchana’s role makes Divya stay back in Delhi. He has utilized Aruna in Idhayathai Thirudathey (Geethanjali) in the same way^[1].
9. It seems one of the ladies in the censor board, argued that Mouna Raagam should be given a “A” certificate as she couldn’t accept a housewife asking for divorce^[1].
10. Anjali was originally planned with Revathy and Mohan with the idea of what would happen after 10 years in their marriage (Main Ratnam calls it just a theoretical exercise). Nonetheless, it seems Mohan’s dates couldn’t be worked out^[1].

List of References

1. Conversations with Mani Ratnam by Baradwaj Rangan, Penguin, 2013
2. The Best of Tamil Cinema – Volume 2 by G. Dhananjayan
3. Kasak (1992) – Wikipedia
4. Image sourced from archives of Outlook Magazine

YouTube link of the movie

There is perhaps one movie that every Tamil actor wants to remake. Baasha is the holy grail of mass masala entertainers in Tamil cinema. To be honest, it has one of the most illogical stories you can think of (seriously, what’s the age of Rajini in the movie and who is Nagma?) but Baasha defines the masala heroism of Tamil cinema. Every actor tries his hand to mash up the story in order to emulate the movie. And every time it has failed miserably. Ajith’s Jana, Vijay’s Pokkiri and Sarathkumar’s Hey are the bad examples. Baasha was a high point in Rajinikanth’s career and it came after a string of decent commercial successes like Uzhaippali and Veera (but both of them weren’t blockbusters like Annamalai). Baasha elevated him to the hysterical fan following that you relate with Rajini, the superstar. Vedalam on the other hand comes after a string of box office successes for Ajith and his fanbase has expanded extensively in the past few years. And Siva has made Vedalam to tap the same hysterical fan base of Ajith.

The reason behind comparing Baasha and Vedalam is that there is not much of a difference in the template of the b story. So I don’t need to delve in to that part. In a way, Vedalam personifies the good and bad of Tamil mass masala entertainers. Over the top heroism, comedy scenes (Soori, Kovai Sarala, Thapa) that doesn’t work even a bit, loud background score (Anirudh) that tests your eardrums, glaring logical mistakes and cliched scenes (when they will stop showing blood donation and helping blind people to establish the goodness of lead characters). Nevertheless, there are few things that work in Vedalam.

Vedalam has been constructed by Siva with one thing in mind – Ajith’s on-screen and off-screen image. He just knows the pulse of Ajith’s fans and has assembled a screenplay that swifts through without any pause. Vedalam is like a fan who loves mass masala movies making a movie (or worshipping) his idol. Siva does have a knack for dialogues that he places at the right moments to cater the fans. For example, “Sir unga mudhugula kuthirukkanga” (They have stabbed you in the back) and he replies after a pause, “Yenna neraya per mudhugala kuthirukkanga” (A lot of people have stabbed me in the back). And every time, the fans go bombastic (I was watching the movie in a high end multiplex in Dubai). Probably, the whole directorial team has worked overtime to accentuate the heroic image of Ajith in every scene to the minutest of detail (for example, the knife in the first scene has AK56 inscribed on it – Vedalam is Ajith’s 56th movie). The same detailing is missing in constructing the characters of Shruti Hassan, Soori and other comedy actors. A little more focus on these characters would have made Vedalam even more enjoyable. Lakshmi Menon acts as a perfect foil for this brother – sister story. And her admiration for Ajith (which she openly purported in a TV Interview) is seen on-screen too. There are a few interesting deviations from a normal masala movie. The hero doesn’t advise women on their dress codes and doesn’t give lectures how a woman should live. In fact, the advice is delivered to men. There are not any romantic scenes or duets for the hero. There are not any sexy item numbers. Not even an iota of vulgarity (which is quite abnormal for such movies).

Vedalam is going to have a long run in theatres. It’s already making record collections and expected to break in to 100 Cr club soon. But there are lot of things that’re wrong with the movie. The movie totally resides on star power of Ajith and I am not criticising it. Siva has tried to tap the fan base and that’s what directors of MGR and Rajini did in their prime. Imagine this, if Shruthi’s character wasn’t there, if it had a better comedy, if the logical mistakes were ironed out, the success could have become even mightier. Vedalam might reinforce the idea of a mass masala in Tamil movie world. Mind you, reason why Vedalam is making cash registers go bonkers is totally because of Ajith and his fans. Will it work for another hero especially with such a faulty screenplay? It’s next to  impossibility.

Personally, I am happier to see Ajith as Sathyadev in Yennai Arindhaal rather than as Vedalam. Let Siva fight with Hari to become Rohit Shetty of Tamil cinema. But as a fan, do you really want Ajith to become Akshay Kumar?

PS: I love Aaluma Doluma – for the lyrics, the catchy tune and the celebration.

One of the criticisms that is levied against Tamil cinema in general is that they don’t reflect the reality of the society. Although Tamil cinema in the 60 and 70s dealt with family issues, those movies were masculine and melodramatic (of course, there were rare blips). The realism in issues was missing and Visu bridged the gap between realism and melodrama with his feminine based scripts and savvy direction. Samsaram Adhu Minsaram is the pinnacle of Visu’s creations.

Samsaram Adhu Minsaram (Family is like electricity) (1986)

The story starts with the customary bride seeing (Ponnu Parkum) function of Sarojini (Ilavarasi), the only daughter of Ammaiyappa Mudaliar (Visu). In fact, the scene serves as the introduction of characters too. Ammaiyappa Mudaliar is a clerk in a central government office lives with his wife, Godavari (Kamala Kamesh) in a joint family. His first son, Chidambaram (Raghuvaran) works as a cashier in Indian Oil and major financial support to the family. His second son, Siva (Vaagai Chandrasekhar) works as a fitter in a private company and a son who don’t even talk back against the words of his father. His last son, Bharathi (Haja Sharif) is on the pursuit of passing his SSLC (high school exam). Chidambaram is married to Uma (Lakshmi), who binds the family together and everyone in the family loves and respects her. Kannamma (Manorama) is not just the maid of the family but also part of it.

Sarojini rejects the groom after the bride seeing function and also insults the groom’s family. Ammaiyappan feels bad and visits the groom’s house. Jagannathan (Delhi Ganesh) impressed by Ammaiyappan and his family offers his daughter Vasantha’s (Jeevitha) hand to Siva. Ammaiyappan accepts it but says that they have to wait until Sarojini’s wedding. Sarojini reveals that she is in love with Peter Fernandes (Dilip). Although, they are against the marriage, they accept it for various reasons (Chidambaram is happy that he need not spend for his sister anymore). Both weddings take place on the same day and they start their marital life.

Siva and Vasantha’s privacy is adversely affected by Bharathi, who is always in Siva’s room to study while Sarojini is enjoying her new found independence and disrespects her father-in-law, Albert Fernandes (Kishmoo). Uma leaves to her brother’s house in Bombay (now Mumbai) for child birth. While she is away, on the same day, Vasantha leaves to her father’s house after discord with Siva while Sarojini comes back to her house after a fight with Peter. Although Vasantha comes back after strong advice from her father, Sarojini stays back claiming that her husband will come back like Siva went to fetch Vasantha.

Chidambaram, who is usually money conscious reduces his financial part for the family as his wife’s away. This gives rise to argument with his father and Ammaiyappan loses his cool and asks Chidambaram to leave the house. Chidambaram on the other hand asks Ammaiyappan to give back the Rs.18,000 that he paid for Sarojini’s wedding. Ammaiyappan divides the house in to two and asks Chidambaram to live separately until he pays back the money. He restricts the family from crossing the line on any account. Uma arrives to see the family in disarray and feels bad that her husband has created the rift. The rest of the movie about is how she reunites the family with help of Kannamma and Godavari. The film concludes in an unexpected climax through the decision of Uma.

What is so special about the movie?

1. The movie takes everyday issues that happen in a family and Visu spins a web around the characters that are real, relatable and forces you to question roles in the family. Visu’s movies have always been like that. Although he did write screenplays before (more on it in the trivia section), since Kudumbam Oru Kadambam, his play that also became a movie, he handled family and societal issues in majority of his movies.

2. The brilliant writing of Visu. The screenplay is crisp and the dialogues are punchy even when they are lengthy exchanges. While Uma’s (Lakshmi) dialogues are short and punchy, Ammaiyappan (Visu) and Chidambaram (Raghuvaran) have longer rants. This dichotomy is to show the callowness of men and the prudence of Uma’s character.

3. The amazing composition of scenes especially the fight between Chidambaram and Ammayappan, Kannamma’s scene with Albert Fernandes and the climax sequence.

4. The negativity of the Chidambaram’s personality comes from the situations that he is in. Visu’s movies have this knack of showing the point of view rather than allowing you to judge them.

5. The wonderful acting of each character (sometimes you might feel that it’s like a play but the origins of most of Visu’s movies are from his plays – can’t be blamed for that). Lakshmi, Raguvaran and Visu act as the three pillars of the movie and the supporting cast make the movie perfect. However, without Manorama, this movie would have been incomplete. Regardless of the fact that, everyone like that one scene in which she taunts Kishmoo (Kannama, Gammunu Kada), my favourite is the climax where she tears apart Ammaiyappan’s stubbornness and hypocrisy.

6. Last but not the least, Shankar Ganesh’s music. They always provided adequate music for the movies they scored. Janaki Devi Ramanai Thedi is an amazing melody while the pathos of Samsaram Adhu Minsaram is still fresh and Katti Karumbe Kanna is an emotional lullaby. The background score during the pivotal scenes is worth a mention.

Why it should be on the list?

