Ko - Go for it

Following Ayan, Ko is another good entertainer from Director KV Anand. I have to definitely appreciate the theme. Though the core is not very new, the way it is presented is very new. If KV Anand keeps directing movies like this, he would be definitely called a founder of a new genre of movies - Stylish Masala. But I should also mention that the same theme would have been at least 10 times better if it had been taken by Shankar or Maniratnam. Anyways, good going Anand!

As most feel, a hero with a better personality than Jeeva could have suited well for this movie. But definitely a hero with too much of image might have also screwed the movie. In that way, Jeeva is a good choice since he has done exactly what is needed. I am personally happy for Jeeva since so far he was either doing a full and full masala movie or under-rated classic movie like Katradhu Thamizh. This had the right mixture. All the best Jeeva!

I felt that Ajmal was kind of stiff in most of his scenes. But he made me forget that small minus during last scenes where he was very comfortable in that cunning+casual expressions and dialogue delivery.

Karthika Nair is not a bad choice but she didn't add any value to the movie; just that she didn't do any damage. But I could not think of any other heroine too in this role. If you feels some one else would have suited well, please post it as comment :)

Piaa Bajpai stole my heart once again ;) If you need some one with modern look, don't think of any other option; just go for Piaa. She has got good opportunity (though short) for acting in this movie and she has created necessary impact.

Not a typical Prakash Raj with lengthy and emotional dialogues. He comes in few scenes and has done a decent job. Kotta Srinivasa rao was as usual good with his animated acting :)

KV Anand himself being a cinematographer has extracted the best from Richard M. Nathan, cinematographer of this movie. While song locations themselves were beautiful, camera work showed them more beautiful.

Music by Harris Jayaraj is definitely commendable. Whether we call his tunes as recycled or reused or anything, they are appealing and only that matters for a commercial cinema. Even BGMs were not bad. But placement of Gala Gala was not necessary and placement of Venpaniye was too too much. "Anga appo dhan oru ezhavu vizhundhurukku. Edhukku da duet?" ;)

Overall KO is not one of the greatest movies of Thamizh cinema or a movie full of reality. It is a well-exhibited stylish masala movie. Please see it in large screens and enjoy!

Maappillai - Pudhusa Onnum Illai

I don't have much stuff to write about this movie just like this movie also don't have enough stuff. All old stuffs presented in same old fashion.

Dhanush is a director's hero. So I don't have any complaints about his performance. He has given what he is expected to. Theatres were running house full shows.

Vivek's out of form form continues. Looked like he will come back strong after Uthamaputhiran. But it was just a surprise half century between single digit runs innings.

Hansika is another Maida maavu heroine.

Other than hype, I don't find any reason for choosing Manisha Koirala for mother in law role.
 

Music by Manisharma was another negative. Only "Ennoda Raasi" was nice to hear and credits for that song should go to Raaja.

This already being an old story, Director Suraj should have made efforts to have some new interesting scenes.Only in last scene, he showed some difference - villain making fun of himself but by that time people have started leaving theatre.

All theatres were showing house full shows in Bangalore but most of them were disappointed when coming out from theatre.

Ponnar Sankar - Sappa matter'ku sandai

I have not read original novel by Karunanidhi. So I have no comments about that. But by any chance if the movie is very close to the original novel, then I can definitely say that the novel is not worth reading.

Except that Gounder was added to names and the place names were chosen from Kongu district, I couldn't see this movie as an exclusive Kongu district movie. The director should have taken efforts to bring that Kongu flavor.

I have to compare this movie with Pazhassi Raja. In Pazhassi Raja, more than the fight, we also got the Wayanad district feel while seeing that movie. That was missing in Ponnar Sankar.

Prashanth was not bad. There was a huge star cast (Kushbu, Jayaraman, Napolean, Nasser, Vijaykumar, Ponvannan, Rajkiran, Prakash Raj, Prabhu, Sneha, Seetha.....) but almost all of them were under utilized. It was looking like a 'fixed' match where all the star performers were just coming and going without impact.

Dialogue was a major set back. Karunanidhi couldn't get out from his Parasakthi time and at the same time also have to fit current trend. In that process he is just writing some mundane dialogues and all the people who are directing for his story and dialogue have no guts to give this feedback to him.

