Review: Kireedam (Tamil)

Class to crass.

Rating:5.9/10 (5,5,8,6,6,7,5,5)

Link to the Kireedam's (MalayaLam) review.

If all it took to remake a classy movie was to recruit big names, make it anachronistically modern and retread the original scenes with bad acting, then Vijay, the director of Kireedam, would have made it. However, success takes more than blanketing a classic story on top of a modern setting and additional masala. This would have been a riskfree venture if Ajith could have gotten over his past failures and mustered some enthusiasm to act. But unfortunately, through out the movie, he lacks confidence. Ajith takes on the role of Mohanlal in the original and Rajkiran dons the role of Thilakan.The backbone of the original are the characters and the beautiful relationships. The lack of the bone here is because of shallow characters and undeveloped emotions.

To recapture the story: Rajarajan (Rajkiran) is a steadfast constable whose biggest ambition in life is to make his son, Sakthivel (Ajith), a Sub-Inspector. After an emotional send-off when Sakthi goes to write his SI exams, Rajarajan confiscates the car of a law-breaker who happens to be the son of a politician. Since Rajarajan refuses to apologise, the department has no other choice than to transfer him to Kodikarai, which is haunted by the rowdy Varadhan (Ajay). Meanwhile, Sakthi proposes to Divya (Trisha), and their parents give their consent to this relationship. Once Sakthi returns, a clash between Rajarajan and Varadhan ropes in Sakthi, and in an outburst of rage Sakthi mauls Varadhan. This promotes our beloved hero, much against his will, to the position of a rowdy. For every step Sakthi takes forward, the gang wars make him take two steps backward. At a point when his family's well being is at stake, Sakthi resorts to the do-or-die attitude.

The biggest problem with this movie is the acting, or better put, the lack of it. Ajith simply has to act. It's that simple. He is lifeless throughout the movie. He blew my top off when he hogs, like there was no tomorrow, when Rajarajan brings him food when he is in jail. The scene turns from an emotional scene to some sort of an advertisement for SaravaNa Bhavan! The underdeveloped love between Divya and Sakthi is nauseating to add to which his proposal dialogue "first payyan apparam poNNu" has the potential to drive any movie critic crazy.

I think the biggest problem with this movie is that it has a yardstick to measure against. When the original is a blemishless piece of art, to even try to live up to it, the remake should have tried to resemble reality. In choosing to glorify the hero and have big cities as the backdrop for the story, the director fails to hit the spot.

To the whole crew's credit, this is better than previous Ajith's movies and even better than most recent masala movies. Also I feel Ajith's potential as an actor is more than what he has displayed in the past. I was expecting this movie to elicit his talent, but I was disappointed to find that it did not. He does not have too much steam left in him and if anything miraculous has to happen to make his career float, it has to be now and it has to be movies that have strong stories such as Kireedam's.

Rajkiran does his part well and so does Saranya as Sakthi's mom. The pair reminded me of Thavamaai Thavamirundhu. Rajkiran remains docile for most of the movie, except for the action scenes. Vivek's presence is not felt much, and most of the humour falls flat amidst the atmosphere of the movie.

The music is above average and my favourite, as would anyone else's be, is akkam pakkam. It is a sweet melody and Sadhna Sargam does a good job with the tune and, unsurprisingly, a bad job with the pronunciations of the lyrics. Kanavellam is a fast number with a catchy tune. The theme music is haunting and fits the story well.

If only Ajith and Trisha had acted...

Review: Kireedam (MalayaLam)

Story telling at its precision best. Crown of Indian film making.

Rating:8.4/10 (9, 9, 9, 8, 7, 8, 7, 7)

Kireedam is a very poignant story about a youngster, Sethumadhavan (Mohanlal), who unintentionally and unwillingly gets involved in a gang fight that keeps roping him back and finally costs him everything - from his relationships, to career to even his life. Sibi Malayil, the director, has turned a simple story into a grandiose masterpiece. This movie is nothing short of brilliant, with its strong dialogues, spectacular acting, crisp direction and editing. I'll let the rest of the review support the hype created above.