1. For giving Tamil cinema much needed realism with respect to middle class families and their issues. The physical privacy issue between Siva and Vasantha was dealt sensibly without a hint of vulgarity.

2. A trend-setter with respect to family based movies and it created a separate slew of directors who made movies in this genre (most of them were Visu’s assistant directors)

3. For Visu.

Trivia

1. Samsaram Adhu Minsaram was a remake. Surprised? In 1975, KS Gopalakrishnan produced Uravukku Kai Koduppom based on Visu’s play directed by YG Mahendran with Gemini Ganesan, Sowcar Janaki, Muthuraman and Sujatha in lead. The film bombed at the box office. Visu was an official screenplay writer for AVM. He used to correct the screenplays for AVM’s movies and he was asking AVM Saravanan to produce a movie for him. AVM Saravanan was impressed by the original stage play. Visu suggested that it had already been made as a movie. AVM bought the rights for the original and asked Visu to rewrite the screenplay. Saravanan felt that there was a lack of comedy and Visu rewrote the script with Kannamma’s character. And that’s how Manorama came in to the picture.¹

2. Visu (originally MR Viswanathan)³ started his life as a stage actor during his school days and started his own theatre group, Vishwashanthi that created family based plays. He assisted K.Balachander and wrote dialogues for some of his movies (Thillu Mullu). Kudumbam Oru Kadambam was a breakthrough in his career but it was directed by SP Muthuraman although Visu wrote the screenplay. Manal Kayiru was his first hit movie that had a wonderful run at the box office although some of the reviewers panned it for lengthy dialogues and sequences.

3. Visu did try his hand at different genres. Chidambara Ragasiyam was a comic thriller, Puthiya Sagaptham and Rajathanthiram were revenge dramas but nothing worked like his emotional family dramas. Notable ones are, Dowri Kalyanam (1983), Thirumathi Oru Vegumathi (1987), Penmani Aval Kanmani (1988), Sakalakala Sammanthi (1989) and Varavu Nalla Uravu (1990). My personal favourite is Urimai Oonjaladigrathu (1992) that dealt with inter-religious love story.

4. His movies didn’t do well in the 1990s and he moved towards television with his Arattai Arangam (Sun TV) and Makkal Arangam (Jaya TV)³. His assistants made movies in the same genre and the most notable one was TP Gajendran, who made Budget Padmanabhan and Middle Class Madhavan.

5. The movie won the National Award for Best Popular Film Providing Wholesome Entertainment (1987) becoming the first Tamil movie to do so and also the first movie to receive a National award even though it was remade in the same language.

6. The movie had a remix (or retune or rehashed – I don’t know how to call it), of Oorai Therinjikitten (Padikathavan) with different lyrics as Visu laments about his family life.

7. The movie was remade in Hindi as Sansar with Anupam Kher, Raj Babbar and Rekha in the lead. The Telugu version, Samsaram Oda Chadarangam had Gollapudi Maruthi Rao, Sarath Babu and Suhasini in the lead with Sowcar Janaki playing Manoram’s role. The Malayalam version, Kudumbapuranam, was directed by Sathiyan Anthikad with Thilakan, Balachandra Menon and Ambika in the lead. The Kannada version, Onde Goodina Hakkigalu had Tiger Prabhakar and Lakshmi in the lead.

8. Viswashanthi is back to theatre as they staged ‘Konjam Yosinga Boss’ in 2014.

9. Kamala Kamesh acted in more than 400 films in Tamil, Kannada, Malayalam and Telugu. I couldn’t plot her debut movie but she became famous for her mother roles after the success of Kudumbam Oru Kadambam (1981) and Alaigal Oivathillai (1981). She never graduated to other roles and she was repeatedly cast in similar roles. Her daughter Uma acted in few movies but never shined in the silver screen and she is married to Riyas Khan. Interestingly, Kamala Kamesh suffers from a rare blurred vision problem and she still acted in movies with the disability.⁶

Credits

Producer: AVM Saravanan for AVM Productions; Story, screenplay, dialogues and direction: Visu; Music: Shankar Ganesh; Cinematography:N.Balakrishnan; Editing: A.Paul Durai Singam; Art direction: B.Nagarajan; Lyrics for songs: Vairamuthu.²

References

1. AVM 60 by M.Saravanan
2. The Best of Tamil Cinema – Volume 2 by G. Dhananjayan
3. A passionate Journey by Rani Devalla for The Hindu
4. ‘I never left the stage” Interview of Visu with V.Balasubramaniam for The Hindu
5. Wikipedia article on Visu 
6. Grill Mill with Kamala Kamesh by SR Ashok Kumar for The Hindu
7. Image credit: Rediff.com

YouTube link for the movie 

Disclaimers

1. I haven’t watched all the movies in the list. Some of them are in the list solely based on reviews and you might end up not liking them. Although, the torrents are out, the subtitles aren’t. I wish there were official releases online by Korean studios with English subtitles.
2. All these movies were released in 2015 in South Korea. I have left movies from December as I don’t have any source to check them out. So it will be added to next year’s list.
3. The movies are not ranked. The movies are most probably in the order of release.

1. Chronicles of Blood Merchant (Heosamgwan)

Backed by the performance from two of the biggest stars from Korean cinema, Ha Jung-Woo and Ha Ji-Won (I will not deny or agree that this movie is in the list because of her), Chronicles of Blood Merchant is genre bending emotional comedy-drama about an undying love of a guy. The movie is based on a Chinese novel of the same name written by Yu Hua.

Heo Sam-Gwan played by Ha-Jung Woo (he is the director too) sets out to win the heart of the most beautiful girl in the village, Heo Ok-Ran (Ha Ji-Won). He sells his own blood to make money and win her. Years later, the family is torn as the eldest son doesn’t resemble the father but a rich man in the village. The movie tends to be more melodramatic at the end but the mise-en-scene and the wonderful acting makes this movie a must watch this year.

2. Love Forecast (Oneului Yeonae – literally Today’s Love)

After watching this movie, I was gushing on Facebook about how I rooted for the lead pair to come together. I was waiting for a movie that can match the charm of Harry met Sally and this is the movie that fulfilled my desire. Kim Hyun-woo (Moon Chae-won) is an elegant weather reporter who is a totally different person off-screen where she drinks, bad mouths and fights with random people. The only person who knows and understands her is her childhood friend, Kang Joon-soo (Lee Seung-gi). He is a soft-natured elementary school teacher who secretly loves her but tries to date other women and in the process fails miserably.

Kim has a secret affair with a married senior colleague but she knows that she can’t marry him anyway. Love Forecast is a rom-com with an emotional ending but sweeps your heart through some excellent performances from the lead actors. Weather is used to show the different aspects of their life and plays a supporting role throughout the movie. Directed by Park Jin-Hyo, I bet you will root for the leads and that marks the success of this feel good movie.

3. Gangnam Blues (Gangnam 1970)

Gangnam Blues is supposedly the most popular movie of this year from South Korea and rightly so. We all know Gangnam Style from PSY. Gangnam is actually a district, part of Seoul that was developed during the late 70s and early 80s. Now the most expensive and affluent district in Seoul, it has a troubled past with respect to its development. Originally, Gangnam was full of farming land and people were forced to leave due to development around them.

Gangnam Blues is the tale of how real estate sharks took over the lands of farmer told through the life of two friends (Jong-dae and Yong-ki played by Lee Min-ho and Kim Rae-won) who are torn between two different gangs backed by politicians. The movie sparkles in the way director Yoo ha (Dirty Carnival) creates the backdrop and his subtle symbolisms make it even more brilliant. Some of them might find the movie stylish but the authenticity of the period has not been compromised. Gangnam Blues is one of the best neo-noir movies that you will watch just because of the amazing artistry of Yoo Ha.

4. Revivre (Hwajang)

Directed by Im Kwon-taek, Revivre premiered in the out of competition section of 71st Venice International Film Festival but released only in 2015. The film is based on a short story by Kim Hoon that won the Yi Sang Literary Award (one of the prestigious awards in Korea) titled Cremation.

The complexity of the movie can be understood by the way Im titled it – Hwajang has two meanings – cremation and make-up. The movie questions the idea of love and commitment in marriage. Oh is a top executive of a marketing firm who shuttles between work and hospital to help his dying wife. On the other hand, he is attracted to a young executive from his company. The movie shows his mental dilemma between his two sides that will question morality structures. Possibly, this is one of the best performances of veteran actor Ahn Sung-Ki.

5. Twenty (Seumul)

Most directors don’t get coming of age stories right although lot of them want to make one. Lee Byeong-heon backed up by his success of his indie venture Cheer Up, Mr.Lee., has presented a wonderful coming of age tale that’s funny, quirky and realistically portray the lives of South Korean youth. The three protagonists have different aims in life and are controlled by situations around them. Kim Woo Bin (the current heart throb of Korea), Lee Jun-Ho and Kang Ha-Neul make the movie perfect with their portrayals. Twenty is a must watch just for the truthful depiction of young men and women in Korea. Don’t miss the hilarious fight sequence

6. The Shameless (Muroehan)

The Shameless made its debut in the Un Certain Regard category at the 2015 Cannes Film Festival. Directed by Oh Seung-Uk (after 15 years since his Kilimanjaro) is a romantic noir thriller with Kim Nam-Gil and Jeon Do-Yeon (Secret Sunshine, The Housemaid) in the lead. The Shameless is a movie of a detective who takes a straight forward murder case with a suspect but it gets complicated when he gets involved with a bar maid. Although movie poses as a thriller, it’s more about human emotions, their fears, loneliness and insecurities. It has the usual elements Korean film noir but Yeon’s performance makes the difference. Watch out for her.

