Movie: Thaanthonni
Language: Malayalam
Date 19, March, 2010
Review
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Imagine a movie in which the script writer is hell bound at telling all the stories in the world within that one single movie, combined with a director who has no control where the movie is heading to. Looks like a Combustible Combination in over drive. Right? This is exactly what T.A Shahid and George Varghese do in the latest Prithviraj movie 'Thaanthonni'. There are not one, but three 'Thaanthonnis' (Disobidient ones) in the movie. T.A Shahid, George Varghese and Prithviraj. And what results is ‘movie mayhem’!
The Story - Over Written
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TA Shahid believes in over writing this story to the point that no one cares beyond a point. The first one hour is the saving grace in the movie. Its watchable.The antics of Prithviraj as 'Kochukunju' are kind of bearable and the first flash back arrives. You still feel that though everything happening is formulaic, its all as expected. But soon the interval scene arrives and what is clearly inspired from 'Puthiya Mugham' goes all sour in a poorly written and executed scene.After the interval, all hell breaks loose and its a downward spiral from then on. To a point, when it becomes a torture chamber where you are forced to watch the second flashback story, Prithviraj's 'Sagar Alias Jackey' act, tear-jerker family scenes and reunion of the old couples. Oh my God, they can use this one for the Guantanamo Torture Chambers, if they still have them open.
Directon - Lack of One
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George Varghese has no clue where the movie is going for once. He completely has given the reigns over to TA Shahid's story and script which keeps on over running. Most of the scenes are so poorly executed that from the word go, you get the idea that this new director lacks vision of his kind of cinema. A story has to be told in its sincerity and trueness. Everything of that sort is missing here. It seems director thinks that too many flashbacks means a great story or at least the scriptwriter has impressed that point on him. We surely do not need poor clones of Joshy. The original one is still alive and kicking.
Scene after scene you understand that not even chopping off 30-45 minutes of the movie can save it. Its was never destined to be a sane movie. At a running time of 2 hours and 30 minutes, 'Thaanthooni' is torture.
The Rebel Hero
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No Mincing words here. Prithviraj is below par in 'Thaanthooni'. He has charm in many portions, agreed but it cannot be called even as a good performance in a bad movie.
His scenes in the first half as a drunkard, poorly ape Mohanlal. Its almost as if you can see Lal performing in all his drunakrd mannerisms. And he commits criminal
mistakes in the kind of scenes that he has agreed to do. He is over stylish and loads of reels are wasted to show him as some 'super power'. Horrendous!
Finally, all the good will which 'Puthiya Mugham' and 'Robinhood' (to certain extent) had created has been vanished. No longer one can believe that the young star has a sane head on his shoulders. The script selection , the director, everything is shoddy. 'Puthiya Mugham' was sincere, precise, to the point and a performance well delivered in a commercial set up. 'Thaanthonni' takes him a few years backwards. He delivers 4-5 minutes long dialogues trying to be like Mammotty and Lal in One man hero movies, but haven't we seen that all with them. This is not the change that we are looking for. We thought the new generation star would think like the new generation and have better sensibilities. This is like back to square one.
Rest of the Bits and Pieces
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Ambika in a tear jerker mother role is filling up the screen space - literally. Loads and loads of characters but none leaves an impression. Poor old Suraj cracks some
one liners and scores. Jagathy is funny in a short role. Heroine is wasted for a song and few scenes. Cinematography is amateurish. Gopi Sundar does a decent job and
is one of the positive points of this movie. Tej Mervin's poor tunes remind us of Deepav Dev's valuable contribution in the success of Puthiya Mugham.
Finally, 'Thaanthonni' has neither soul or sincerity nor purpose. Its like those 'B' grade movies wrapped in to a family tearjerker. No one expected a master piece. Frankly, even an average movie would have been a positive surprise. But even with such low expectations, 'Thaanthonni' fails miserably. Sorry, to say the young super star, you have a long way to go in choosing scripts and getting them executed.
