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.

Thoonga Nagaram - One more success story

People have already started feeling bored of Madurai based stories, but I am not. While there had been 1000s of city based stories, why not even 10s of Madurai based stories?

And definitely, all those movies have been different from each another. Thoonga Nagaram is yet another Madurai based story which is very different from others.

While some heroes start giving titles for themselves after couple of hits, Vimal is hitting consecutive centuries without any hype. Good going boy!

Unfortunate that Anjali was just a normal heroine in this movie. Expected more from her.

Bharani and Nishanth are promising supporting artists who are doing good character roles.

Gaurav was good both as an actor and director.

Music of Sundar C Babu was a show stopper. Only the remix of Kalyanam was of ok ok type.

Director had a completely packed interesting 2nd half script in hand and he has brought it out in screen brilliantly. Even the built up given during 1st half was decent but that alone is not enough. There should have been some good humor in 1st half. That paatti fight and all were mokkais.

If director had taken care of that also, then Thoonga Nagaram would have been considered as equal to Nadodigal.

Now it is just a good entertainer which has everything needed for a decent hit!

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).