7. Northern Limit Line (Yeonpyeonghaejeon)

We have seen many movies about the DMZ and the land borders between the two Koreas but there are omly less number of movies (Yellow Sea was one) depicting the Northern Limit Line  – the sea demarcation between North and South Korea.

The movie deals with the not so much talked about 2002 battle of Yeonpeong. It was not in the news because North Korea attacked the South Korean patrol ship 357 while South Korea was playing their third place 2002 FIFA World Cup match against Turkey. Although the movie has lot of jingoism that you see in typical war movies, Northern Limit Line directed by Kim Hak-Soon (his first feature film as director) has its heart in the right place when it mixes the archival footage of soldiers along with the depiction. The production values are not compromised although the movie was crowdfunded and it has become the most watched Korean movie in 2015.

8. Minority Opinion or The Unfair (Sosuuigyeon)

Based on a novel of the same name written by Son A-Ram, Minority Opinion is the real life story of 40 tenants who were protesting against the government when they were relocated for urban development. It was widely known as the “Yongsan Tragedy” of 2009 when 5 protesters were killed along with a police officer during the riot that ensued due to the protest.

The movie traces the jury trial of Park Jae-Ho (Lee Geung-Young) who is accused of killing the police officer during the riot. He claims that he killed him for self-defence while saving his 16 yr old son. Young public defender Yoon Jin-won (played by Yoon Kye-Sang) teams up with a reporter Gong Soo-kyung (Kim Ok-Bin) to defend the accused while the whole establishment is against them. The movie depicts how in the name development the lives of common people are ruined. Gripping, heart-breaking and poignant, this courtroom drama should be on your list.

9. Assassination (Amsal)

Not to be confused with The Assassin from China, although this movie depicts a historical assassination attempt and is as lavish as its counterpart from China. Assassination is the eye-catchy blockbuster material that you will see from Korea this year. Lavish sets, brilliant cinematography and high production values makes this movie a winner.

It has a pretty similar storyline to such movies where a motley crew – Ahn Ok-yun (played by Gianna Jun), a sharp shooter, Song-ok (Cho Jin-woong) and Duk-sam (Choi Duk-moon) is recruited to kill an evil Japanese commander Mamoru Kawaguchi (Shim Cheol-jong). Romance, sacrifice and revenge makes Assassination watchable although the movie doesn’t touch the important political issues of Japanese invasion. Directed by Choi Dong-hoon (The Thieves), the movie is a must watch for the performance of Gianna Jun and the production.

10. Throne (Sado)

Throne was awarded the Best Film in the Annual Korean Critics Awards and also the official selection for the Best Foreign Film Oscar from South Korea. That itself qualifies the movie to this list but Throne is certainly one of the best movies of this year. It is based on the real life story of Prince Sado (played by Yoo Ah-Hin) who was condemned to death by his own father King Yeongjo (played Song Kang-Ho – no introduction needed). Prince Sado was put inside a rice chest and died after suffering for 8 days inside without water, food and air.

It has been said that the story has been visited in different versions but what makes Throne perfect is the characters are not black and white – the ambivalent depiction and the unraveling of relationship between Father and Son during Sado’s last eight days makes the movie perfect. Of course Song Kang-Ho and Yoo Ah-Hin are brilliant with their performances. They depict the ideological divide so very well and the movie actually makes you sympathetic towards the lives of Kings and Princes much like the lives of politicians these days. If you want to watch one movie from Korea this year, Throne should be your choice for the performances, screenplay and direction of Lee Joon-Ik.

11. Right now wrong then (Jigeumeun-matgo-geuttaeneun-tteullida)

This movie won the Golden Leopard at the 68 Locarno Film Festival for Best Film and also Jung Jae-Young won the Best Actor for his stellar performance (he won most of the major awards in Korea too). Directed by Hong Sang-Soo, known for his complex stories like In Another Country, Right Now Wrong Then is the depiction of two different scenarios of a chance meeting between an auteur and a soft spoken painter on the same day.

To understand it better, its like Groundhog Day but the way the lead pair see the two meetings is totally different. Backed up by the wonderful performances of Jung Jae-Young and Kim Min-Hee (No Tears for Dead and Helpless), Hong paints a self satirical piece on relationships. The movie ends in a heartbreaking anticlimax like most of Hong’s movies. Stark naturalism, complex storyline and Hong’s dark humour at the most unexpected places makes this movie an endearing watch.

12. Socialphobia (Sosyeolpobia)

Socialphobia is a dark, modern thriller that Korean movies are known for. It shows the worse side of Internet knows as Social Networking Witch Hunts (yup, it’s slowly creeping in to India) that are quite disturbing in Korea. When a young military officer commits suicide, the social networking sites in Korea get in to the act by voicing opinions and there are comments against the military from a certain user Rae-Na. In order to punish, a group of 8 young students track her down to find her dead in her apartment. After that, they become target of netizen ire and they set out to find the original killer.

The movie shows how dangerous SNS witch hunts can become and how easy is to pass judgements over social media. Directed by Hong Seok-Jae, it shows the future of Internet crimes in many countries and that makes this movie important.

13. Clown of a salesman (Yakjangsoo, literal – Drug Peddler)

Every year, there will be a movie from Korea that will make you cry. This year it’s going to be Clown of a salesman. Il Beom (played by Kim In-Kwon) has a lot of loans to pay back and also needs to take care of his daughter’s medical bills. He joins a PR company where he has to entertain older woman and entice them to buy products. He gets into illegal dealings to save his daughter and the movie ends in a depressing note.

Clown of a salesman is a socio-cultural commentary on the current South Korean capitalist society. Il Beom wants to be honest and righteous but situations force him to do what he does. His realisation that he can’t get out of what he started his heart breaking. The movie is directed by debutant Jo Chi-Eon.

14. The Priests

Korean movies have something for everyone (there are lot of sleazy X rated movies this year that you can definitely check out) but this movie is for the horror fans. If I say The Priests is terrifying, it would be an understatement. The movie follows a similar plot to lot of exorcism movies where a little girl enters in to a comatose after an accident. Two priests, Father Kim (played by Kim Yoon – Sook know for The Yellow Sea and Chaser) and young Deacon Choi (played by Kang Dang-Won known for Secret Reunion) believe that the girl is possessed by evil spirit and they start an exorcism process. Most of the movie is the exorcism and the events that unfold due to that.

Directed by Jang Jae-Hyun based on his award winning short film, 12th Assistant Deacon, The Priests is fast paced, scary and has all the elements of classic horror thriller. To entice you, it beat “Spectre” in South Korean box office to open at number 1 which is no mean feat.

15. The Inside Men (Naebujadeul)

Koreans love their web toons and every year there are some wonderful adaptations. The Inside Men is one such brilliant movie directed by Woo Min-Ho (known for Man of Vendetta) based on Yoon Tae-Ho’s webtoon series “The Insiders”. The movie stars three prominent actors of Korean cinema – Lee Byung-Hun (known for Bittersweet Life, JSA and I saw the Devil), Jo Seung-Woo (known for Marathon) and the veteran Baek Yoon-sik

The movie deals with the media – politician nexus (yup, I can hear what you are thinking). One of the influential newspaper editors helps a politician to become a presidential candidate. They cheat the henchman who helped during the process and he joins with a young prosecutor to bring the politician and the media honcho down. The movie deals with power politics and the influence of media on the formation of governments. An edge of the seat thriller with some brilliant acting from the leads.

As I said earlier, you might not good prints and subtitles for certain movies. But bookmark these movies for later. As in many other industries, there are lot of crap doled out every year in Korean movie industry too. These are the better ones this year and I think I covered every genre to make a perfect list.

Kollywood as usual had a roller coaster ride in 2015. Backed by the success of small budget movies in 2014, this year saw directors making some interesting experiments. Finally, I am happy that we saw a good sci-fi movie in Tamil. We had a star trying to change his ways through a classy movie but straying away to a masala at the end of the year. In fact, success of Vedalam made me question whether I should continue reviewing movies. I am still contemplating.

We saw the rise of another bankable actress – Nayanthara. We also saw the decline of big stars. The Tamil movie audience are showing that they have to reinvent. We saw the demise of some stalwarts – Manorama Aaachi and MSV while talented editor Kishore’s sudden demise was shocking.

We also saw the much publicised Tamil actors association elections and mudslinging. Personally, it was a difficult task to watch Tamil movies this year as I was in the UK. I watched 83 movies but I wrote only 3 reviews because I saw them late on Herotalkies. It helped me to understand why Tamil cinema distribution is a tough task and the clout of international distributors like Ayngaran. In fact Aascar Ravichandran chose to distribute ‘I’ by himself and had a wider release while other producers are restricted by the international distributors.

Disclaimers

1. The movies are in alphabetical order and not ranked. These are the best movies of 2015 according to me and not based on box office returns.
2. The list of songs are from movies that were released in 2015. So don’t expect Tharai Thappattai or Maalai Nerathu Mayakkam to feature in the list.
3. I haven’t added dubbed movies to the list.
4. The songs/albums are listed in chronological order and not ranked.

The 10 best movies of 2015

1. Baahubali

The magnum opus that the whole country should be proud of. Although the movie had an age old story that mostly looked like a mashup of multiple ancient fables, the vision of SS Rajamouli made the movie special. The focus and dedication in creating the mise-en-scene, the amazing workmanship to bring out the best from his actors and meticulous post production makes this movie one of the best this year. I am definitely waiting for the second part of the movie.

