Movie: Sagar Alias Jackey Reloaded
Language : Malayalam
Date: 26-3-2009

Review

Cinema is a Visual Medium. When this Visual aspect of cinema is exploited to add richness, style and grandeur, it can create right ambience for a scene and leave remarkable impact. Amal Neerad's much awaited and celebrated 'Sagar Alias Jackey' succeeds in exploiting this visual aspect to a good extent but falters to be a better director.As always I am not going to divulge the story details here. I am directly going in to the +ves and -ves of the movie.
The Positives:

Eye Pleasing Visual Treat
Amal Neerad for sure is an excellent Cinematographer and there is no ways to that. There are elaborately rich back drops. From sky scrapers and clear blue skies of Dubai to the beaches of Goa, from the mountains of Ladakh to the resort locations in Kerala, the camera is eye pleasingly rich. The slick cuts, the slow motions, the motion freezes. U name it and its all there. Technically and visually it can give any bollywood movie a run for its money.

Heart Racing Style Quotient
Like me, while watching DON, Billa or the corporate looks of Ghajini (both Tamil and Hindi) if you have wondered whether such styling will ever come to Malayalam Cinema, then your answer is here. SAJ oozes style in each frame. SAJ rides a cool Black Hummer and a Red Ferrari. He flies a plush private Jet. And carries Versache and Armani with elan. The suit look. The ruggid jeans look. The Malayali Mundu. Its all there. For me this is the best Malayalam cinema has done in terms of styling. I felt proud to see that happening on screen.

Lively Music
I have liked all the 4 tracks of SAJ on audio and the 3 of them on screen have been picturised well. Jyotirmayi sizzles on the beach in 'O sama'. 'Vennilave' is foot thumping. The Final SAJ title song is nice watch during end credits. The background music is almost well done especially the use of the signature tune throughout the movie. It jars in some scenes when the BGM 'Sagar Sagar' is repeated in hollow sound.

The Ultimate Cool Dude
Lal rocks as SAJ. As the pillar stone around which the movie revolves, he carries the role with elan. He looks comfortable looking the stylish DON. The role doesn't demand much of his acting skills but he does complete justice and looks great!!. Only looks wooden during the ‘Vennilave’ song. The Action scenes have been convincingly done. But he looks bulky in the intro scene walk. Undoubtedly, a style icon performance.
Other notable performances are from Shobhana and Bhavana. Sampath Kumar is the best among Villains.

The Negatives:
Too much for the Camera

Amal is so much in love with the camera that by the time he finishes his slow mo in many scenes, he fails to carry the audience with him. This guy needs some lesson that a slow mo adds to the mood of the scene and its not for killing the interest of the viewer. Take for example the scene straight after the interval. Lights come on. Suman (the Villain) is walking in to meet Lal to negotiate some deal. He does a Slow Mo walk before the scene starts. A simple plain scene right after the interval begins with a slow mo intro! I guess thats too much. This was just for an example.

Nothing Novel with the story
If you are looking for anything new in the story, then its not there. Its almost an ‘EN’ rehash. With the journalist girl friend, Chief Minister’s son and twisted friendship all right in place here as well. And for the same reason it may not have its heart in its right place. SAJ is never challenged. He always reigns supreme. The audience may not experience the raciness and gripping edge of the seat action.

Lack of a Tighter Screenplay
Screenplay falters at many portions mainly due to the Camera which seems to be having its on life. The Audience has to wait for the camera to finish its antics and the real scene to be started. Many a times u are ready for action but the camera has still not finished its antics. A tighter screen play which could have overcome these faults with the director could have made the movie racy.
Finally to conclude, SAJ is a almost fine for a one time watch. It won't hurt you or make you feel completely sorry for having seen it. Its no racy, edge of the seat action either. And if you like Style, Rich Locations, the SAJ songs or even Lal, then you may have scope for a second watch also.


My Verdict : 3/5 and an 'ABOVE AVERAGE' rating for 'Sagar Alias Jackey Reloaded'.
'Sagar Alias Jackey Reloaded' - Stylish Razzmatazz!

Movie : Yaavarum Nalam
Language : Tamil
Date : 11th March, 2009.


Review:
There was this scene towards the end of the Movie 'Yaavarum Nalam' (YN) when Madhavan rushes through some old news paper cuttings and puts together the missing pieces from the old murder mystery. During that scene the director shows many 'indicators' which he had cleverly left during the first half in many scenes.Amid even the horror, suspense there were a few in the audience who clapped for those subtle indicators. Those claps for me were the winning moment of YN.

YN is a well worked out blend of 2 of the most famous jounres of cinematic story telling. Murder Mystery and Horror. I do not wish to divulge the story here. The merit lies in the fact that YN exploits both the jounres to a point which makes each of those completely engaging. As the movie starts off you may feel a 'Bhooth' hangover with the lift rising in the shaft and the under ground car parking scenes etc. But the similarity soon ends. YN establishes itself and moves way ahead of 'Bhooth' in many aspects especially a more convincing climax. The 'who done it' part is really well covered with very less loop holes.

The various tools of the movie work in an endearing manner. The background music is like a character in itself. I have not heard such a complimenting BGM score for a long time. I was hugely wishing that they turn the volume down as it was spooking me off. The BGM is truly horror invoking. There is not much attempts to bring the usual surprise jerks in a typical horror movie like ‘Bhooth’. Those are few but the horror is mainly handled via the situation, the BGM and the camera. The Camera is a tweaky jerk to it. It wavers, it shivers and all adds to the spook fest.

The story is convincing for once because its in a premises so close to your life. It can't get more personal than the TV and the flat. Trust me if its giving you a 'Bhooth' hangover already, this is quite different.

The whole of the cast looks competant with Madhavan leading the pack.
I felt that at certain portions the movie tries to take itself too seriously. Like for example after the interval Madhavan says that they need to continue staying at the same flat so that they keep seeing the TV show and get to know what is in store for the future. Someone sane wouldn't do that after he himself has understood that everything becomes normal to him once he is out of the flat (the dog scene).
Certain scenes need better editing and could have been shorter. Especially the 2 songs could have been avoided even though they are not shown in full length. The movie cud have been shorter by minimum 10-15 minutes.

But apart from all of that, the director (Vikram Kumar) deserves a lot of applause. The way he has carried the movie is endearing. He is a talent to look forward to having done Story, Script, Screenplay and Direction.

Verdict - 3.5/5 and a 'VERY GOOD' rating for Vikram Kumar's super movie 'Yaavarum Naalam'.
Go and have 'fun' at the spook fest!

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About Me

The Rainmaker is intended as a blog for casual writing and bring about small little changes wherever possible.Initally, it would have movie reviews watched at the cinemas. For starters, movie reviews that I have written over over the past 2 years for Malayalam, Hindi and Tamil movies have been included here. ----------------------------- Next Likely Reviews - Ividam Swargamanu