Verdict - 1.5 / 5 as Rating
'Torture' as Opinion
'Thaanthonni' - Get ready to be Tortured.
Movie: Vinnaithaandi Veruvaaya.
Language: Tamil
Date: 06th Mar, 2010
Review
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Good Love stories are like rain in the summer. Heart warming and Refreshing. And it makes you feel that it has been a long summer all the while.Goutham Menon's New Movie 'Vinnaithaandi Veruvaaya' is special because probably its a pure romantic movie after a long long time. A perfect two character play in all its complexities, the movie takes itself very seriously when it comes to telling a true love story.And for that one factor, it rises above being just good.
A Lasting Love Story
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The tale of Karthik (Chimbu) and Jessie (Trisha) is a love story that is not only true and realistic but also creates a lasting impression. Karthik is the quintessential next door boy. Young, Lacklustre and without much of an aim in life except for his love of cinema. Karthik is not different from many other heroes that you have often seen in movies. He is daring when it comes to love and ready to go the extra mile to make things happen. The twist comes in the second portion of this 2 way tale.
And that is Jessie. Completely unsure of what she wants for her, fearful of her father, she is that modern day girl who tries to be different when she is outside home. She is ever afraid to show her love or even accept it. Confused between whether to commit or reject even though she loves Karthik. As she tosses up Karthik's life and plays around with it, Jessie creates a beautiful character out of herself.
VTV is memorable because of the love story between these 2 well defined characters. Kudos to Goutham for writing such beautiful characters.
Director - All about Trust
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Goutham believes strongly in the movie and the theme that he has made. Its visible in how genuine and true he has been to the subject. VTV is not an action - romance or a romantic comedy or anything else but it is a pure romantic movie. Goutham takes his time building his characters and as an audience you get to know their various untold facets which reveal slowly. You grow with these characters as an audience. For the sheer sincerity with which the subject has been treated, I rate it at par with his best movies till date.
Jessie - Drives you Crazy
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For me, VTV belongs to Jessie. Trisha's career best role till date, is a revelation. She is so perfectly cast that she lives through the role. Looks simple and gorgeous as Jessie. She looks completely deceptive when seeing Karthik's love. Charming and lovable when she accepts Karthik's love. Helpless and Restless in love when her father rejects Karthik. Calm, composed and mature towards the end. All rolled in to one, the movie is interesting beyond a point only due to the spice which Jessie adds to it. Chimbu has put in perhaps his career best role and taking nothing away from him, he also stands his space and holds on. Chimbu's Karthik is almost a routine role done well but 's Trisha's Jessie is special.
Music that makes your heart skip a beat
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The soul of any love story is probably the songs and the music and for me this is the best album (in terms of the number of good tracks) for atleast 2 years now. In an era when each movie has hardly one or two good tracks, VTV boasts of 5-6 really beautiful tracks. AR Rehman is stupendous and his compositions are breaking the barriers of culture and fusion. Hats off to Goutham for extracting such an awesome album from him. The rerecording is mint cool especially the 'Jessie drives me crazy' bit.
Cinematography is good and Editing could have been tighter at some instances but movie has a nice pace of its own.
Negatives
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The interval scene and dialogues could have been handled way better. It quite looks silly and abrupt in a poetic movie. Same is the case with the sudden love interest from Karthik's Cinema Colleague. Songs are soulful but 3 of them (Omana Penne, Hossanna and Kannukkul Kannai) have been picturised in the very same way (road dancers). Some more imagination, thought and effort could easily have been applied to make these songs have different identity. May be Goutham can learn it from Shanker or Mani Ratnam. He has done proper justice only to 3 songs (Aromale, Mannipaya and Anbil Avan). Some dialogues are completely silly and Trisha's dubbing inaudible at times.