2. Indru Netru Naalai

A time travel comedy in Tamil is unimaginable. But it happened in 2015 and I am glad it happened. Sujatha would have finally smiled after watching a Tamil movie. A true blue sci-fi and I was going crazy at the climax and the way debutant Ravikumar.R handled the subject deserves a pat in the back. And thanks to CV Kumar for backing up such projects.

3. Kaaka Muttai

I watched Kaaka Muttai only recently. I stayed away from the movie just to wade off the hype (I do it for a lot of movies). But I should say I liked it. I think both Kaaka Muttai and Kutram Kadithal (next movie in the list) handles the same theme in two different ways. Manikandan has extracted the best out of the two kids and it makes you reflect on the society that we live in.

4. Kutram Kadithal

It will remain the best movie of the year for me. It reminded me of Thomas Vinterberg’s Jagten (The Hunt, 2012) the Danish movie about a teacher being accused of sexual harassment by a small girl. Kutram Kadithal was that good for me. It reflected how everyone wants something out of an issue that’s blown out of proportion. There is one scene where a black garbage bag sticks on to Merlin’s leg just to symbolise that she is becoming bad (the use of black for evil and white for good has been used by Alfred Hitchcock extensively) shows how talented Bramma G is. Radhika Prasidha is an actress to look out for.
Kutram Kadithal had a good run in film festivals across the world and won the National Award for Best Film in Tamil. They also made a simultaneous (almost) digital release which could be a wonderful revenue option for smaller movies.

5. Moone Moonu Varthai

I still remember going gung-ho on Facebook after watching this wonderful little gem of a comedy. The last few years we are bombarded with comedy movies but most of them are repetitive while this one wasn’t. Directed by Madhumita (her last two outings weren’t that impressive). The wonderfully crafted screenplay coupled with some amazing dialogues and the excellent acting from the leads, Arjun Chidambaram and Venkatesh Harinathan makes this movie as the best comic movie for me this year. If you haven’t watched it, give it a try.

6. Purampokku Engindra Podhuvudamai

Most of the lists will not have this movie but I thought it was one of the better movies of the year. In the 1980s, we had a lot of anti-establishment movies that were revered but the thought that we are living in a better world makes these movies unwelcomed. Purampokku Engindra Podhuvudamai makes a strong case against death penalty and  its criticism on capitalistic society at large made the movie unpalatable for most people. Jananathan’s honest film making with some strong performances from Vijay Sethupathy, Arya and Shaam makes this movie one of my favourites this year.

7. Rajathanthiram

Heist movies are fun. If you see it in one way, it’s sadistic to be enjoy when someone gets robbed. But it’s a movie and when it’s made well, you really enjoy it. Rajathanthiram is a taut thriller that keeps you at the edge of the seat until the end. Directed by debutant AG Amid with Veera and Regina in the lead, this little gem was a good surprise of the year. I am willing to forgive them for getting inspired by Rififi in the heist part.

8. Thani Oruvan

I should admit that I was biased against M.Raja. I used to call him Xerox Raja for his meticulous remaking of movies. I was never confident that he could make a wonderfully crafted screenplay. I am ecstatic that he proved me wrong and other critics in the best way possible – writing a brilliant screenplay and creating one of the most adorable villains of all time – Siddarth Abhimanyu. It was a treat to watch Arvind Swamy on screen and even the romance portions of Nayanthara and Jayam Ravi was wonderfully crafted.
I just had one grouse though, Siddarth lost quiet easily. I wish there is a spin off with Vinayak Mahadev and Siddarth Abhimanyu – how about that?

9. Uttama Villain

I don’t think there is any actor in India who could do a satire on himself. Kamal had the guts and depth to do so. And it was indeed one of the best movies of the year for me. But I had lots of emotions running when I saw the movie and I think fellow Kamal fans felt the same. I shall not discuss those. Uttama Villain needs to be seen in a different plateau and Ghibran’s music was just brilliant to be ignored.

10. Yennai Arindhaal

Ajith has become a quintessential star who can make any movie and his fans are going to lap it up. Yennai Arindhaal is a movie in which he wanted to be an actor rather a mass star. Gautam could bring Ajith’s different shades on screen and the movie gave a much needed break for the talented Arun Vijay. For me, the romance portions between Ajith and Trisha is the best of the year. Ajith went on to do Vedalam that became the biggest hit of the year but I wish he makes more Yennai Arindhaal(s) than Vedalam(s).

Notable omissions

1. Papanasam – I can’t forgive Jeethu Joseph for copying The Devotion of Suspect X and being so unapologetic about it
2. I – Shankar’s “I” was plasticky and lacked soul but I loved the soundtrack
3. O Kadhal Kanmani – In one sentence, Mani Rathnam is yet to make a come back for me.

5 movies that you wouldn’t have watched but you should give a try

1. Tamizhukku En Ondrai Azhuthavum

Directed by debutant Ramprakash Rayappa, Tamilukku.. is a chaos theory based thriller that is based on the solar flare of 2012 which affected the communication systems in many countries. I still don’t know why this movie didn’t make it big like it should have.

2. Charles Shafiq Karthiga

A well written thriller by Sathyamoorthy, CSK (they used that short form) is a good watch. It had some strong performances from Jai Quaheneni, Narayan and Sanjay but strayed off to predictability in the second half. You will not be bored watching it.

3. Naalu Policeum Nalla Irundha Oorum

The critics panned it, audience didn’t receive it well but I think this movie deserves a watch just for the interesting premise. Give it a try when it runs on TV.

4. Kirumi

Directed by debutant Anucharan, Kirumi will baffle you with the way he crafted his grey shaded characters. The first few minutes of the movie where Kathir does sequence of things shows how good the movie is. You have to watch it to understand it.

5. 144

144 is a hilarious take on how a motley crew tries to do a heist in a village that is under curfew. Even if you don’t watch it for Shiva or for the dialogues and the frivolousness but watch it for the acting of Ramdoss who just cracks the screen with his antics as a deaf and dumb man.

20 best songs/albums of 2015

1. Merasalayitten/Pookale Sattru Oyvvedungal/ Ennodu Nee Irundhaal (I)

Wish the movie was as good as the songs

2. Kaathirunthen (Touring Talkies)

I wish Ilaiyaraaja didn’t give this song to this movie

3. Danga Maari Oodhari (Anegan)

4. Unakkena Venum Sollu/ Idhayathai Yehdo Ondru (Yennai Arindhaal)

Although they sounded repetitive from Harris Jayaraj, these should be on the list just for the lyrics.

5. Anbe Anbe (Darling)

6. Mana Mana Mental Manadhil/ Malargal Kaetten/ Paranthu Sella Vaa (O Kadhal Kanmani)

7. Pachai Vanna Poove (Vai Raja Vai)

8. Uttama Villain – The entire album and the original soundtrack

9. Vaadi Raasathi (36 Vayadhinile)

10. Dandanakka Dandanakka (Romeo Juliet)

11. Kadhale Kadhale (Indru Netru Naalai)

12. Vazhum Naal (Moone moonu Varthai)

That song you should listen to when you are down and SPB

13. Maari Thara Local Song (Maari)

14. Irukkirai Illamalum Irukkirai (Idhu Enna Maayam)

15. You are my darling (Vaalu)

16. Theemaidhan Vellum (Thani Oruvan)

17. Yaar Indha Muyalkutti (Paayum Puli)

18. Naanal Poovai (Kirumi)

19. Thangame/Yenai Maatrum Kadhale (Naanum Rowdythan)

20. Aaluma Doluma (Vedalam)

May contain spoilers 

There is a scene in Pichaikkaran where Magzhini (played by Satna Titus) is searching for Arul (played by Vijay Antony) in the rain. Arul is a beggar and Magzhini couldn’t fathom the fact that he is a beggar (she falls in love without knowing it). She tries to give him a rain coat and Rs.1000. He returns them to her and she asks “Pichaiya potta vangippiya” (Will you get if I give it as alms?). He kneels down and begs while she kisses his hand.

Sasi as a director scores at that moment and makes you question why the entire movie is not about their love story. Sasi has handled such stories in Sollamale and Dishyum. His premises always have a big what if question that Tamil movie audiences love (except for Poo). Pichaikkaran is also a big “What if” question. Based on a book (which Sasi reveals at the end of the movie), it’s a story of a rich businessman who lives a life of a beggar for 48 days as part of a penance that he undertakes to save his mother.

The premise will baffle you and the way Arul explores the lives of other beggars draws you in to the movie. While Sasi evokes sympathy, he doesn’t shy away from fun, philosophy and the cheating in the begging world. Sasi’s dialogues are sharp, witty and thought provoking at the right moments.

When you take notice of the premise and expect something interesting, Sasi travels in to the usual territory of masala due to commercial compulsions. Except for the jealous uncle, two other villains are entirely forced narratives that are placed inside just to show the action hero side of Vijay Antony. Vijay Antony is so blank and expressionless that you actually need an optical microscope to identify micro expressions in his face. It could have worked for movies like Naan and Salim but Pichaikkaran needs someone who can evoke sympathy and pain. Vijay Antony shows that he is incapable of carrying such a role.

The two characters who portray the beggars are the standout because of their natural portrayals. Satna and Bugs (Bagavathi Perumal) are adequate but Muthuraman as the evil uncle is irritating after a point. Nenjorathil, Nooru Saamigal and Unakkaga Varuven are excellent melodies in Vijay Antony’s music (can he do more music?)

Pichaikkaran is not a bad boring movie. It does provoke you to think. But in the current format it just stays as a movie that people will forget once they leave the theatre. The possibilities with this premise are endless. It could have been a love story between the beggar and the girl or it could have been a philosophical debate on money and begging. The problem with Sasi is that he chose to take the commercial route and it really affects the noble idea he wanted to plant in our heads. Pichaikkaran could have been a classic but the idea is lost among the villains, needless fight sequences and some awful acting.

