Category: Uncategorized

Thadam

Thadam, related with real incidents involves Ezhil and Kavin ( Arun vijay) ,former working in a construction company and loves a girl who he meets in a lift. Kavin’s story starts with ATM machine robbery and then follows him cheating a girl for money and making her believe that her mother is in ICU &needs money for treatment.A murder case bring back them to their past.

Layering in the script of Magiz thirumeni is commendable though identical twins and the confusion created is common in most stories.Director establishes the characters slowly individually- Ezhil with a romance &songs(Formal dress) and kavin with robbery & the need for money(Casually/locally dressed). We’ll keep on thinking what the film is trying to say.In the 2nd half,Director keeps you at the edge of the seat with enough twists to find who is the culprit even if you know who may be.

Arun vijay scores brilliantly as both characters in the same appearance. Sonia agarwal is fine as the ‘flawed’ mother in the flashback. Vidya pradeep as the humane & confused cop fits the bill.Yogi babu too does his serious role well.Editing could have been crisp in the initial portions. Bgm succeds in creating the thrill factor along with the scenes.

Though cannot be praised as an out-and-out crime thriller & one of the best thrillers in tamil after Ratchasan, Thadam keeps you in the hunt from the time the pivotal event occurs and the twist surprises giving you a decent watch for the weekend.

Rating:3.5/5

Sinjar

The difference between Takeoff and Sinjar is that Take off is basically a rescue operation thriller and Sinjar focuses on what Takeoff doesn’t try to i.e. the problems after the central conflict (more than 6000 yazidi women were captured by ISIL &employed as slaves) and after being rescued.

Sinjar follows Ansar who is trying to wait for the arrival of his sister Suhara and fiancee Fida.What happens when an issue occurred to them and how the society react forms the story.

The main positive of Sinjar is that the conflict is depicted only in a scene through the eyes of Suhara. That scene shows how harsh was their behavior.Director gives a build up for the struggling life in the remote area,uses tv news to add mileu and then narrates the flashback portion .Mostly,silence and injury in Suhara and Fida signify the impact of the central conflict. Dialogs are in Jasari which is a colloquial language,similar to Malayalam with ‘pha’ used more in dialect as 1 of its feaure .Few scenes were repetitive where editing could have been better. Few related subplots could have been added.Beautiful frames capture the island well with nice camera angles. Bgm suits well to the film.

Mustafa excels as the Struggling fisherman trapped between villagers’ rumor and the harsh reality. Mythili and Srinda perform well as the bold women heavily affected by terrorism. Sethulakshmi suits the mother role well.

Sinjar doesn’t have too much to say.It says the story slowly with intense emotion and the emotion connects with the audience to an extent.

Rating:3.0/5

(Sinjar was screened at the Soorya Festival,Trivandrum )

Awe!

After Watching this psychological,horror,sci-fi,fantasy thriller,i remained of another telugu film C/o kancharapalem because of the anthology mix and convergence nature. Here,beyond the convergence and the social issue,awe amuses the audience with the layering and tight portrayal of each character.

Awe follows a bunch of characters -egoistic magician,’YouTube’ chef, drug-addict,watchman cum scientist and a biker cum psychiatrist. The tale unfolds in a cafe parallel to the portrayal of mental conflicts of Kajal Agarwal’s character.How one meets other in a conflict and what is the conflict form the crux of the story.

Direction makes the tight script even tighter with apt switching between the stories. and confuses the audience.Taut editing doesn’t let the audience to try to predict the proceedings or climax. rich visuals and bgm creates the mood optimally.Sound design excel in many portions especially horror parts.The only reason i thought of not giving full marks to the movie is the lack of clarity in the statements of Devadarshini’s character .It is negligible compared to the quality of the kind of experiment of Prasanth varma.
I don’t know why is this film named ‘Awe’?

Kajal finally gets a good role and she performs it well too. Nani as fish and Ravi teja as tree (both voice)offer little humor.Regina as the drug-addict too gives earnest performance. Dialogs are nice especially Nithya menon’s character tells about the love between 2 women that itself is a fresh idea.

A marvelous,bit complex unique experiment for movie goers.

Rating:4.0/5

Kalavu

Kalavu is a Tamil movie released this week as Zee5 original. Kalavu as it is named,mainly deals with a chain snatching case and the police case in accordance with the murder attempt of Shruti(Abhirami Iyer).

