Sep 14, 2005

Oru Kallooriyin Kathai

(Pic adopted from ChennaiOnline)

Another of campus tabloid to be added to the long list of recent movies. The debutant director, Nanda Periasamy had said this is a very refreshing story and 'romba vithyaasamana kadhai'. Wish it was a positive difference he had in mind.

Chandru (Jaivarma) is going to Cuddalore to meet his college classmates after five long years. Satya (Arya), their best friend who had originally suggested for such a meeting before five years is eagerly awaited. His father brings him, albeit in a state where all he is nothing, literally, but a emotionless, vegetable-like, almost brain-dead survivor. The doctor (Charuhaasan) takes him to a hypnotic state when he reveals about his love interest, Jothi (Sonia Agarwal), his collagemate. He was about to propose his one-sided love to her five years ago during the freshers' welcome but he couldn't. Doctor suggests that, in order for Satya to become normal, he has to propose to Jothi as he had planned. So, the friends try to rebuild their college of 5 years back and help Satya complete his unfulfilled wish.

Surely an interesting story, though the attempts of the friends in cleverly fooling Satya and manipulating his world resembles that of Ed Harris in 'The Truman Show'. The first half is outlined above and it has some interesting and touching moments. It is OK, but, it nosedives badly in the second half, hurting logics, sentiments and the climax is cliched. The interaction among the friends is shown in only one or two scenes. While it is plus for not going overboard, it is a minus because the overboard act of their friends for such an arduous effort in time-reversal of an entire college for a month.

Several loopholes are visibly see - how about the life outside the campus? And, what about the present students who are finishing up their year (since that one month is set before farewell time)? Even if one tends to neglect these and tries to enjoy the proceedings, the situations where Jothi realizes Satya's love on her, appear ridiculous, forced and too melodramatic. All these things bring down the second half of the movie terribly badly.

Arya looks good, handsome and has chances to emote reasonably well. But none too impressive compared with her previous movie, Ullam Ketkumae. He appears to be sleep-walking for most part. Sonia appears less interested and she better keep an eye on diet. Support cast of the friends like Jaivarma are OK. IMO, the best scenes of the movie are when the friends are together. They bring back memories of the college days. The big question that haunts is, if they are such thick friends, why the hell they had no contact whatseover among themselves so far? Not even one knew about Satya's plight, especially since 'that event' happened at the farewell day?

Yuvan's music is a huge positive, though, as usual, he fare better in melodious songs than in the college group songs. "Kaadhal enbathu" and "kanngal kalangida" are top-class and i hear them atleast 4-5 times everyday. The movie is neat, without any item number or masala stuff. If you keep your brain in the closet and watch it only with heart, you will like it.

B- grade for this movie. +ves: Arya, Yuvan. -ves: Climax, patchy screenplay.

19 comments:

Ram C said...

I was so disappointed with the result of the movie, eventhough the first week's collection was good.. I am concerned about his next movie 'kalaba kadhalan' as well, since the unlucky Renuka Menon (of 'dass' & 'Feb-14') is pairing with him... (luck also plays a role, isn't it?)

Anonymous said...

i dont know if luck has anything to do with it, its just the story, they are all so repetitive, nothing new, and if something extraordinarily new and totally different comes out, it doesn't go well with the tamil audience, i hope atleast Ghajini does well. I saw Thotti Jaya, and it was allright, Simbu is slowly maturing as an actor, i have started to like simbu a little bit from manmadhan.

Raju said...

Ram, may be the expectations surrounding the movie helped the box office. Renuka Menon is not in the same league as other gals from her state.

Nitin, yeah.. repetitive. Thats why '5 Star' was sooo different. There is no lousy prof. (here instead of Vennira adai Moorthy, u have Charlie, who looks like baffoon). Ghajini's trailers seem to be interesting. I am yet to see Memento. Will see Ghajini first. I am right now watching Thotti Jaya. Yeah, not bad, but his love interest is too much of a cinematic co-incidence. Call it twist or whatever, these things have become part and parcel of our movies recently.

ada-paavi!!!! said...

movie is bad, ennoda review padingo, and almost 30 minutes has been cut (after 1 week of its release, cause distributors felt the need)to make the movie tighter, now it seems to be running full!

Narayanan Venkitu said...

Thanks for the review,,,I won't waste 8 dollars on the tickets .!

I have a feeling that Sonia Agarwal..looks Sad all the time..! Do you feel it.!? Something is bothering her in real life?

Anonymous said...

yeah, i read vatsan's review, and i liked the nakkal review. i agree that the villain kinda sucked in the movie, but he is supposed to be a top villain in the telugu industry i believe.he is the villain in Ghajini too.

tt_giant said...

".... why the hell they had no contact whatseover among themselves so far"..

LOL!. I can picture you yelling at the screen!!!..

Thanks for getting the brunt of the attack for us!. I would stick to the songs in raaga for this movie then!.

Raju said...

Vatsan, I wouldnt say the movie was bad.. it was OK in patches but the execution could have been far better. Yet to read your Nakkal review. Will read both ur Jatti Paiyan and college story reviews.

Narayanan, sure it is not worth wasting money on watching big screen. May be worth a dollar or two in DVD. That too if you miss your college and college friends so much. Sonia always looks sad, only Selvaraghavan can show her good.

Raju said...

Krishna, this movie is only third of Arya, and all of his movies have been released in the last 3 months or so. He seems to be a hit among girls already. I completely understand how and why you havent heard of him yet. He is promising for sure.

Nitin, the villain, played by Pradeep Yadav sucked big time.. All brawn no brain type. Too loud. Yeah, I saw him in the Ghajini trailer. He played the role of 'Ashwathama' in the Mahabharata serial.

Raju said...

Deepak, :-) I was literally fuming at that total lack of logic. It was as though each of them were sent to Mars, Moon and other distant objects and were brought to earth after 5 years. Songs are good to hear.

Anonymous said...

offtopic from thotti jaya, and oru kalluriyin kadhai, Gp,wat is ur opinion on all this talk about a controversy between ganguly, and chappell, and where there any players involved in the recent match fixing incident? post a reply, or even more post what you think on ur blog.

Raju said...

Nitin, yeah thats a hot topic indeed. Will write about it sometime soon.

tt_giant said...

I liked the kanngal kalangida song!. But havent seen the movie yet.

Yea, GP: enna.. ganguly epidi pantaan?

Balaji said...

gp, we seem to have similar tastes in movies. completely agree with u on the lack of logic in the movie.

Anonymous said...

did anybody see Ah AAh, i dnot even want to see that movie, i dont like SJ Suryah that much. all his movies have vulgarity, and nothing much.

Raju said...

Deepak, yeah, that song and kaadhal enbadhu are good ones.

Ganguly pannadhu romba shock-a irukku.. later oru post panrenn.. avanai ellam......

Balaji, didnt read your review yet, but even before I have found lotsa similarities in our likings in movies.

Raju said...

Nitin, I would see it today and/or tomorrow. I think you can watch that for the sake of Nila atleast.. ;-) Yeah masala sprinkled movies.. but this one appears to be less so compared to New.

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