Pichaikkaran is about how much a son can sacrifice to get back his mother’s life. But ironically, Sasi has sacrificed so much to give us a half-baked movie that had an idea so dear to him. It has become a perfect example how external commercial forces kill the creativity of a director. Did he have a choice is a larger question to answer.

A 2/5 for Pichaikkaran and give it a watch just for the premise.

Disclaimers

1. The review contains spoilers. Apologies that I couldn’t a spoiler free review.
2. I have watched the original and the comparisons were inevitable because the movie was exact photocopy of the original.

I watch a lot of Korean movies and whenever I find an interesting movie. I make sure I store a copy of the movie. But some movies will be transferred to the trash folder. For example, Memories of Murder will never get deleted. I watched My Dear Desparado (2010) a couple of years back and it went to the trash. So, I was really baffled when a director like Nalan Kumaraswamy chose to remake Kim-Kwang Sik’s romantic comedy (his Tabloid Truth was better – and, it will make for a better Tamil/Hindi movie).

Kaadhalum Kadanthu Pogum is one of those most faithful remakes that you will see except for songs, the love-making scene (that part in Ka Ka Po was one of the weirdest sequences I have ever seen) and a kiss. Yazhini (played by Madonna Sebastian) loses her job after her company goes bankrupt and moves to a house with low rent. The house opposite to hers is occupied by Kathiravan (Vijay Sethupathy), an ex-convict and a henchman who went to jail for a murder committed by his boss/friend. Yazhini and Kathiravan slowly develop a friendship while Yazhini is trying to find a job and Kathiravan is waiting for a bar license. They end up drinking together one day and Yazhini ‘sleeps’ (am still confused what Nalan tried to imply) with him. In order to convince her overprotective family, Yazhini tries to make Kathiravan pose like her educated boy friend. The rest of the movie is about how Yazhini lands up in her dream job and what happens to their relationship?

If you actually play both movies side by side, it would be impossible for you to find six differences. May be the performances of lead actors might be different because I don’t think Vijay Sethupathy and Madonna watched the original. The way they have treated their characters are diagonally opposite to how Park Joong – Hoon and Jung Yu-Mi handled theirs. Nonetheless, both are brilliant in their own unique way and that’s refreshing in Ka Ka Po.

There are two key scenes in the movie. The relationship moves from friendship to platonic when she sleeps with him (unlike Nalan, I will be overt. They both have sex in the original). Nalan doesn’t tell you what has happened in Ka Ka Po. But Kathiravan goes into a euphoric song that doesn’t give you any clue to what has happened between them. If she had just hugged and slept along with him, does it need such reaction from Yazhini? She hides, tries to escape and even calls it “sleeping with a dog”. In the original, the reaction is justified because they have sex but the entire sequence was weird in Ka Ka Po. Is it because of so called “culture” or censorship issues?

The other key scene in the movie is where she thanks him for helping her in tackling her father. At that moment, the relationship progresses to a romantic one from platonic. In the original, she kisses him while it’s just a hug in Ka Ka Po. A kiss in the lips has a larger meaning in this context than a hug.

When the whole movie is a photocopied version of the original, Nalan missed the cut in these two important scenes that defines the relationship between the lead characters. When you have decided to make a faithful remake in which you don’t even want to change the attire of the hero, why miss pivotal scenes? I agree that you need to remake a movie based on the local cultural sensibilities but is it a big crime to show pre-marital sex and kisses on screen?

Remakes are dangerous territory for any director. If you faithfully remake the original, you will be referred to as a photocopier. Directors like ‘Jayam’ Raja had to come up with Thani Oruvan to change the perception. Movies like Panchathanthiram are perfect examples of how to adapt an interesting premise in to a Tamil movie taking cultural sensibilities in to consideration. The only reason why some Tamil movie buffs know “Very Bad Things” (1998) is because Panchathanthiram takes the basic plot from that movie. Nalan could have taken the premise of My Dear Desperado and made an interesting movie out of it. He is not a bad screen writer. Is it the dearth of creativity or financial compulsions? Only Nalan will be able to answer it.

My dear desperado was yet another Korean rom-com for me and Ka Ka Po will be the same, in fact a little less romantic.

A 1.5/5 for Kadhalum Kadanthu Pogum and watch it if you are a sucker for rom-coms. No! Only if you are a sucker for comedies. If you for looking some Nalan magic, skip Ka Ka Po.

Trailer of My Dear Desperado

Most of the time, I choose movies based on the director instead of actors in a typical reviewer style. This week I chose to go with Guhan Senniappan’s Sawaari. Guhan Senniappan is another “Nalaya Iyakkunar” product who impressed me with movies like Uyir Vaasam, H2O and Sennaai Vettai (the action for the small screen was quite impeccable). So I was keen to see what he had done on the big screen. And I should say, it was quite a roller coaster ride.

Sawaari is road psycho thriller movie that you have seen since 1950s in Hollywood but Kollywood hasn’t tried it yet. Rajat Mukherjee from RGV stable tried his hand on it with Road in Bollywood and it bombed miserably. It’s not an easy path to take because you have to do a lot of work to preserve the attention of the audience.

The movie starts with a police investigation of a triple murder that is suspected to have been done by a psycho serial killer. The investigating officer, Samson (played Benito Franklin Alex) is about to get married the next day and tries to take a break by subordinating the investigation. On a parallel side, Ravi (Karthik Yogi) is on the road to deliver a car (a Contessa classic 1990 model) to a superstitious MLA at Nellore. Samson’s car breaks down and he hitch hikes with Ravi. The rest of the story revolves on how the psycho killer is identified in the road trip they take from Chennai to Nellore.

Honestly, if you have watched such psycho thrillers in English, you will not find anything new in Sawaari. It’s straight forward, narrated in a linear manner with some thrills at the right moments. What makes Sawaari different is the wonderfully laced humour that runs until the end of the movie among the horrific incidents. Karthik Yogi carries his role with aplomb and cracks the screen with his quips. Sometimes you might feel he so irritating with his constant ranting but I felt it was by design to make the audience feel the same. Vishal Chandrasekhar’s background score is another strength to the movie.

Having said that, Guhan suffers from what I call Short Movie Maker Syndrome – the lack of ability to transform a short movie screenplay to the larger format. For instance, he reveals the killer way too early in the movie and it forced him to drag the scenes. Honestly, the movie should have been 90 minutes. It’s the same reason why the movie is tad predictable which is not good for a psycho thriller. But, the good thing is he hasn’t tried to give a back story to the actions of the psycho killer. In fact, one of the characters jokes about the back story to the killer himself.

Sawaari is not a classic but definitely a bold attempt to bring in road based psycho thriller to Kollywood. It is predictable, but it’s not boring because of the acting. If you are not worried about predictability but want to watch a thriller, Sawaari is your choice. But if you have watched a lot of such psycho thrillers, you will find it boring.

A 2.5/5 for the bold attempt but Sawaari could have been better if Guhan had focussed on the screenplay. I wish it was better.

PS: I think Guhan Senniappan loves that Contessa. He had already used it in a photo movie posted on his Youtube Channel.

My first brush with Veedu was really funny. I saw it probably when I was 10 or so on National Television. It was one of the most iconic scenes in Tamil cinema when Murugesu (played by Chokkalinga Bagavathar) visits half-built house of his grand daughter for the first time. At that age, I didn’t understand the scene and Ilaiyaraaja’s background score was more mystical than enlightening at that age. After many years, when I started analysing movies, I saw the movie again with fresh eyes and I understood why it’s one of the best movies ever to be made in Indian cinema.

Veedu (1988)

Sudha (played by Archana) lives with her sister Indhu (played by Indhu) and her grandfather Murugesu (played by KA Chokkalinga Bagavathar) in a rented house. When her landlord decides to construct a new building at her place, Sudha is forced to look for a new house. As she couldn’t find a place under her budget, her colleague Iyengar suggests that she should construct her own house. Murugesu has two plots in the outskirts and they start raising the money.

With the help of her fiance, Gopi (played by Banuchander) and her jewels, Sudha starts the construction of the house. Whenever she takes a step forward, she is pushed back couple of steps backward. She is forced to bribe for approvals and then rain halts the construction. The cost escalates and she finds the contractor has been cheating her through Manga (‘Pasi’ Sathya), a construction worker at her site. Manga promises that she will help to complete the construction with the help of supervisor (Oru Viral Krishnarao). As a final jolt, she finds that the metro water officer has given wrong approval and the site is going to be acquired by the water board for construction. The movie ends in a poignant tone when she is still fighting for her land against the government.

The story was written by Akhila Balu Mahendra while Balu Mahendra wrote the screenplay, edited, shot and directed the movie. Ilaiyaraaja used his pieces from “How to name it” to provide a minimalistic background score.

What is so special about the movie?

1. Owning a house is an ultimate dream of Indian middle class and the movie showed how difficult it is to build a house on your own. It becomes even more difficult when you are a woman fighting the system. The mental agony undergone by the middle class was clearly portrayed without melodrama by Balu Mahendra in this movie.

2. The movie is timeless because the issues haven’t changed for the past 30 years and to be fair it has become more difficult to construct a house. If you or your parents have constructed a house, you can feel the pain that the characters go through in this movie.

3. The biggest asset of Balu Mahendra is the way he constructs his characters. Sudha is one of the strongest female characters that you will see in Tamil cinema whil Manga shows another side of feminine strength.

