Inception

Just see it!
Oh man! What a movie..what shud one do to even come closer to imagine such plots, phew..
I can reveal the plot here, discuss the climax, give more spoilers, but nothing can take the fun away from the movie. Such a class act it is!
This fella Christopher Nolan is an amazing guy..His ‘Prestige’ being one of my all time favorites. (Memento, Batman, following being his other treats).
I cant think of anything less than 2 decades being the time taken to weave this magic. Man! Can some one even think of such a plot and this guy can deliver it flawless..yes, I cant think of any loop holes at all..that itself is a feat.
But wait..it just isn’t enough seeing the movie once..may be we shud buy a DVD and see it many more times to fully get it. Hey, I am serious.

No review can do justice to this!
Go watch the movie, then buy a DVD on the way and see many more times..Its gonna be as enchanting and fresh each time.

Hats off Nolan! Genius proved again!!

Perannmai review

This Jhananathan’s movie is different. Worth a watch..a different storyline..

Paisa vasool 1: The opening shot is a pro- organic sentence:-)
Paisa vasool 2: There is s song about organic farming (vairamuthu!)
Paisa vasool 3: Location- its just amazing!
Paisa vasool 4: a diff and daring plot for tamil movie (inspite of the unnecessary dramatics)
Paisa vasool 5: No heroine..so no around-the-tree duets..infact songs are just interlaced with some scenes /story in the background.(ok, except one)
This guy Jeyam ravi has matured as an actor and has taken his role seriously and given a good performance. A kamal like 'kovanam' clad opening shot! As it is he is a tall handsome fella who does decent generally..here he has worked hard, most evident in his toned & tanned body.
It’s a new storyline..some 5 NCC girls and the Hero get stuck in the forests and (ya hold ur breath) unravel a foreign mercenary/terrorist group plot to shoot down an Indian satellite to be launched. (hey, wasn’t that Trotsky maruthu as the scientist head?) To be Launched for what? The 1st satellite to be launched to help organic farming. That was stretching the organic obsession a bit too much, even for me;-)
Ok, there are so many dramatic scenes, unwanted and stretched dialogs about a tribal lad coming out, his choice of books, etc.. There are also some heavy rocket launchers, land mine detectors, range of sophisticated m/c guns..But we have seen so many Heroes handle such variety from vanilla Cruise to vendaikai Vijay..
So that shall pass, even if its illogical and seems ridiculous at times..
That’s not all, there are times when the girls ( NCC cadets from some college) act beyond any respite or logic and then continue to do some crazy stuff with out any remorse..but suddenly turn patriotic and follow this hero to thwart foreign terorrists.. then there is the rambo or terminator like shooting and bombing (in all directions) with low or no casualty.
Inspite of all these I still claim this is worth a watch..There are some sharp and good dialogs..location and camera are fantastic..some good pace at times and sudden spurts of good suspense and racy takes..some thrilling scenes amidst lots of dramatized scenes..
If only the director had concentrated a bit more and reduced some of the annoying silly pranks of the girls in to more funny and lighter ones and added more suspense and speed, it would been excellent. But now its just short of it..Kudos for the daring venture..and my personal pat for including organic gyan in the movie..3 additional stars for that.

Unnai pol Oruvan

literally translated it means: One like you..referring to the much cliched 'common man'..
remember A wednesday, I wrote here long back? A very well made movie- very contemporary and original in ideas..
That movie has apparently impressed kamal so much, he jumped in and (re)made it in Tamizh as Unnai pol oruvan..

Its just for those who haven't seen the hindi original. If you haven't seen the hindi version, happily go and watch it,for this nice, simple, different thriller can impress you. No songs, no fights and just 90-100 mins movie! Even the Tamizh version!!
Believe me, this Tamizh version is no patch on the original. Not even Kamal could match Nasrudeen Shah. So no need to mention about Mohanlal's role which was done by Anupam Kher. These 2 guys would have given extraordinary performances earlier(and can still give), but here they werent needed or this didnt excite them.

one thing that stood out in this movie was the close up shots of the old veteran actress Laksmi. hmm, what could be the reason to have such close up shot? some sort of a fear factor for a thriller movie? or is that chottu photographer of salangai oli (yes, that chappie is the director of this movie)employing those funny talents of salangai oli still? that was funny! All this when you couldnt even gather a reason as to why did that role need some one like Laksmi who is supposed to freak out on meaty roles. She is wasted here.

Then there is the kamal's trademark cheapo effects..like panning on to MK's house and the Chief secretary's car leaving from MK's house, MK"s voice as the CM on phone..yuck...cheap thrills those were..infact in the original there was scope to ridicule the CM, Chief sec and teh governance, where as here thats all lost..only Kamal can come out with suck pranks.remember the Bush look alike in dasavatharam and all those talks of organising a show of that movie for Bush? ROTFL..what if the Bushy fella had actually seen it:-)

All said and done, this is still a neat movie esp for the first timers..No songs, less than 2 hours hollywood style presentation, slick & simple portrayal are all to be welcomed and encouraged.
But please dont see the original till you have seen this. That can spoil the fun, everywise.

