Feb 18, 2007

Pachai KiLi Muthucharam


(Pics adopted from Behindwoods and Musicindiaonline)

Venkatesh (Sarathkumar), a medical rep. and Kalyani (Andrea)are happily married and have a son. The 4-year old kid is suddenly identified with diabetes, and that affects their marriage life. During his daily journey to work by train, he meets Geetha, (Jyothika) a married lady with a daughter, and they become friends. They are slowly attracted to each other and a relationship starts developing pretty fast between them. When they think they can get away with it, they are jolted by a huge shock which comes in the form of Lawrence (Milind Soman).

I really liked this movie. I have neither read the novel or watched the movie 'Derailed' and I got it confirmed that this is pretty much a replica of the original movie, except may be for the last 30 mins. The story is pretty fast-paced from the beginning, whether it deals with the soft relationship between Sarath and Jo or the twists and turns that happen later. The old title for this movie and the fact that my best friend could guess it midway, as told to me earlier, made me expect a twist when I got a break during the 5 mins. of interval. When it comes, it is accompanied with a couple of mini twists as well.. so watch out.

When the main theme starts evolving, I got a feeling that this is tamil's answer to KANK. The conversations between Sarath and Jo are so believable and we get the feeling as if this is really happening in front of our eyes. Jo has got some best expressive lines similar to what she utters in Kaakha Kaakha. The interactions between Sarath and Andrea are very sweet and romantic. Andrea's reaction when she comes to know of her husband's mistake is something new to the Tamil cinema, and it completely suits to her personality shown thus far. Goutham proves again that he has a unique way of looking at relations and emotions, suiting to the present age.

Sarath comes off with flying colors as a typical middle class man who is simple, afraid, love-seeking, confused, and loving to his family. Except for a couple of fight scenes which could have been avoided with some clever thinking, he has played probably a most realistic role ever in his career. I wish he gets to act in such down-to-earth roles more in the future. Jo looks very different (interesting make-up). As always, Goutham brings the best from her. Sad that we will get only one more movie from this good actress. Andrea (the female voice in 'KaRka kaRka' of VV) is beautiful, sweet, elegant and does well in the short screen time she gets.. more than what one can expect from a newcomer. Where did she come from? Milind reminds us a lot of 'Pandiya' of Kaakha, in his actions and dialog delivery, and I think Jeevan has provided the dubbing voice.

PachaikiLi muthucharam is not a flawless movie. The last half an hour was a bit dragging, though the song that fits there makes it tolerable. As mentioned earlier, Sarath's realistic performance becomes unrealistic when he bashes up a dozen goondas single-handedly. Jo's last few minutes in the movie come off as irritating, though it is a new Avatar for her. These are above-minor hiccups in an otherwise engrossing movie.

As one can expect of a Goutham movie, the technical aspects are top-notch. The songs are picturized pretty well - especially the "Un sirippinil" (seems inspired from the remix version of "yeh vaada - Tu tu hai meri dil...)". Though it reminds us of 'Partha mudhal' of VV, it is shot better than the latter. 'KAdhal konjam', though comes pretty late, is worth waiting for. 'Karu karu' blends with dialogues rather well and the picturization of 'Unakkul naan' (Surprise lyricist: Rohini) reminds of 'Uyirin uyire'. Aravind Krishna's camera captures the mood of the film pretty well.

Very sweet title for a nicely made movie. Watch it - it is different.

21 comments:

Awatts said...

Inda padathula paatu ellame ok... Kadhal Konjam was above average...nalla padiirukaaru Naresh Vyas..."Un Siripinil" is a typical song one would have expected Bombay Jayshree to sing but this time its a newcomer Gowthami Rao..
Pokiri pada vimarsanam ezhuthalayo? Adulayum paatu ellam sooper...esp Dolu Dolu paatu kelunga...

மு.கார்த்திகேயன் said...

Raju, Gouthaman is great in handling different genre, right from his first movie, instead doing same type of masala flicks like other directors.

Raju, He has good rapport Illayaraj which make all his movies packed wekk to the audience

Raju said...

Ajitha, I liked all the songs of PKMC.. for various reasons.

Naresh Vyas or Naresh Iyer?

'Un sirippinil' has been superbly sung by Gowthami Rao.. I am rather glad that Jayshree didnt sing that one.