4. The wonderful portrayal of the entire cast. Balu Mahendra has the knack of extracting the best out of every actor. Archana, Pasi Sathya, Banuchander and Chockalinga Bagavathar were a class apart. Archana in particular gave a nuanced portrayal that showed the resilience and frailty of a woman. On the other hand, Chokkalinga Bagavathar portrayed the helplessness of an old man. His acting in the final sequence (mentioned at the start of this article) is a testimony to the brilliance of this man. ‘Pasi’ Sathya as Manga was a revelation.

5. The movie boldly showed the problems in the society that a middle class woman faces. At one point of time, her higher-up at work asks her to sleep with him for money to be sanctioned – the subtlety in the scene is hard hitting and impactful. Balu Mahendra never held back the reality and the sad ending makes the movie more realistic.

Why it should be on the list?

1. Veedu portrayed the reality of the middle class without exaggeration and at the same time the movie didn’t hold back its punches.

2. It was path breaking in the way it was made. Right from character sketches, screenplay and cinematography, it’s one of the flawless movies in Tamil Cinema. Balu Mahendra rated it as one of his two best movies along with Sandhya Raagam.

3. For Balu Mahendra and his vision to make such a brilliant masterpiece on screen.

Trivia

1. 1987 was the International Year of Shelter for the Homeless and the movie was made in the year. Surprisingly, the movie was censored on the last day of the year right in time for National Awards consideration. The movie was dedicated to the homeless ¹.

2. Veedu won the National Award for the Best Tamil Feature film in the 35th National Awards. Archana won the Best Actress award ². Chokkalinga Bagavathar was said to be in contention for the Best Actor award which eventually went to Kamal Hassan for Nayakan.

3. The house that is being constructed in the movie housed Balu Mahendra’s Cinema Pattarai until his demise. After his demise, the school slowly folded up due to lack of patrons ³. The name board of Cinema Pattarai was written by Balu Mahendra himself ⁴. The first picture that Balu Mahendra hung inside Cinema Pattarai was of Chokkalinga Bagavathar ⁴.

4. KA Chokkalinga Bagavathar was a commercial drama artiste and singer made his debut with this movie at the age of 83 ⁵. Here, I need to make a note. According to Randor Guy, one of the film historians, there was another KA Chokkalinga Bagavathar who acted in movies like Thukkaram (1938) and Rambayin Kaadhal (1939) ⁶. Probably, these are two different people as the age doesn’t match. It’s a pity that we don’t have any information about this wonderful actor (there will be another movie of his in this list). He also sang the title song of the movie.

5. Veedu was inspired by Balu Mahendra’s mother and her difficulties while building a house when he was 8 years old ⁷. The story is credited to Akhila Balu Mahendra – his wife.

6. Balu Mahendra noted that Veedu and Sandhya Raagam (will be part of this list later) are the two movies that he made with the least number of mistakes ⁷.

7. One more anomaly is that Best of Tamil Cinema – Part 2 (written by Dhananjayan) lists the movie was shot in black and white while the movie available on YouTube is in colour ⁵. I don’t remember the movie in black and white, I think even the Doordarshan version was in colour. Can someone throw light on this?

Credits

Producer: Kala Das for Sri Kala International; Story: Akhila Balu Mahendra; Screenplay, Dialogues, Editing and Cinematography: Balu Mahendra; Music: Ilaiyaraaja; Art Direction: Ramasamy;

References

1. Veedu Movie – YouTube link.
2. The official press release for 35th National Awards by DIFF.
3. ‘Cinema Pattarai’ – a thing of the past – The Hindu
4. பாலுமகேந்திரா… தமிழ் சினிமாவின் வீடு! – Artilcle by Director Ram on Ananda Vikatan
5. The Best of Tamil Cinema – Part 2 by G.Dhananjayan
6. Tukaram (1938) – The Hindu
7. Balu Mahendra – The Method, the madness – Rediff.com
8. Image credit: The Frontline

YouTube link for the movie

Disclaimer: The review contains spoiler (but seriously, I don’t think there is anything to spoil in this movie)

What’s the probability of writing about the same movie within a span of a year? There are a lot of old movies that get rehashed every time. For example, Enga Veetu Pillai (Ramudu Bheemadu is the original) is one such movie when it comes to dual roles. In the cop movie series, Chathriyan is the one that gets rehashed quite often. I am not mad at directors because it’s a brilliant script by Mani Ratnam directed by his assistant Subash that got released 26 years back. It was a landmark movie for Vijayakanth and had an amazing score from Ilaiyaraaja.

Last year, Gautam Menon adapted it (I do not know if he will accept) but Tamil movie buffs can clearly see the inspiration. Yennai Arindhaal was a worthy adaptation and a tribute to Chatriyan whereas Theri is a distressing attempt to recreate the magic.

I do not know where to start on what is bad.  The biggest problem of Theri is the way Atlee conceived the movie. I used to reiterate in my reviews on how important is the conflict in a movie. Atlee decides to show it to you only at the intermission. The second problem is the characterisation of Vijay.  He is rather a self styled vigilante who uses his position to guard himself rather than a self-righteous police officer. In fact, the conflict happens because he boasts his vigilantism to the villain (and nothing else). That’s how stupid it can get.

Vijay’s tired and stereotypical acting is so painful to watch that you wish the movie never happened. The movie is agonisingly predictable that you can say what’s going to come up with your closed eyes. You have the heroine (Samantha) fall for the hero at the first instance because he is a do-gooder. You have four hero introduction style mass (?) scenes out of which in three you have a vehicle drifting. You have a second heroine (Amy Jackson in a forgettable role) who finds the truth about the hero. You have a cute little daughter who acts more than her age. You have scenes in which children clapping for the hero when he doles out vigilante justice. You have a sidekick whose only job is to praise the hero. Last but not the least, the hero shouts “Nee amabalaya irundha en ponnu mela kai vachu paaruda” (Harm my child, if you are a man). Immediately, the henchman leaves the child, second heroine and the sidekick to attack the hero who is tied up. Even 90s director wouldn’t do the same scene if they have to make a movie now. My heart skipped a beat when the hero started lecturing the villain.

The only good thing about the movie is the cuteness of Nainika. She takes the looks and acting from her mother (Meena). She nails her role to perfection although it was another typecast role. I wish she gets movies like what Shalini and Shamili did as child actors. Although Mahendran did a good job, I could see only Thilagan (Arumai nayagam from Chathriyan) instead of Mahendran. Except for Jithu Jilladi, GV Prakash’s music is lacklustre. Eeena Meena Deeka sounds eerily similar to Mera Joota Hai Japani while Chella Kutti’s pallavi sounds similar to Sippi Irukkuthu and he is still in Raja Rani hangover in his background score.

Theri is intolerably boring because the premise is beaten down to earth. Atlee was smart when he rehashed Mouna Ragam for his Raja Rani (I still had issues with it) but he was a promising director. Theri is a pathetic adaptation of another Mani Ratnam premise that shows the immaturity of a young director. I hope Atlee changes path soon.

Watch Theri if you are Vijay fan, you might say it’s a mass masala movie but give it a thought on how you want to look at your favourite star. Honestly, if this is what you want to see, you deserve a Theri. It’s the same for Ajith fans when they celebrated Vedalam. If you are just a Tamil movie fan, watch Theri if you don’t have anything else to do (you can also watch Chatriyan).

A 1.5/5 for Atlee’s Theri and if you come out of the theatre without yawning, good for you.

PS:

I saw a lot of kids watching the movie today with their parents. Every time, Vijay gave out vigilante justice, the kids were shouting and enjoying those scenes. It was so disturbing to see. Will write another post on censorship and kids.

Honestly, I did not believe someone would have thought of remaking Jolly LLB. It was a beautiful film (no doubt about it), but it’s a movie that sits hidden in plain sight and also with some obvious screenplay issues. So I was surprised when someone pointed out on Twitter that Manithan was indeed a remake of Jolly LLB (initially, I thought Manithan was a Korean movie copy)

For any movie lover, two questions will arise when such a movie is remade. Number One, how Udhayanidhi is going to carry the brilliance of Arshad Warsi? And Number Two, who will replace Saurabh Shukla as the Judge? It was granted that Prakash Raj is going to replace Boman Irani.

Manithan is a frame by frame remake of Jolly LLB so much so that they haven’t changed the name of the family that defends their son. It is convenient to frame a North Indian sounding name as the accused. However, the biggest difference between Jolly LLB and Manithan is the tone of the movie. Subhash Kapoor made the original movie with a satirical tone whereas Ahmed has treated Manithan in a more serious tone. It could have been an excellent deviation but the soul of Jolly LLB lies in that satire. The story is about a small town lawyer trying to make it in the big bad world of the state high court. He files a public litigation case against a hit and run case. Udhayanidhi’s characterisation in the remake is so unbelievable that only when his mother actually says that he has gone to Chennai to make it big, you actually understand that he was in another city. The suaveness of Hansika Motwani doesn’t help too as the original has a more rustic love story.

The treatment coupled with a stirring background score gives a darker shade to the movie. Udhayanidhi doesn’t match up to Arshad Warsi (not even a bit!!) and it was evident when he was cast in this character. He has limited set of expressions and when he can’t emote, he drops his head so that you cannot see his still face. Prakash Raj is a caricature and Aishwarya Rajesh makes you question why she takes up such inconsequential roles. Nonetheless, there is one character that you are going to love in Manithan, Radharavi as Judge Dhanapal. He is the only character who retains the soul of the original but gives a different interpretation to it with his trademark expressions. He showed why he is class apart and completely steals the show from other actors.