Sethumadhavan, a youngster in a village who aspires to join the police team deriving inspiration from his father Achuthan Nair (Thilakan), is part of a happy loving family comprising of Sethu, his mother, father, younger sister and brother. Achuthan, an honest cop and a doting father who is hellbent on making his son into an honest cop too, gets transferred just after Sethu writes his exams. Little does the family know what is in store for them in the village which is troubled by Keerikadan Jose (Mohan Raj). Achuthan joins the police force that has thus far turned a blind eye to Jose's plunders and crimes. One fine day, Achuthan hears of trouble by Jose at the local market, and the honest cop that he is, single handedly sets out to arrest him. Meanwhile, Sethu comes to know of this showdown, hurries to the market to save his dad from any troubles he may be getting into. Unable to bear the sight of Jose kicking his father, Sethu confronts Jose and subdues his imposing figure. From this point on, his life takes a turn to the worse. Sethu gets typecast by the society as a 'rowdy'. His futile efforts at getting back to normal life with family make him feel helpless. Even people in his own family start to suspect him of getting his hands dirty in mob fights. Hydhrose (Haneefa) and Sethu's brother-in-law are characters who add further complexities and woes to an already emotionally riddled Sethu. Finally unable to handle the precarious position that the society is driving him to, Sethu finds no other solution than killing Jose. In an exemplary climax, a fight ensues between Sethu and Jose, and in a fit of rage Sethu kills Jose.

This was the first malayalam movie I watched fully about a decade back. Instant love, is how I'd describe my instinctive reaction towards the movie. A simple story that is replete with complex emotions, is handled with nonchalance by the experienced crew that includes Mohanlal and Thilakan. I've always heard Mohanlal being compared to Kamal in his potential as an actor and it took this movie to prove to me that the comparison by no means is irrational. The actor's subtle and underplayed emotions in the movie, in contrast to Kamal's active body language and louder recitals or dialogues, was different and resembled reality as closely as Kamal's acting. As Sethu, the gleam in his eye that expresses a yearning for a normal life could not have been played to such perfection by any other actor. A few scenes were made to stick - the one scene where he goes to see his mom and dad in a hospital just before setting out to kill Jose, the scene in the school where he tells his love, played by Parvathi, to etch a new life for herself sans him and of course the stunning climax where he displays a wide range of emotions after killing Jose. Thilakan also lives up to the standards that Mohanlal sets. His character is of appalling dimension, sensitivity and charm and I'm not sure any other actor could persuade us so well on all three accounts. The other characters support the story line and every actor has done his role quite well. This movie gave Haneefa a much needed break.

The music is set to the film's tempo and theme. The song by M. G. Sreekumar, KaNNeer Poovinte, which laments about Sethu's life being a complete wreck for no fault of his, bestowed him the national award for the year. Needless to say, Mohanlal bagged the national award for the best actor for his role as Sethumadhavan.

The special interest in this movie now is because the Tamil movie Kireedam, the Ajith starrer, is based on this epic drama. I think the crew is guaranteed success if they diligently retread the MalayaLam version into Tamil. Let us wait and see how successful this remake is.

Song Review: Mathey - Morning Raga

Get this widget | Share | Track details

Music is panacea, believe many. If not that, this song can at least catapult your moods from any depths of sorrow to zeniths of joy. Beautifully rendered by Sudha Raghunathan, Mathey, set to the raagam Kamas, starts with a music that infuses in you the same euphoria as do the first rays of the sun rising from a peacock-blue ocean. The song is accompanied by a perfect sprinkle of drums, mrindangam, ghatam, violin, dhandia, salangai(ghungroo), guitar and bass guitar that neither steals the song's carnatic origins nor cloys it with western influence.

Mani Sharma's minnalai pidithu from ShahJahan was an example of his potential to stretch the boundaries of music. Morning Raga's sound track is, in addition, his display of daring talent to experiment with carnatic fusion, which is as risky a proposition as William Tell's aiming at the apple - either he gets it right or he kills himself and his baby. Mani Sharma and Amit Heri split the apple, just with this one bolt, Mathey, from their quiver. Though purists may scoff at the idea of Westernising Carnatic music, the composers have not only created sensational music, but also ensured that the masses who don't have access to carnatic music are exposed to the art-form.