Kalavu starts with the protagonist Sujith(Kalayaiarasan) and his drunken friends escape police check post and then arrested for the chain case. Director narrates the story of Shruti’s husband (Karunakaran) initially, as a lovable husband and then as a planned killer with vengeance in parallel with the case. How these characters are connected forms the crux of the story.

There is no ‘hero’ or ‘villain’ here.Characters are flawed,be the watchman, protagonists,Shruti or Gautam(Karunakaran).Script doesn’t offer twists and turns every now and then but keeps you hooked till the end.What i found most interesting was the way of narration-parallel switching to both incidents (also without being predictable) &climax twist reveal. The only issue was that 2nd half slightly loses the thrill, after the protagonists get bail.

Dialogs at times are interesting.”Some people do anything for money and some,with money”.Gautam justifies himself as”nallavana iruntha antha per mattum than sambadikkalam. Aana kettavana iruntha nallavandra pera thavira elathayum sambadikkalam”.Bgm ,sort of an average fair.Scene portaying bad cops(similar to ‘Visaranai’),Sujith’s surrender and Watchman-Gautam combo work well enough.

Performance-wise, Karunakaran aptly gets into the skin of Gautam and made it believable. Others like Venkat prabhu,Kalaiarasan fit the bill.Special mention to Watchman character.Towards the climax,the performance helped in building the necessary tension.

A truly well-made thriller without commercial compromises.Try to catch it up.

Rating:3.5/5

Kumbalangi Nights

This movie starts with brothers Franky(Mathew thomas),Boney (Srinath bhasi) and the quarreling jobless Saji(Soubin) & Bobby(Shane).With witty one-liners and realistic characters,Director Madhu.C.Narayanan establishes the characters and their house.In parallel,newly married couples Simi(Grace) and Shammi(Fahad) are shown.

Boney loves Baby(Anna ben) and the scene where Bobby asks Saji to talk with shammi and the way Saji responds to it is naturally funny.Similarly, Boney finds his love. Saji’s character then gets a poignant and regretful nature.Meanwhile,Shammi shows a smiling eccentric behavior though he is no different from a typical husband.

The main advantage of Syam Pushkaran’s script is that women characters even though are not always bold,have their own identity,may it be the mother, Simi or Baby.The scenes where Simi raises against Shammi and the dialogues showing the attitude of Baby(like Yeshu namukku ariyatha alonnum allalo) shows the quality of the writer.

Soubin performs briliantly especially with eyes and proves that character roles also suit him. Fahad as usual plays the ‘hero’ effortlessly. Sreenath and Shane did well what is required from them. Shyju khalid’s beautiful frames captures the fishing culture and natural beauty of Kumbalangi. Saiju sridharan’s crisp edits made the film enjoyable without noticeable lag. Sushin syam’s bgm suits the mood well. Madhu present satire and emotions minimally and subtly.

Simple,humane and Fabulous

Rating:4.0/5

Sarvam Thaala Mayam

STM is structurally similar to SivaKarthikeyan’s Kanaa with the protagonist focusing on a specific interest and how he achieves his goal within limitations and hardships.But what makes this one laudable is that Rajiv menon wants to convey something beyond the predictable climax win of the protagonist.

Peter Johnson(GV Prakash kumar) ,a thalapathy fan is the son of mridangam maker Johnson(Kumaravel).He develops intense interest in Carnatic music when he meets a popular mridangam maestro Vembu iyer (Nedumudi venu).Rest of the film tells about the caste oppression in Carnatic music and how Peter learns Mridangam.

1st half covers the commercial factor with Peter Beatu song and peter meets a malayali nurse Sarah(Aparna Balamurali).She motivates him to learn mridanga from Vembu Iyer.Initally Iyer’s disciple Mani(Vineeth-normal villain who drives the story) becomes the obstacle for his dream. Rajiv menon then conveys the impact of reality shows on Carnatic music and finishes with the idea to break the template of Carnatic music.

STM is ARR’s best work in recent times.Ding dong ,Maya maya,Varalama and mridangam beats (especially climax)offer sweet experience to ears .Ravi yadav’s frames are beautiful when peter travels to find the diversity in music.Special mention to dialogs.

GV enjoys himself in portraying the underdog character. The scene where he reacts when his father tries to sell the Mridangam that he made for himself talks best about his passion. Nedumudi Venu steals the show with a magnificent performance portraying the selfish & traditional Vembu iyer. Kumaravel,Vineeth and DD supported well. Aparna’s character seemed almost out of sync to the plot though performed well.

Recommended for Genuine music lovers.

Rating:3.5/5