Update 1: forgot to mention the usage of too much of English, how ever impressive though. some sentences like " answer in binary..yes or no..", " This terrorist is currency and community agnostic.." ain't that too much?

Update 2: After the movie (at Maayajal) we went to the Arusuvai Arasu restaurant. and came up with the brilliant idea to get even with another friend of ours - of getting a ticket to the movie Kandasamy and order 'chilly parotta' from arusuvai. No better way to get even with any one u wanna penalise no ends. now, if u happen to step in to that arusuvai restaurant, just ask for the menu card and eat that. They are not going to serve you any thing better for sure;-)

Fine Dining!

Ahem, We all know about places like Krishna sweets, ananda bhavan, etc and the special dishes they dish out..but we also don’t expect a big service nor other decent frills since our expectation is only to gobble some of those select speciality dishes of theirs..
But when it comes to special dining and with really ‘special’ (read v high) rates then our expectations soar. We put up with high rates many times because of the service offered or many other addl qualities like:
- good ambiance if not extraordinary
- neat & clean tables, table cloth, glasses
- refilling of water regularly
- good filtered water without ‘hand dipped’ effects
- no naive waiters and NO nose picking
- taking orders promptly and ensuring they all come
- no repeated reminders for every silly thing
There is this new outlet Krishna sweets have opened called ‘Rasam’. Inspite of some real good n unique items like cauliflower idiyappam, ilaneer payasam, karupatti halwa, exotic soups, etc they failed in all (yes, ALL) of the above qualities.
Why do such people who cant deliver try to step up? Its not any great special science to know the qualities u need to graduate to fine dining. IMHO saravanas is a simple middle class restaurant cleanly surpassing anybody’s expectations esp any demanding cleanliness criteria and is as good or better than any fine dining expensive outlets.
But I really fail to get the sudden urge and kick these people get to up the ante.
I know that Krishna sweet’s service is bad at their regular outlets like the ones in Tnagar or Adyar but I still put up with it bcos they are the just a shade better than the road side shops but have some special dishes. Though I chide myself the rare times I go there again (poor failing memory) but this ‘fine dining’ Rasam- I shouldn’t go again, for sure. That just isn’t worth. The amount of tension u handle after repeating the order or reminding them about the missed dishes or plead for water or clean glass is like having driven some 15 kms in banglaore or Delhi @ peak hour. Just not worth it.

A Wednesday!

Why was there not much noise about this movie? Its one of the well made thrillers (if not the best ) in bollywood..very hollywoodish but with lotsa relevance to desi scene..
How ever well made the Hollywood flicks are, I feel am a bit displaced bcos I don’t gel with NYPD or LAPD or their infights and many such trivias that are purely yankee..But that doesn’t mean they shud make movies relevant to all & sundry in the world but my wish always was why not people here make movies of such caliber but very India relevant..
A Wednesday is an attempt at that and a highly successful one!
Remember the telephone booth- a gripping thriller with just one telephone booth as a set prop! What brains to make movies like that..This is nearly such an effort, monumental in our context.
Who better to take those roles that Anupam Kher and Nasrudeen Shah. What a performance..fantastic portrayal! I read somewhere that “ bring Kher as Mumbai Commissioner, he may do a good job, seeing the way he conducts in this role!”..as for Nasrudeen Shah, this shud be right up there among his scores of great jobs he has done.
I don’t think any review of this movie can attempt to say anything about the story or any incident in the movie. Its so intelligent that any extra word can result as a clue to the movie’s suspense! So go see the movie, its really worth it. A very powerful movie with the message just sliding across to you with panache.

Sivaji - dareview!

Yes, am going to call a spade a spade..a daring attempt..
so my caveats first:
U can abuse me, threaten me or even kill me- but all online only.
I know, most of my friends are rajini fans rather fanatics..but then even they are asked to write here- no personal discussions on this..
Pl donot sermonize on how good a person he is or give me some comparision/equivalent of crap Hollywood pics..then that is crap too and I shall call it too the same..plus what is being said here is what I felt on seeing this much hyped movie (+ some accumulated rajini movie syndromes) ..lets stick to the screen events alone..
Most imp caveat- I love that fella so much as a person (ok, lemme forgive him for not coming to politix which I wanted him to badly- u cud not hav gotten a more honest guy is my op) and his humility..just check some of his interviews after all this hulla for this movie and u wud ask if he is the super star on whom so much is being said..his eyes reflect downright honesty always..but then that’s the real person..in a reel person one (atleast I) expects more of performance and acting than the nourishment the role supplies.