The initial brief Alapana gives the song a very colourful beginning. Kamas is fundamentally a happy raagam with Shadjam (Sa), Chatusruti Rishabham (Ri2), Antara Gandharam (Ga2), Shudhdha Madhyamam (Ma1), Panchamam (Pa), Chatusruti Dhaivatham (Dha1) and Kaisiki Nishadham (Ni1) and Sudha exploits the raagam and her vocal brilliance to infuse the listener with elation. The synthesised sounds add additional beauty and texture. The percussional confluence of Ghatam, drums and mridangam, all set to adi taalam, maintains an overtly subtle rhythm throughout the song. Guitars - both the classical and the bass - can be noticed only by straining the ears, but even to those ears that cannot pick these up explicitly, their presence adds an ineffable dimension. The violin that runs alongside Sudha's rendering of the chittaiswaram is a creative improvisation.

On top of the multifarious instruments, the punctuated laughter by a girl provides a context to imagine the song's setting in the movie. Unbeknownst of anything about the movie, when I listen to this song, I imagine a Kerala-ic dawn in lush green fields studded with coconut trees, and a girl of 20 wearing paavadai-dhavaNi singing, while her little sister prances around the field laughing.

This varNam song composed by Harikesa Nallor & Muthayya Bhagavathar in Kannada and Sanskrit, is widely used in dance renditions and requires technique and good facial expressions. Sudha's jadhi-swarams during the second half have a fluid choreographic eloquence to them. The following is the song's lyrics and translation.

Lyrics:
Mathe Malaya dhwaja pandya samjathe mathanga vadana guha
Sakodari sankari Chamundeswari chandrakaladari thaye gouri
da da ni da da ni da da ni da da ni pa ma
da da ni ri sa ni sa da ni sa da pa pa ma
da da ni ga ri ni ri sa ni da pa ni da ma
da da ma ga ma pa ma pa da da ni ni da ma
da da ri sa ni da ni da da ma da ni ma ni
da da sa sa pa da ni da da ma ga ri sa ni
da da pa da da ni da da sa da ni da
ma ga ri sa ni da ni sa ni ni da da pa ma
(Ist speed & second speed)
Data sakala kala nipuna chathura
Data vividha matha samaya samarasa
Data sulabha hrudaya madhura vachana
Data sarasa ruchira tara swaralaya
Geetha sukada nija bhava rasikavara dhata
Mahisha suranada nalmadi srikrishna rajendra nadaya
Sada pore mahitha harikesa manohare sadaya
(Ist speed & second speed)
Mathe Malaya dhwaja pandya samjathe mathanga vadana guha (11/2)
Shyame sakala bhuvana sarva bhoume sasi mandala madhyaga (5)
1.MA,MA, pani dada papa magamapa MA,MA, nida MAsani dapadada(2)
Shyame sakala bhuvana sarva bhoume sasi mandala madhyaga
2.nidanida dapapama PAPA nidapama gamaPA nidaMA sanidapa MAnida(2)
Shyame sakala bhuvana sarva bhoume sasi mandala madhyaga
3.saSAsa nidanisa niDApa magamapa maMAma samagama pasanida NI;(7)
nidani padani mapadani gamapadani samagama padani samagari sasanida pada
Shyame sakala bhuvana sarva bhoume sasi mandala madhyaga


Translation:
O Mother! You are the daughter of the Pandya king Malayadhwaja
You are the lady with the face glowing green
O Mother! You have the beauty of the moon
You have the great expertise in all the arts
You allow equal rights to all the creeds
You are soft and sweet spoken
You express affection in music and rhythm
You inspire us with your beautiful and expressive song
You have gained fame for killing the demon, Mahishasura
You protect and care for Sri Krishna Rajendra, the Maharaja of Mysore
Ever pray to Siva and the mother, Parvati
Mother! You glow with the blue color
You care for the whole world
You glow like a full moon

Review: Chennai 600028

Dokku, Gaaji and Bet-matchu you can relate to.