The problem with Manithan is it doesn’t have the soul in the right place and it is more a slipshod remake of the original. When a movie is faithfully remade, the mistakes of the original stay too. For instance, Jolly LLB never explains the transformation of the lawyer and its the same with Manithan. My nephew jokingly asked whether the character will change in a song and that’s what happened. The original screenplay had a lot of flaws but it was saved by the performances of lead actors. On the other hand, Manithan does not possess that strength. Manithan is not a bad movie because of the larger message but a little more work on the screenplay could have made it better. It is so obvious that the team didn’t want to do that. They wouldn’t have even discussed it. A hit movie doesn’t mean it’s flawless. A frame-by-frame remake is an easy job but it also shows the lethargy of the directoe. Is it too much to ask directors to take a little more care?

A 2/5 for Manithan – Watch it for Radharavi’s performance but you can also give a revisit to Jolly LLB

PS:

1. Hope Udhayanidhi Stalin stays with his comedy movies and leave the good ones to other capable actors.
2. Aswin Rao of Put Chutney (if you remember their Batman video) does another inconsequential role  but wish he gets better roles in the big screen.

During the late 80s and 90s, Tamil cinema saw surge in village based subjects and the stories will be built on family feuds or inter-village feuds. Somehow, during the late 90s, we saw a dearth in such stories and we are looking at a resurgence of such stories in Tamil. Although, we see a lot regular masala movies, sometimes you get to witness some little gems like Vetrivel.

The biggest strength of Vetrivel is that it doesn’t pretend. There is nothing new in the movie but Vasanthamani (the director) scores his points through his impeccable storytelling. The movie is about a family feud that gets aggravated due to a love affair between two people from different castes/villages. Rajamanickam (played by Prabhu) becomes the President of the panchayat defeating his brother-in-law (husband of his step sister played by Viji Chandrasekhar) in an election. After 20 odd years, the focus shifts to Vetrivel (played by Sasikumar) and his family. His brother Saravanan (played by Ananth Nag) falls in love with Rajamanickam’s daughter Subha (played by Varsha). When Rajamanickam doesn’t approve, Vetrivel decides to abduct Subha in ‘Nadodigal’ style. A mishap during the process changes everything for him and his family.

I will be frank; you need a lot of patience to cross the first introduction song of Sasikumar. It’s more painful than funny to watch him doing a Rajini style dance but if you cross that hurdle, the gripping screenplay takes you over. Apart from few stunts and extended screen presence, Vetrivel’s character blends in with the larger story in which he is just the creator of the conflict. The supporting characters make an enormous impact in the movie. Be it the dignified portrayals of Ilavarasu and Prabhu as fathers or Viji Chandrasekhar’s cunning role of step sister, Vasanthamani has crafted his characters with a lot of finesse. All the three leading lady characters have minuscule screen presences but their roles are well balanced, beautifully portrayed by Mia George, Nikhila Vimal and Varsha. Each one has their moment to score and they use it perfectly. Renuka, the other important lady in the movie plays the mother and shows her mettle when she encounters her daughter-in-law.

There are regular stereotypical village movie scenes, comic sequences and stunts but the story telling is gripping and keeps you interested throughout the movie. For instance, the interval block is one of the best in recent times. And there are some compelling dialogues that will stay with you even after the movie. There is a scene in which Vetrivel says “Idhu En Appa, Idhu En Amma, Idhu En Pondati” (This is my father, this is my mother and this is my wife) to introduce each other. The scene comes at a tense moment in the movie, but you will end up smiling. These kind of scenes are sprinkled along the way to your bliss. Even the comedy sequences that involve Thambi Ramayaa and his wife have a sweet surprise. The director even takes potshots at the ‘Nadodigal’ and it has been used perfectly to move the story ahead. These are things that differentiate Vetrivel from other movies from the rural milieu.

It does not imply that Vetrivel is sans problems. The biggest grouse that I had was the way in which caste issues were handled superficially in the movie. Probably, commercial considerations and debut movie jitters could have put him off from addressing the problems related to inter-caste love stories. Nonetheless, it should have been addressed in such a movie because of the situations in Tamil Nadu.

Of late, Tamil cinema lacks story tellers. People who can take simple stories and weave an interesting screenplay around it. Now a days, directors are searching for interesting premises and when they have it, they probably botch it because they are incapable of writing a good screenplay. As I said earlier, Vetrivel doesn’t have anything new but you will not be bored even a single moment (you definitely need to cross the first intro song) and that’s what makes Vetrivel an endearing watch.

A 3/5 for Vasantha Mani’s Vetrivel for making a decent enjoyable rural movie. Watch it once and leave your prejudices about rural emotional drama back at your home.

PS: A special thanks to the cinematographer SR Kathir and the director for showing the beauty of rural Thanjavur.

Disclaimer: I am a Sci-Fi lover and this review will have that tone and colour but at the same time I am not a scientist to understand every aspect related to time travel. And the review is with spoilers. 

Tamil audiences are one of the unluckiest with respect to Sci-Fi movies although we had a movie as early as 1963 that had an alien invasion of a different form. The problem with our directors is that they trade off screenplay and scientific accuracy to give us grandeur. However, last year, we had Indru Netru Naalai and I was mind blown the way time travel was handled by a debutant – R.Ravikumar. I even said that Sujatha would have smiled finally in my annual Kollywood round-up (I couldn’t post a review as I was out of country that time)

When 24 was announced with Vikram Kumar, I thought it would be interesting to see how a seasoned director would treat time travel (I really loved his nuances in Manam). Nonetheless, he flattered to deceive.

24 is the movie of twin brothers born within 3 minutes of each other. Sethuraman (Surya), a scientist and an entrepreneur who researches on time travel while Athreya (another Surya – we are not revealed what he does) is an intelligent villain (he calls himself so). Athreya finds out his brother’s research, kills him and his wife Priya (played by Nithya Menen) in order to abduct a time travel watch. Before dying, Sethuraman leaves his child along with a small box that contains the watch with Satyabama (Saranya) and Athreya goes in to coma after a freak accident during the altercation. Saranya raises the child as Mani (another Surya) who owns a watch repairing shop. After 26 years, the key to the box magically lands on his table (read it as chaos theory) and also Athreya wakes up from his coma. The rest of the story forms the struggle between Athreya and Mani for the watch.

The biggest objection that I have with 24 is the fact that it’s scientifically flawed. People can contend that it’s a sci-fi movie and it can defy rules. The difference between a sci-fi fantasy and a mythical fantasy is that the former sits inside the theories of science. 24 uses time travel based on an erroneous theory of time. As humans, we think that time is a single straight line and it is based on a belief that a thing/human being occupies only single place at any point of time. So, if you are sitting currently inside a bus and reading my review on your phone, you believe that there is only one version of you. Imagine that your phone is a time travel device and you want to use it to go back in time and not read this review as you are a Surya fan, the common belief is that you will physically reverse your time. This idea is built on physical theories of time. But this is a flawed and age-old concept that has been thrown out of scientific discourse and also Hollywood because time doesn’t travel in a straight line.

In simple words, if you have watched “Indru Netru Naalai”, at one point in time there will be multiple versions of Vishnu and Karunakaran fighting to save themselves (I actually went crazy at the climax because of the brilliance). It uses a “multiverse theory” to explain time travel in that movie. Multiverse theory takes a position that there can be different versions of a person who time travels and each can co-exist without interfering in to each other. So, when Karunakaran interferes with that dog, it changes everything in their life. In the example, that I have used, you can travel back in time and somehow create a sequence to break your own mobile so that you don’t read this review. However, that action will have various repercussions in your future. You might miss a call from your girl friend and she might break up with you or you may miss an important job interview call… The possibilities are endless. In 24, he travels back and changes a lot of things with no outcomes. This what makes the movie cringe worthy. The problem with the screenplay is the selective usage of chaos theory for director’s convenience. For instance, the live wire that helps Sethuraman to recharge the watch. In a sci-fi movie, the actions of people in accordance to the scientific rules dictate the movie and as a writer, it is important to have this in mind in order to write an interesting movie.

So what’s the problem in using an erroneous theory? The famous “Grandfather Paradox” comes in to the picture. For example, if you go back in time and kill your own grandfather, you would actually stop being in existence. If so, how will you murder your grandfather. In this case, the key to the box is held by Athreya and when he returns to consciousness, he loses the key. It magically reaches Mani and then he finds the time travel watch. However, if Athreya is killed when he goes back in time, how does Mani get the key that allows him to go back and alert his father. So it becomes an insolvable loop. The same thing could have happened at various instances in the movie like Sethuraman giving his child to Satyabama in the train.

The grandfather paradox happens only because it is based on the physical theory of time and it was theoretically disproved recently (too much high funda science that can’t be explained here). But over the years, scientists have argued that paradoxes cannot occur in a multiverse based on the Navikov Self-Consistency principles and that’s why you see a lot of Hollywood time travel movies using multiverse theory. They might be flawed in parts but not entirely flawed like 24. But even smaller budget movies in Hollywood explore time travel brilliantly. Don’t get me started at the time freezing ability. There are some super heroes/villains who can do that not a time machine. I couldn’t even sit through those scenes.

But there are going to be criticisms on me that I am trying to debauch a movie which makes sci-fi palatable for a common audience. The reason why I am criticising this movie is that it teaches wrong science and it is dangerous. The other criticism that might be levied on me would be to watch the movie like a movie – the cinematic aspect of it.

Let’s go through that drill too. There are a few wonderful moments in the movie especially the intermission sequence. It does evoke a curiosity but it dies immediately after the break. Smart symbolisms of Vikram Kumar is spread throughout the movie and his Athreya is amazingly characterised. After a very long time, you can see the acting skills of Surya in their full glory. His version of Athreya is menacing and the body language is absolutely brilliant. And there ends the good part of the movie.