I went to see the movie to avoid the astonished voices of my friends (even on ISD calls) if I watched..some one said ‘don’t dare to tell me u didn’t see it as yet’..so I risked it..and so u hear it from me what I felt:

Some generalizations:
Most Rajini movies (like MGR movies of yester years) confuse between the actor, his role and persona..even if he comes as a gate keeper the co-actors, directors (and the fans, ofcourse) confuse and impart so much hype and respect in to that. So am more used to the owner of the house/company saluting and respecting the ‘gatekeeper’ so much as it cud be nauseating..that continues in this movie too..
His dance(?) wud be the best comical sequence in his movies..forget his walks and some stylish pranks that he wud perform in the midst of his songs to please his fan(atic)s..and his miming is the icing on the cake for me- I always enjoy some funny pieces like : he wud mime one in his fingers indicating one (for onru) where the lyrics wud be togetherness (onrupattu)..I shud collect some 1000s like this from his old movies and release one day..that shud be fun!
He is too bloody decent to show passion or romance or intimacy that he wud keep that much ‘decent distance’ even in ‘close’ scenes. Infact u wud see more emoting from him when he was doing that to vivek than to the heroine!
What ever his role is whole of TN wud ridiculously recognize that reel person, in the movie that is. For eg here- as soon as this NRI comes from US he throws a party and the who is who of TN (reel ones like the biggest industrialist, minister et al) all attend it. More fun is when he lands a bunch of hep girls come to the airport bcos one software guy is returning and they wud promptly disappear the moment he say GO..
In serious scenes too, some one or the other wud deliver some dialog which wud have more relevance to his persona in real life than to the reel role that he is playing then!
So in general in a rajini or mgr movie the non-comedy scenes end being best comical scenes.

Punch dialogs: rotten old they are as a ploy in a movie and have lost their relevance too..vivek says in this movie subtly and so takes the pain of delivering some, him self!. They have been so meaningless but so much followed and worshipped..again confusion factor here – between the role and person. Some years ago so dialogs against JJ wud surface ..and many times absolute crap: for eg here the biggest n talked about is “singam thaniya thaan varum” (trsln: Lion always comes alone!grrrrr unlike the pigs that come in herds) accompanied by so much of ear dashing music and effects (and side effects from fans) and he obviously entered that scene with Vivek!! Hah haa “thaniya thaan varum” and all that special effects for a scene he DID NOT come alone! So much for the punch dialog’s relevance – in movie and outside..If I expand on the outside it wud divert the focus from the movie, so lets ignore that for now.

Story: or the lack of it..ok..nri returns to serve his country/people and sees lotsa hurdles esp by the villain and the hero thwarts all that and comes out winner, ofcourse. But the weakest of all shankar’s movies..shankar is almost absent (remember how much empathy he used to generate – eg. Indian, mudhalvan, anniyan) and prolly banked on the magic of Rajini and ofcourse it has paid. But both Shankar and sujatha (script) are absent ! come to think of the amazing dialogs this duo has brot in previous outings with the glorius exception of Boys.. (“police inspectorku laser disc appanukku paasama?”)they have let Rajini down is my feeling. Infact some ridiculous dialogs like “ippadi irukkara ooru ippadi aagidum” giving crap ideas that tar and huge buildings is what is needed! And BTW why is it only politicos for black money and not any of these cinema guys? Talk of guts.. talking of guts- did u guys notice the effect of ramdoss and co have on sivaji/rajini? No ciggies thia time, its chewing gum;-) and that bounces off his hand, villains head, architectural prototype of his complex and what not? Hmmmmm…

Culture: Oh, Can one forget the tamil culture? As said b4, there r scores of women (scantily dressed) who are ready for our hero every where rit from the moment he lands, but he shoos them all and suggests he needs a true tamil cultured lady..and there she falls right in front fully dripping in culture and what not! Always skimpily dressed (hey, Shankar & co- u cant fudge accounts there on her dress costs)..2 feet above and 1 feet below the naval was always free- (dear govt- take note pl, one acre of free poromboke land there!)..my word am I getting old? Or was it tooooooo obvious?

Spl effects: found rajini's face/head too big than normal..side effect of the special effects?? That whitey stuff was yucky..i mean the thought n execution on screen was fine, but y wud one waste so much time n money for something of no relevance..its their money, ok but it pains me. Shankar has this knack of thinking big and spending so much for any smallest of scene too..if there has to be a shadow then its created with some special software in hongkong or US and so much is talked about it (crisp marketing, but) when it cud have occurred naturally or with minimal camera tricks. Gone are the days of his gorgeous and mindboggling song sequences..its more repetition like rahmans music..tending towards stale..there is this vulgar display of money spent (= wasted) than the role or story demanding such enormity..
Come to think of it, the comedy, sentiments and all other paraphernalia looked like an SPMuthuraman movie..as a co-producer did he have a say? Then good luck guys..

But come to think of the stats they r throwing..what a hit..what a planned marketing hype..add Rajini’s commercial magic to it and u have the perfect concoction..but they have depended too much only on that gas than real stuff..may be it pleased lotsa fans..more so bcos such great commercial noises and achievements..may be they wud be v happy for rajini’s commercial success and wud love to be a part of these stats and so wud run a couple of more times to the theatres, but heart of heart wud accept they expected more and this is not as great as being created..