Rating: 6/10(6, 5, 7, 6, 6, 6, 5, 7)

This low budget venture by Venkat Prabu, son of Gangai Amaran, is a street-cricket centric light hearted tale of two teams, Sharks and Rockers, and about their rivalry saga reaching a pinnacle at the impending flood-light tournament. The beauty of the story is that, if you ever lived among the 'local' cricket teams, you'll immediately be able to relate to every character. The characters don't have depth enough, but even the superficial portrayal elicits memories of someone that you match each character with, and that made me relive my fond street-cricket moments (this is why I gave the story a 7/10). Visalakshmi-Thottam, the home of the Sharks, reminded me not only of my local-cricket past, but also of my frequent visits to a friend who actually lived in Visalakshi-Thottam. The portrayal of Visalakshi-Thottam is very accurate, with jobless guys bullying around newcomers and kids, extracting rides from their new bikes and borrowing their new bats/balls (I've been a victim, and so the emotion :) ).

The movie starts with SPB introducing the characters of the 'hero' team, Sharks, in a magnific voice and a jovial tone. This kickstarts the movie on a very light vein that immediately puts every cricket lover in a comfort zone. Raghu (Jai), a lead 'Royapuram' Rockers bowler, moves to the Sharks' area since his father gets transferred from Royapuram and this creates friction between him and the Sharks. Also owing to his inability to attend Rockers' practice, he is suspected of being a Sharks-spy and is demoted in the batting order. This rubs him the wrong way, causing him to gradually shift from the Rockers to the Sharks. Meanwhile, Karthik (Siva), the Sharks team captain, falls in love with the sister of the lead Sharks batsman, Pazhani (Nithinsathyaa) which creates a intra-team conflict when the big game around the corner. To further complicate matters, Karthik gets stabbed by one of his brother's enemies, and this prevents him from playing against the Rockers. Raghu's Rockers knowledge comes as a vital weapon during the Sharks semi-finals against the Rockers.

I enjoyed a few characters and situations that I could completely relate to. Seenu (Premgi Amaran) is a self-proclaimed all-rounder and I immediately fell in love with his character. I mean, who would not fall in love with a character who is pretty bad at cricket, is the funny bone of the team and is happy being that way. Seenu's delivery of a Chandramukhi take-off is nothing less than hilarious. Half-way into the movie, the team wants to garner money for a 'thaNNi' party, and compels a middle-school team into a bet-match on the beach. If you've ever played bet-matches, you'll realise how funny this gets - I've been in situations where we were over-confident getting into a bet-match, without having money at stake, and later had to pawn our cricket-kits for a few days until we gave the winning team the money.

The movie ends in a very unexpected but a very funny note. This way, you forget the unspectacular meat of the movie and just remember you were happy during the start and at the end and have an illusion of satisfaction after the movie.

The movie negatives were average performances from the amateurs and not-so-special screenplay. The positives were that it strikes the love of the masses - cricket - and that it still does not make a fool of itself unlike movies such as I love you da. The last time I remember seeing cricket as even a side theme was in uLLam ketkume and the movie did a reasonable job of portraying it credibly. I would like to see more movies with cricket as their theme, mainly because of the audience base that it can muster. But since the audience are very aware of the subject, it becomes difficult for the director to give a real-feel. Chennai-28 succeeds in giving the movie a real feel by resorting to street-cricket and by studying the nitty-gritty of the game.

The song Yaaro-YaarukkuL by SPB is my favourite in the movie and has the SPB feel that reminds me of ellorum sollum paattu from Marupadiyum. World cuppa is a catchy number with funny lyrics and un paarvaimele pattal has a classic Yuvan signature. It is noteworthy that the music was composed by ILayaraja-puthran Yuvan and Amaran-puthran Premgi.

Review criteria

The following is the method I came up with to calculate the rating-metric of a movie and will try to tweak it as I receive feedbacks from you folks.

I shortlisted the elements I generally break down a movie into. They are -

Direction(3)
Acting(3)
Story(2)
Dialogues(2)
Screenplay(1)
Music/background score, Stunts & Choreography(2)
Cinematography & visual effetcs(1)
Comedy(1)

The numbers in the bracket represent the importance associated with the respective criterion. Each movie will receive a score for each criterion out of 10 and then the final score will be evaluated by factoring in the importance of the particular criterion. For example, let's say a movie has the following ratings:

DIRECTION (3) : 8 = 24
ACTING (3) : 8 = 24
STORY (2) : 8 = 16
DIALOGUES (2) : 7 = 14
SCREENPLAY (1) : 9 = 9
MUSIC/CHOREO (2) : 6 = 12
CINEMATOGRAPHY(1) : 7 = 7
COMEDY (1) : 10= 10

The overall rating comes to 116/15 = 7.8.