Music by Isaignani Ilayaraaja.... 6 songs got released. Out of which I was expecting an excellent picturisation of "Kodi kotti koduthaalum".. But that song along with Annanmar Kathai and Thedi vandha devadhai were not included in movie. Malar villile and Kannai Padithen are nice melodies but were located in the manner so that movie got slowed down. I liked seeing Bavani Vaurgiraa... BGM is supposed to have been great but it was dampened completely. In Pazhassi Raaja sound effects were very loud but at the same time BGMs were not dampened.. But in this movie, grand orchestration by Raaja was made to sound simple. Special effects were badly dominating.

Too much of fights in this movie and none of them had a big reason.. This should have been Thiyagarajan's thought.. Paiyana vechu padam edukkanum...Edho Kalaignar kitta kadhaya vaangitton.. avar pera solli financier kitta mothama neraya panatha vaangittom.. egapatta aalungala vechu puzhudhi parakka brammandama fight edutha makkal paappanga...chumma kudhiraya eduthukuttu angayum ingayum oda vitta podhum..

Just got reminded of a Lollu Sabha movie title while seeing this movie.. "Sappa matter'ku sandai" ;)

Kullanari Koottam - Paruppu Saadham

Director Sribalaji has done some homework about Police department, especially about the malpractice in Police selection. But definitely he didn't have enough stuff to take a full fledged movie about it. So he had some filler first half and 2nd half dwelling on the topic of interest.

I don't find fault with that idea. There have been successful movies with a casual 1st half and serious 2nd half. But in all those movies the first half would have been very interesting, especially humor, dialogue etc and it will also have some interesting lead to the 2nd half. But this movie has a mundane 1st half with hardly any good comedy and even the dialogues were very ordinary.

Even the lead to 2nd half, reason of hero attending police selection to marry his lover was lousy. Hero's police selection friends hailing hero's attempt as something great and trying to make audience feel his love didn't work out.


Hero Vishnu suits well for Iyyo Paavam characters. Except for Drohi, I saw his other 3 movies and his role was almost same in all of them. I think it is good for him to get out of that image.

Heroine Remya Nambeesan is good but not great. Acc to me, Saranya Mohan is the standard for Paavadai Dhavani character. Remya has potential to become some one like Devayani.

Vennila Kabadi Kuzhu friends group have appeared in this movie also but they were under-utilized. Other actors were also suiting well but none was impressive.

Music by Selvaganesh definitely needs a mention..Vizhigalile song is one more feather on his hat along with Uyiril edho and Lesa Prakkudhu (Vennila Kabadi Kuzhu)..BGMs were not better than VKK BGMs.

Overall this movie is like Paruppu saadham without salt. Pasikku saapadlam (yes there was a pasi from Tamizh cinema audience because of world cup stopping release of many movies) but rusikku saapda mudiyadhu.... Yes, we don't want full and full masala but there should be at least some amount of salt and pepper :)

Nadunisi Naaigal - Audience Abuse

This is a movie of Gautham Menon who has established himself as one of the finest film makers of Thamizh cinema. So it is taken for granted that the movie will be technically strong and actors would have done well. But it is not enough. For instance, Raavanan was technically strong and the star cast was good but that alone is not enough for people to appreciate a Maniratnam's movie.

Sorry for comparing Mani with Gautham. Kallaala adikkadheenga pa ;)

Let me jump into reviewing the content. I feel that it will be better if I can frame the review as a letter to Gautham Menon. Here goes the letter.

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Hello Gautham,

Just like anyone, I cannot stop comparing Nadunisi Naaigal (NNN) with Sigappu Rojakkal (SR). This movie is not very different from SR except that things are magnified in NNN. In SR, there were some diversions like Sridevi's beauty, Raaja's Ninaivo Oru Paravai/Indha Minminikku and most importantly BGMs which conveyed the effect without affecting us.

But NNN affected me badly. I was suggesting Veera "Modhal la Sameera mudiya cut pannuda".. Enakkulla thoongikittu irukkara ketta mirugatha thatti ezhuppitteenga :)... I would even give credit to you if that is the motive of the movie. The moment you attributed it to child abuse, my immediate reaction was "Adappavi!".

