Dhobi Ghat - Modern art

"Is it another 3 idiots?"... Definitely not. This is 180 degree opposite to 3idiots.

"Ok.. Movie name is a place in Mumbai.. So is it a movie about that place? Something like slumdog millionaire???"... No no no.. There are only very few scenes taken In Dhobi ghat.

"Fine... Is it at least an emotional movie, hmmmmm... say like Black?" No.. There are not much emotions in this movie.. Even those small emotions are not expressed strongly. Emotions are left to audience for themselves to feel about it.

This is a movie about 4 characters. No good/bad/interesting.....No adjective to the characters.. They are just characters in their real form. Nothing cinematic..

"Nothing cinematic?? Then why should I go for a cinema?".. If you are a person who ask this question, then it is definitely not a movie for you. This movie is for people who are open minded to observe characters shown on screen..

I don't have reference to any Hindi/English movies in similar line since I don't see many of them. But I can definitely give reference to Tamizh movies of the same type.. If you are a person who love Mahendran/Balu Mahendra movies, you will definitely like this movie.

I am not going to elaborate about cast. All have given what is exactly needed for this movie.

Instead of exaggerating the slums or the tall buildings in Mumbai, this movie displayed Mumbai as it is. Showing things 'as it is' definitely needs brilliance. Cinematographer Tushar Kanti Ray is brilliant!

According to me, a person who needs a special mention is composer Gustavo Santaolalla. Man! Background score was so pleasant to hear. It added lot of value to the movie. I am desperately in need of the BGM of the movie. Some one please help me get it.

Director Kiran Rao was very sure what she wanted to present and she has done that perfectly. As she said in a recent press report "This is an unusual film and not for everyone's taste, which was expected. I am glad that that the audience I made the film for are liking it", this movie is not for those who wanted to have a galla time in theatre. Madam, I am in the list of people who like the movie.

What I liked a lot about this movie is that 40% dialogues are in English. So I needed help of translator only for 60% of movie ;) I wish I see the movie with sub titles one more time.

As said in my review title, Dhobi ghat is a modern art. If you try to make sense out of it, you may end up finding it or may get lost in the search but it always looks nice to see for aesthetic eyes.

Aadukalam - Test Cricket

First of all, congradulations to director Vetrimaaran for conceiving/choosing cockfight as the base story and successfuly bringing the life of people passionate about it on the screen. It might be real or graphics, but definitely it was astonishing to see those cockfights in close up shots.

Dhanush was brilliant once again. Be it his slang or casual nayandi or sympathetic feel in face, he was too good. It is definitely one of his good performances but still his best continues to be Pudupettai.

Tapsee was looking like custom made for this movie. I doubt if she is worth the hype surrounding her. She may not become a top heroine.  A wague guess.. If her market as heroine goes down, she can definitely become a glamour actress (FYI, in this movie she didn't do a glamour role).

Overall, the star cast (esp Kishor and Jeyabalan) was very good in this movie. There was not even a single average/less than average acting. It again proves that it is director who is responsible for acting too. One more pat to Vertrimaran.

Music by GVPrakash is widely appreciated by audience. I couldn't understand how this Yaathe has become such a hit and getting big applause when it comes in screen. Definitely the steps of Dhanush in that song has added value. I enjoyed "Ayyayyo". SPB, your voice is always fresh!

This is the general comment about this movie. First half was interesting and 2nd half was boring. I don't want to call the 2nd half as boring. The 2nd half was completely about betrayal which is definitely out of current trend. There was a time when betrayal movies was a trend. Now, no one is ready to see hero being betrayed for more than 10 mins.

If director had some how put a gripping cock fight in climax, no one would have called it as a boring 2nd half and even I would have given the review title as "Aadukalam - 20 20". Just that Vetrimaran wanted to give the movie the way he wanted, I would call this movie as a test cricket which displays a good game played by everyone with the end result as 'Draw' (Of course Day 4 and Day 5 will be boring for many).