I know this sounds too meticulous, but I don't intend to make this excruciating for every review. I will assign a score such as 7.8/10 (8, 8, 8, 7, 9, 6, 7, 10) for the above movie and link to this post, and anyone interested in knowing the details can read this post. The scores in the brackets correspond respectively to the scores for the individual elements listed above.

I've often wondered what would be a good metric to assign a numeric rating to a movie. I really like Balaji's method of star-rating a movie, and I've always wanted to discuss with him how he comes up with the ratings. Since his rating mostly coincides with how I feel about the movie, I rely on it heavily to decide whether or not to watch a movie. But, for example, when I see a metric in RottenTomatoes the take-away is not clear to me at the end of reading a movie review. If there is a clear metric associated with every movie, and I know how the metric was arrived at, it would give me a reasonable idea as to why the movie is rated the way it's rated especially when it is rated by a single reviewer.

I hope I'm able to keep up with this rating system, and that it is of some use to you readers. Any comments on how to improve the system is much appreciated, as I've mentioned above.

Review: Karuppusamy Kuththagaidhaarar

Old wine in a new bottle. Fresh start, but familiar aftertaste.


Rating: 6.2/10(6, 6, 7, 7, 6, 5, 5, 7)

Given the number of films that come out each year with love as their subject, directors have to scout consciously for new ideas to serve the old wine in a new bottle. That is exactly what director Murthy has done with Karuppusamy Kuththagaidhaarar. He has served a premeditated theme in a new setting - love hindered by the lovers' desire for education.

Karuppusamy@Jerox (Karan) is a cycle stand contractor (which might justify kuththagaithaarar in the title), also runs a dance troupe that stages actor-lookalikes. This blend of professions gives a unique air to the movie's setting. The movie opens with Nagesh, Chandrababu, Kamal and Sivaji clones dancing on stage when Karan is introduced as a Rajni Kanth 'Jerox' and comes dancing on stage for the song pothuvaaga enmanasu thangam. I was actually quite surprised at how closely he resembles KaLai. Jerox is a happy-go-lucky Madurai-bred youngster mouthing a thick Madurai-Tamil accent. All his friends from the troupe form a jolly circle that is portrayed beautifully. Jerox meets Raasathi (debutante Meenakshi), a medical student, who is a customer at Jerox's cycle stand. She is drawn to him owing to his illogically close character resemblance to Raasathi's mother - a character that is unassumingly selfless, and casually caring which makes the audience invariably develop a liking for Jerox. Raasathi expresses her feelings to Jerox, but also mentions that she is unable to concentrate on her education since he disturbs her emotionally, and guarantees that if he stood by her, she would go on to become a successful Doctor. Initially confused, Jerox slowly develops a liking for Raasathi and his main motive becomes to see her successful in her career (at this point, I was reminded of the Suryavamsam relation between Sarath Kumar and Deivayani). Uptill this point, the movie is fresh and the relationships portrayed are believable.

When Raasathi's father starts opposing her love for the lower caste Jerox, the movie flashes back to explain why and how Raasathi, her father and her grandfather willfully estrange themselves from the rest of the family. Raasathi's father, now, reunites with his family primarily because he thinks they will be able to save them from an impending discomfiture. Jerox's main intention still being to see Raasathi successful, trades his love for her education. But the villainous characters (resembling those in Kadhal), plot against Raasathi and Jerox. What happens to the star-crossed lovers forms the rest of the story.

The Jerox-Raasathi relationship's undercurrent of education adds a special dimension to love that no other movie has exploited. The simplicity and clarity of their relationship is very touching. The climax of the movie floats like oil on water, and does not fit well with the simplicity that was established all through the movie. The second-half of the movie is difficult to digest and starts smelling of old wine. The occasional jibes in Madurai-Tamil are really funny.