I am not sure if you saw Achamundu Achamundu. Without showing any violence, that movie created great impact and gave awareness about child abuse. You as a responsible director should have created some awareness about child abuse. But you utilised that crime for making a movie!

Fine, if your aim was to make us feel the dark side of child abuse, you could have very well showed father abusing the son in a more elaborate way. We would have at least built up our anger on ppl who abuse children. Definitely it would have not been difficult for you to show those things since you didn't appear to have stopped within limits in rest of your scenes.

Definitely, it was a surprise when we came to know that hero (!) was suffering from split personality problem but we couldn't appreciate the split personality acting since we had a better reference (Anniyan Vikram).

Samar, Veera, Meenakshi Amma, Burnt face, Hair cutting... Overall this movie was not about Child abuse but a sheer abuse of audience.

Manmadhan padathoda copy nu lam makkal comment adikkaraanga. Poyum poyum Simbu padathoda lam compare pannum podhu kattayam neenga asinga padanum.

Looking at the last scene, I think you are having plans to direct sequel. Pls don't do that. Not that I ll not see that movie ;). I shall definitely see that movie and give a subtitle to review as "Gautham Menon abused audience again" :)

Without Regards,
Karthik

Payanam - Feel good travel

To be frank, I decided the caption for this movie as "Town bus travel" even before seeing the movie. Azhagiya Theeye, Mozhi, Abhiyum Naanum.. All were nice movies about simple characters. So I was kind of sure that Radha Mohan would have not brought out the grandness needed for a flight hijack movie. But I was proved wrong after seeing the movie.

The movie was technically very strong.  Have to appreciate Radha Mohan for this great leap! He has also maintained his usual touch. Prithviraj-Chaams (Shining star Chandrakanth) scenes were laugh busters. It has been quite long since I laughed for mins together, thanks a lot for those scenes. Marana kalaai!

We should also appreciate the diplomacy of Radha Mohan. After making fun of punch dialogues, fake heroism, Pakistan terrorist speaking Thamizh in movies etc, finally he compromise by showing the real heroism of chandrakanth, Brahmanandam giving example of terrorist in Roja movie itself speaking Thamizh etc. Good balance!

One more beautiful thing in this movie is that it is not completely biased against terrorist. Some scenes where terrorists explain their side, esp women being safe in flight in terrorist custody and women being raped by our army was touching.

Prakashraj was perfect as usual. One more thanks to him as a producer for giving good movies consistently.

Nagarjun was a good choice! He has the popularity and perfection.

MS Baskar was touching most of the times and mokkai some times. Brahmanandam has given a subdued performance and I like that. I don't like his usual overacting. Overall, actors have done a good job.

Cinematograpghy by K.V.Guhan was ultimate! Great visuals!

BGM by Pravin Mani wash helping the movie maintain its tempo. Good work!

Hijack being the highlight of the movie, how come I didn't speak anything about the so called the thrilling hijack and rescue parts in this movie? Because, there wasn't much thrill in this movie. Hijack and the rescue operations didn't have any surprise. Everything goes in the same way we expect.

If Radha Mohan had brought that thrill element successfully, this movie would have been a travel of a lifetime as it is claimed in the movie title. Now it is a nice feel good travel!

Yudham Sei - Hats off Mysskin!

I have been seeing almost all new releases and I don't remember any movie in recent past which has created such an impact like Yudham Sei.

Only my body came out of theatre. My mind is still in that movie.

The issue which Mysskin has taken, the way he carried the suspense, the way he justified the yudham... everything was outstanding.

I felt like I was part of Cheran's investigation team, I cried along with YGMahendran for his daughter, I fought with Jayprakash, I killed all those scoundrels.... Overall, I was completely inside the movie.

Star cast was perfect!

BGMs were very good! Lot of Raaja inspiration..

Cinematography helped us see the characters with Mysskin's eyes.

Bharathiyar poetically expressed his anger. Mysskin expressed through this movie. Hats off Mysskin!

If you miss seeing this movie, you will be missing one of the best movies Thamizh cinema has ever seen.