'Vinnaithaandi Veruvaaya' is not devoid of shortcomings but the sheer sincerity of the movie, truthfulness to the subject, interesting character sketches, superb performances and breath taking music leaves an impression for some time ahead. After all when did we see the last genuine love story?
Verdict - 4/5 as Rating. 'A Treat for your Heart' as an opinion.
Vinnathaandi Veruvaaya - ' Crossing the realms of Love'
Movie: My Name is Khan
Language: Hindi
Date: 12-02-2010
Review
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We live in an era of where entertainment with a message is perhaps the need of the times. Bollywood's one of the most celebrated directors of recent times, Karan Johar, has come up with latest offering 'My Name is Khan', which has a message to the entire world. MNIK is promising for the message that it delivers but falls short of being a uplifting cinematic experience.
The Journey
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MNIK is about the journey of a man with Aspergers syndrome through the landscape of post 9/11 American mainland, trying to proclaim that all Muslims are not terrorists. His strong belief is that men are only of 2 kinds - good or bad. MNIK is a worth watching movie in the first half. Though not a rollicking entertainer, but the character Rizwan keeps you hooked. He is 'awkward' and 'limited' in true sense of the words but the first half is lifted by a completely contrasting ‘Mandira’ played by Kajol. The contrast and the tale just carries you through the first half with ease and you break at the interval with some proud thoughts about KJo, SRK and Kajol.
The Pit falls
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Where MNIK begins to loosen its grip is when each and every scene is planned and composed to proclaim a part of the umpteen numbers of sub messages fitted in to 2.40 hrs of MNIK. Hence, there is an African American township episode, detention episode, Burkha, American - Indian kids love-hate and so on. Alright, the message in the movie is noble and superbly mounted on a good platform but when every scene becomes a mode to keep saying that, then MNIK looses the charm of storytelling in a movie but becomes almost like a corporate presentation deck where each slide has a well planned agenda and message. And slow paced, filmy and preachy it becomes in the second half that, by the end of it we start wishing that the American President somehow appears so that the movie can end.
Shah Rukh Khan and Kajol
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MNIK is one of the better movies of SRK but he looks and sounds more 'robotic' than 'autistic'. The kind of perfection expected from such a life changing or path breaking character is lacking. SRK does much better than hamming away as expected but the kind of mind blowing perfection is missing. 'Chak De India' was much more clinical and more justice to that character but Rizwan is more complex a character than in Chak De India for sure. He is very good in some of the scenes like the proposal scene, speech in the church and 'Khan' corrections.
Kajol as 'Mandira' is stupendous and natural as ever as long as she is the thick of it. The breakdown scene is one of the best for a lead actress for some time now. She is so natural in her reactions and a perfect foil for the controlled and limited Rizwan. Perhaps no one else could have brought so much to this role as her.
The Surprise
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The surprise of the whole package though is Karan Johar to a great extent. From the days of 'KKHH', 'K3G', 'KANK' Karan has come a long way. But perhaps he has some more way to go and reach the destination that he is headed to. Why does the hero need to have an Aspergers Syndrome in the first place and why not the story of a common man? Why is the story need to be mounted in the US when Indian is equally affected by Terrorism? Can't a global statement be made if the story is placed in India? Even if all these are ignored the filmy clichés of 'Georgia episode' makes you cringe. Rizwan travels all the way to Georgia from LA on a bus much before any help arrives there. He almost forgets his fear for sound or limitations as he helps the people out. Filmy!
Camera by Ravi Chandran is Superb. Music by Shankar trio is a big let down with not even a single outstanding track. Sharbani Bhatija commits the same errors as in 'Fanah'.
In short, MNIK is a many steps forward for Karan Johar, a better work of Shah Rukh, a reaffirmation about the stupendous Kajol and a movie which has a touching message but could have been better in being less preachy , less filmy and more entertaining.
Verdict - Rating - 3/5
Opinion - Watch it once for the Message.
MNIK - 'My Name is Karan' and 'I have few more miles to go'.