I have not yet seen Karan's Kokki. But since I saw him last, he has gone down tremendously and looks as young as ever. I used to like Karan as an actor about a decade back, and more so because he used to live opposite to a friend of mine from school. Even purely as an actor, I've always felt his potential wasn't exploioted and about 6 years back, I've argued with friends that his potential is as untapped as was Chiyaan Vikram's. I'm happy that he is getting projects that scratch his talent. Meenakshi is impressive for a beginner and has a homely look. But her appearance might deprive her of chances in non-village based subjects. Her eyes, eyebrows and facial make-up reminds me of Sruthika. Vadivelu's comedy track isn't all that funny and like many of his recent films, is patched over the movie almost as an after-thought. But the movie's comedy was likeable and subtle except for Vadivelu's sections.

Dheena's music is run-of-the-mill for most part. I liked Sangam Vaithu for Karthik's voice and for a pleasant fusion of folk and western music. O. S. Arun, I feel, has been brought into the soundtrack for no big reason. His song Kaadhal Enbadhu is very ordinary as is the song by Bombay Jayashree - Uppu Kallu. The song Karuppan Varan is inspiring and fits the movie perfectly.

Review: Unnale Unnale

It translates to 'because of you' but really, whom do we blame?

Rating: 5.3/10(6, 4, 6, 5, 5, 6, 7, 3)

The movie's director Jeeva passed away on June 26 2007 after a fatal cardiac arrest when he was shooting for his next film, Dhaam Dhoom, with Jayam Ravi in Russia. May his soul Rest In Peace.


The earlier ventures of the cinematographer turned director Jeeva, 12B and ULLam Ketkume, were fresh, youthful and funny. This movie has a mild dose of youthfulness but glaringly lacks in the other two aspects.

The movie is about 3 educated youth involved in a love triangle. The subject of the movie is so trite that it is difficult to handle the subject without sounding clichéd. Here, one should appreciate Jeeva's efforts, since this is not the aspect of the film that lets it down badly. Karthik (Vinay) who is now a Civil Engineer, in flashback, falls in love with Jhansi (Sada) during their college days. Their characters are poles apart. Jhansi is a stickler with respect to what she expects from her love and Vinay is a compulsive flirt who flirts at every chance he gets. After an implied break-up, Karthik still likes Jhansi but isn't able to understand her expectations and thinks she is unreasonable. Well, with their characters designed to repel each other, I don't know why two such people would even talk to each other, let alone fall in love!

Karthik gets an opportunity to fly to Melbourne for his project, and in his flight to Melbourne he meets a chirpy bubbly girl Deepika (Tanisha). Some of her pranks and antics on the flight are lovable, but does not do much to save the film. In Melbourne, Jhansi, Depika's colleague, comes to receive Deepika at the airport. At this point in the film, it become blatantly obvious that the movie is going to revolve around the three protagonists going in and out of a love triangle. Deepika slowly develops a liking for Karthik, but still sincerely tries to patch-up the two poles. By taking the characters in and out of emotions, the movie does well in the keep-guessing aspect of the suspense - which was what prevented me from pressing the 'stop' button.

I think all 3 protagonists have dubbed voices, which actually slows down the pace of an already snailing film. There is an idiom in Tamil - 'kadichu thupparathu' - which perfectly describes Vinay's dialogue delivery. Vinay's light-hearted look helps in many scenes, but isn't a strength in serious scenes. Sada does not have much of dialogues, and I think her character was such that she had to do much of the acting only through her eyes and facial gestures which she does reasonably well. Tanisha, living up to her sister Kajol's reputation, does very well to raise the spirits of an otherwise flagging movie. Sridhar's comedy comes as nothing less than annoying. It completely stalls the pace of the inching-film and his slapstick and loud style does not gel with the subtle emotions the film tries to convey. I'd prefer not to comment on Raju's (Raju Sundaram) comedy stint in the movie.

The song unnale unnale is the highlight of the soundtrack. Karthik's voice does the magic again as it did in oru malai iLa veyyil (Ghajini) and oru ooril azhage (Kakkha Kakkha). June ponaal has Harris Jeyaraj written all over it, and one interesting fact about this song is that it was written with the movie name July katril in mind which was later changed for tax reasons. Hello miss resembles the song vaNNaththu poochi from Bala. The other songs did not make much of an impact. The background score is kept alive just by the tune of unnale unnale and is otherwise quite dull.

Other interesting trivia about the movie is that Arya and Sonia Agarwal refused when offered the lead roles in this film.