Mar 10, 2006

Kodambakkam

Back-to-back reviews.. ippodhaikku pudhu idea edhuvum agapadalai.. so here I go..

Kodambakkam is the story of an aspiring young assistant director (Nandha)who dreams of making it big in Kodambakkam. He has his love interest (Diya) and his mom (Kalairani) back in his village praying for his success. He gets a rich and typically simple village man (Manivannan) to produce his film. Soon he realizes that his maiden film would be make-or-break for not only him but for several others associated with him.

Unlike some other movies which have projected the members of cine-field as baddies and spun a net around the good vs bad conflicts, Kodambakkam is an honest attempt to portray the obstacles involved in making a movie. It exaggerates the events just a little to create the cinematic cliches but otherwise the director uses several familiar incidents that we have read/heard from the horses' mouths. The climax is kinda predictable but an anti-climax would have shown the director at his pessimistic worst.

Nandha, along with Prasanna and Vishal, is one of the prospective bright faces of Thamizh cinema now. With luck and more emphasis on right emotions, he can achieve second level of stardom. He doesnt disappoint in this movie. Diya raises hopes for a better role in the film after her move to Chennai but it just serves the purpose for a song. Manivannan is so believable as the rich but one of those who are totally unaware of the way cine industry works. His daily updates to his wife appear funny in the beginning but later it helps bring a nice piece of love and emotions.

The support cast of Tejashri, Ramesh Kanna, 'Ganja' karuppu, Kalairani, et al. do a good job, though Kalairani gets onto our nerves at times. The music has nothing much to write about. The director (Jaganji, Director of 'Pudiya Geethai') has shown that he has some good ideas in a few scenes but lack of a brisk screenplay and the songs tend to drag the movie.

12 comments:

Marutham said...

Yennapa Idhu.Orey thirai vimarasanama irukku??? You could get paid from them for this :P. Nice work though! Well narrated.
Regards,
Marutham

மு.கார்த்திகேயன் said...

As you said, Kodambakkam is bold-faced movie of the behind the cinema...

Especially, Rameshkanna did a good job over here..

Yours Truly said...

The movie has got a positive review from everywhere so far. Yet to watch it. Guess Sirpy has made an entry into filmdom after a very long time. One hummable melody from the movie is "Ragasiyamaanadhu kaadhal" which is kinda ok types song

Raju said...

Marutham, enna panradhu.. ippo konjam busy.. so pudhu ideas-le yosikkiradhu konjam kashtam.. Thanks.. :-)
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Karthikeyan, yeah.. you are right. This also tells us not to rubbish a non-vulgar, non-violent movie by a newcomer. Watching the movie is our prerogative but before pulling it down, we need to think about the honest efforts gone into the movie-making.
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YT, glad that it has got +ve reviews. I just forwarded the songs, assuming that the songs wont be good. Let me listen to the song you mentioned.
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Venkatrangan, welcome here.

I can imagine the directors putting themselves into the shoes of the protagonist and feel what is going through. A good thing about this one is, it didnt spend much time on the off-studio life of the new director (the 'mansion' life, as was shown in Kaadhal and Azhagiya theeye). The on-field events were much more interesting and fresh to watch.

Anonymous said...

I liked Kodambakkam, good movie. good acting by all, shows the difficulty in making a movie these days, especially when having a bombay heroine. manivannan was very good in his role. RAju, have you seen Dishyum yet? decent movie. I didn't watch Kalvanin Kadhali, because I heard its just vulgar, and not a good movie. I saw Sandai Kozhi, good movie, could have made the ending better.

neighbour said...

innum padam parkalainga.. parthuthu sollurane...

Ponnarasi Kothandaraman said...

Hi,
Tht was very very descriptive. Please write a review on RDB.. :)

Raju said...

Nitin, yeah.. the Bombay heroine part was just enough funny and probably the director's experience with fussy Amisha in his first movie would have helped.. :-)

I saw Dishyum and I liked it. Same with Sandai Kozhi too.
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Veda, mmm.. you are the second person to recommend that.. I am yet listen to it. I will..

Prasanna and Vishal have been pretty choosy in their roles so far, so hopefully they continue to do so and not disappoint us.. Good that each has got one hit recently too.. must have made some established directors take notice..
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Neighbour, Welcome here..
Padam parthuttu namma ennangal match agudhannu sollunga..
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Ponnarasi, RDB? I thought there are already zillion reviews in the blogosphere on RDB... I just saw the movie last week and had my own views on it. I will try to write it soon..

Blabber-blogger said...

Nice review.

Agreed - kodambakkam was a good one.. I didnt enjoy some of the melodrama and too much senti-scenes and stuff.. but the theme was good and portrays the inside story i think. Again i would not know abt it.

Other movies i liked.. mm Dishyum.. yeah I saw 1/2 of the movie before i was whisked away by my friends.. havent gotten back to finishing it yet. kannadi pookal was good.

Skeptic and scared of trying some movies n lose my little leisure time.. So reviews help.. keep posting :)

Anonymous said...

wow, Raju. Australia vs. SouthAfrica. great win by South Africa man, never expected this. amazing greatest game.

Ram C said...

good attempt by the director.. but could have refined it in a better way. Songs were not at all impressive.. particularly the 'kuthu' song with the leads. Muthukalai was too irritating.

Raju said...

Nyneishia, welcome here.

Yeah, there was the dragging melodramatic scenes.. The story reminded me of many instances that I heard in interviews / read in magazines from directors.

I havent seen Kannadi Pookkal yet.. It is in my 'Must-see' list.
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Nitin, yeah.. I was following that game along with the test match.. Once Australia crossed 300, I didnt have the faintest of doubts that it may not win the game. Truly the greatest one-day game ever.. I wish I had subscribed to sportingstreams.. I would have got to enjoy the game.

IMHO, Australia's bowling without his stalwarts is very pedestrian. Rewind to 2003, when Aus toured India for the TVS cup; they didnt have McGrath, Warne, Lee and Gillespie, still they won 6 out of 7 games, incl. the final. The bowling was spearheaded by Bracken and Brad Williams, and supported well by Andy Bichel and Kasprowicz.. Brad Williams was very a promising bowler for them.. Bichel wasnt bad either.. I think they should drop Clark and Lewis and bring back Williams and Bichel.
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Ram, yeah.. the lack of experience showed in some scenes.. added to that the nervousness after the failure of his first movie.

Mmm.. Muthukalai promised good laughs in the beginning only to irritate later..