The romance portion between Samantha and Surya is unimaginative and boring. I almost wanted to tear the screen when Surya utters that “I am a watch mechanic. Enakku idhellam Sarva Sadaranam”. The movie has the usual mother sentiment scenes and except for Mei Nigara nothing sticks in your mind in AR Rahman’s music. The Harry Potterish sets of Sethuraman’s house and Disney style train were really funny. It was suprising to realise that it was meant to be 1990. Above all, the funniest moment is when a watch mechanic adds a date component overnight to a time machine that was built after years of research by his father. He is a watch mechanic, ivarakku adhellam sarva Sadaranam. When the idea for the script is inherently flawed, it’s not right to expect a good movie.

24 is all what a science fiction movie should not be. It’s painful to find that our directors are using age-old concepts in our movies. It also shows how bad our science writing is. I wish this budget was used by people like R.Ravikumar who could have made a better sci-fi movie.

Whatever I write here, you are going to watch this scientifically and logically flawed 24 because of the star power. Nevertheless, I am going for big thumbs down for 24 and will watch “Indru Netru Naalai” to wade off the after taste. 24 is another attempt to Tamil movie audiences are stupid. It’s more dangerous than a masala movie with gravity defying stunts and illogical sequences. The bigger problem is the glorification of wrong movies such as this. In PS Veerappa style, “Indha Tamil Cinemavum Tamil Cinema Raasigargalum Naasamai Pogatum”.

PS:

1. I wish I could go back in time and not book the ticket for this movie. I sacrificed a nice lunch for this one. Also Vikram Kumar can go back and realise his folly.
2. I would be happy if I am disproved in the scientific aspects that I have explained – if you can send me the proof or articles, I will post an alternate review in an alternate timeline.

References

1. http://www.newdawnmagazine.com/articles/time-travel-the-multiverse-many-worlds-many-timelines
2. http://www.time-loops.net/Paradox.htm
3. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grandfather_paradox
4. http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/time-travel-simulation-resolves-grandfather-paradox/
5. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Novikov_self-consistency_principle

The tax rebate for U certificate movies has created a huge problem for Tamil movie directors. They are not prepared to show raw emotions on screen. Be it love, sex or violence, what we see is a camouflaged version (on the other side, the censor board willingly allows vulgarity). There are only few directors who defy the norm and make a movie with conviction. Here you have a young Vijay Kumar who has written, directed and produced (probably, he did the background score too) a simple, brutally honest movie that hits you like a bolt.

Uriyadi is a game that usually happens at a village festival where a blindfolded contestant has to break a pot that is raised and lowered using a pulley. It has been used as a metaphor in this case where a caste based politician trying to play hide and seek with a bunch of students. The movie takes place in the late 90s and it starts with an erection of a caste leader’s statue. A bunch of students get in to an altercation with that caste group at a nearby Dhaba that sells liquour too. The altercation snowballs in to a bigger issue and the rest of the movie forms how the college students tackle it.

 On the surface, Uriyadi might look like a simple revenge story but Vijay Kumar has built the story on multiple layers. He shows how a caste group with a mere 15,000 votes in a region attempts to build up a caste based party and how some leaders manipulate their members. The modus operandi is so realistic that you will definitely understand how caste based politics work in Tamil Nadu and the importance of statues in it. There is no other movie in Tamil that has openly talked about caste politics without even mentioning names of castes involved. Vijay Kumar impresses you with his construction of mise-en-scene of the movie. The dhaba, engineering college hostel and the college itself is so authentic that you travel to that period (I started my engineering course in 1999 and I can vouch for that) – even the posters of Kajol and Simran were from that period.

The lead protagonists of the movie, I wouldn’t call them heroes because the director hasn’t resorted to glorification of these protagonists. They are normal students who don’t like studying, have sexy posters of actresses in the hostel room, have unquestionable faith in friendship and question norms of the society with respect to caste. When someone fiddles with them, they are unstoppable with respect to their retaliation. The stunt sequences are so realistic and violent that few of the audience will be unable to fathom it. Nevertheless, the truth is real life violence is as brutal as they show it. Of course, the movie has some compromises in making and the acting part but that’s due to the budgeting constraints. It can be forgiven for the brilliance of the movie. Uriyadi is an intelligent movie. It doesn’t take its audience for granted and never tends to hide anything from them. Violence, caste politics, life at a college situated in interior TN – everything has been depicted without being overtly discussed.

Masala Cafe’s rendition of Bharathiyar’s Akkini Kunjondru Kanden is riveting and I have been humming this since I watched the movie while Maane Maane is sweet. The bigger problem I had with the movie is a larger question of whether violence is the only resort for students to tackle political oppression? Hold on to that thought when you watch Uriyadi. At the same time, Uriyadi is an example of how movies should be made – honest and uncompromising story telling.

I give 4/5 for Uriyadi and miss it at your own peril. I expect the movie to get out of theatres by this weekend because it’s really good. That’s what we do to good movies.

I am amazed at the extremely polarised discussion on Iraivi – an average movie that should have been just passed along like many other Tamil movies that come every week. Iraivi is a story of how men’s decisions in the family affect the lives of women. The center piece of the story is a movie made by Arul (played by SJ Surya) and the producer is not willing to release the movie due to differences with Arul. His brother Jagan (Bobby Simha) and Michael (Vijay Sethupathi) are trying to help Arul to release the movie. Arul resorts to drinking and this affect his wife Yazhini (Kamalini Mukherjee). Meanwhile, Michael gets married to Ponni (Anjali) but cannot forget his affair with Malar (Pooja Devariya), who is a widow. The decisions they make in order to save Arul’s movie affects their wives and rattle their life.

Iraivi has some beautiful moments in it – in fact, the way it starts will actually make you notice how Karthik Subbaraj uses rain to show the emotional state of three women. Rain is used as a leitmotif throughout the movie to show the different emotional states of women and in the end, independence (or is it?). There are some scenes that are really well crafted, Ponni’s outburst at Michael or Yazhini’s helplessness between her love for Arul and the reality or at the end when Arul makes that phone call. And that’s the problem with Iraivi, it impresses you in patches. Iraivi suffers from convoluted story-telling. It makes you wonder why this story need such a meandering screenplay to make a point. It’s like an idiyappam (string hopper) that doesn’t have a start or an end. After the second half, you are left to wonder, “What’s the point”? Yes, the men in the story are male chauvinist pigs and not so surprisingly, Karthik Subbaraj establishes this in the first 40 minutes of the movie. He continues to overindulge with his characters and that doesn’t do any good for the movie. It was almost as if like Karthik wanted to show off his intelligence. The best movies are the ones that allow its characters in their own flow.

I had problems thematically too. Iraivi, the name itself is an issue for me. Most men don’t understand the idea of feminism. I always say we either just try to keep a woman in the pinnacle or drop them as a doormat. The whole movie shows how women are being used as a doormat and suddenly at the end they rise up to become a goddess. It’s the patriarchal way of seeing feminism. Take for instance Malar’s character played by Pooja, she had to be a widow to have casual sex. What if Malar was a single woman and is not interested in marriage? We need a reason for her “so-called” immorality and in a way, the director himself thinks his character is immoral. The same with the characterisation of Yazhini, she accepts the remarriage with someone not because she wishes to but because her family wants to. Why can’t she live alone? Or does she have the choice? The idea of benevolent sexism runs throughout the movie and Bobby Simha’s character is the epitome of that. The movie camouflages this benevolent sexism as feminism and people have bought in to it.

Wait a minute. Why am I talking about this in a review? Why would the people in the Tamil movie industry and literary writers are talking about this average movie? Why haven’t they discussed previous instances of movies that talked about feminism (in many ways)? Why this polarised discussion? Is it because it’s from a movie director who masks himself as the beacon of new wave cinema? I have seen people who don’t even write about Tamil movies writing about this one. Tamil film directors are using exotic adjectives to glorify the movie that is below par in numerous levels. Have you seen the same for Uriyadi? None. Literally, None. What a waste of time and energy.

Iraivi is an average movie that doesn’t need this amount of attention. It should be passed along like any other stupid masala movie – probably talk about the acting prowess of SJ Surya and Anjali or how bad the songs from Santhosh Narayan or random adjectives on the cinematography and editing that the usual reviewers add to their review (although they don’t know anything about it). Iraivi is just worth that much.

A 2/5 for Karthik Subbaraj and I hope he steps down from the high castle.

P.S:

1. What’s with nostalgia indulgence of Karthik Subbaraj – in fact, even those old cars and sets hampered the movie experience. It was novel in Jigarthanda but in Iravi – overdone.
2. Unlike the majority, I still consider Karthik Subbaraj as an average director. Pizza was an interesting thriller but Jigarthanda is a mashup of two Korean movies.

Writing about a Rajini movie is a futile exercise. After all, if I give a good review, the post might might get shared and if I give a bad review, I am going to be termed as a fake reviewer. …

Disclaimer:

1. Major parts of the article has been sourced from my academic dissertation submitted to University of Southampton for my MSc., Digital Marketing course.
2. I am trying to introduce a new concept here that’s in a nascent stage. So confusions

One question plagued my mind before and after I watched the movie. I was thinking why the director chose to name the movie as “Iru mugan”. Neither Love or Akilan Vinod (both played by Vikram) are two faced. In fact, …

When you read reviews of any Tamil thriller movie, you will come across this adjective “fast-paced”. Thrillers are supposed to be fast-paced with multiple twists and turns but on the other side there are slow burning thrillers that are under …