I had watched both the versions of Pokkiri, and the movie is just OK for me.. And I had fast-forwarded all the songs, so havent heard any. The only song i heard was 'Mutham ondru'.. which was OK.. I will hear 'Dolu dolu'..
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Karthik, yeah he has shown a great versatility.. I agree with u.

U meant Harris Jayaraj instead of Ilayaraja, right? Me too felt that Gowtham-HJ combo always brings out special numbers..

mitr_bayarea said...

Hi Raju-

Am back to the blogging world after a gap. Things have been hectic at home and work.

Have been wanting to read some reviews abt PKM before watching it in the theatre. One of my friends who watched me told that it was indeed a litte scary to see Sarath, Jo. etc. without make-up in close up shots.

A very daring story indeed!

i think therefore i am said...

hey raju.. Was waiting for a review before I watched the movie.. Also Andrea was a theatre artist before she went into movies..

Anonymous said...

Good to see a movie which was a flop in English is picking up well in Tamil. It is indeed a daring attempt by Gautham.

Me too said...

Is it 'KK' good or 'VV' good?

Raju said...

Mitr, Welcome back!! Good to see you after awhile..

About make-up, I didnt have any problem with Sarath... Jo's makeup was different.. Apparently, only Andrea (and Milind Soman) acted without makeup.. but nothing to worry or get scared.. :)

I noticed that some other bloggers have written about a very important twist, - a spoiler which I have avoided. If you read any of them, the fun of watching would be reduced considerably. Plz go and watch this weekend. I recommend this movie.
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M, u too r welcome here, after ur marriage. Ur other half is too busy of late huh?

As I said to Mitr, I advise you to just go and watch, without reading too many reviews in blogsphere..

About Andrea, I just read in sify about her multi-faceted talents in singing, stage-acting and modelling. Interesting indeed..
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Princess, yeah.. I guess he took the risk after reading the novel and guessing that the story might appeal to our audience if Indianized suitably; but to do that after learning that the movie flopped is a daring attempt indeed..
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Aparna, that was very clever.. I liked it.. :)

Neither KK nor VV.. somewhere in between-nu sollalam.. Certainly the best of 2007 so far..

Marutham said...

Ello sir...
LONG TIME....

Epdi Irukeengo?? :P

heehee...
NIce post...
I loved the track "Unakkul naaney..."
//
Very sweet title for a nicely made movie. Watch it - it is different.//
OK... :D Pathudalaam../.

Ponnarasi Kothandaraman said...

Naa varathukulla ellam vanthu viladittu poidranga :( Ground free'a iruku ;)

I liked Unakkul naaney song :D Am kind of obsessed with that!

Sonata said...

im watching this movie only on sunday..so ill watch it and come back!! btw u have missed "latest song" post in my blog..:-)

tt_giant said...

ayyo ayyo.. my comment is gone!!!

i have seen the english version of this sometime back, but still want to watch it to see how Goutham has handled it. Good to see big-name heros acting in offbeat movies.

Raju said...

Marutham, ello ma'm.. Ya long time indeed.. Naan nalla irukken.. neenga eppadi irukkeha? 'Unakkul Naaney' is very nice to hear, but it would be interesting to know how you feel after watching it.. :)

OK.. parthuttu unga opinion-ai sollunga..
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Ponnarasi, neenga late-a vandhaa enna panradhu? Adutha thadavai seekkiram vaanga.. :)

'Unakkul naaney' has very good lyrics by Rohini.. but my fav is 'Un sirippinil'... chance-ey illa..
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Sonata, sure.. will look forward to hearing ur comments.. Ur remarks on the songs you post in 'CoS' are very interesting...

I didnt miss that song.. The interlude is superb.. has AR Rahman-ic touch, but still unable to guess.. definitely tough for me..

Sonata said...

hey ok here goes ur clue.. its 4m our thalaivars movie..;-).. Now i guess u can nail it quick!!

Sonata said...

hey tht was a good review..even i liked the movie though many passed on delirious comments about the movie..the songs were jus too good.. i infact like the whole album..just cant single out one song and say this is the best..

Moreover jeevan dint dub milind soman's voice.. gautam menon has only dubbed jeevan's voice in kaaka kaaka and in this movie as well.. probably thts y u got confused tht jeevan had dooubed milind's voice..

The movie i would say is realistic to a point.. ppl getting into such kind of mishaps in this big bad world is very likely!!!

Hell's Angel said...

chk out my take on the movie..

http://scrollthru.blogspot.com

Btw im Sonata or Brindha as u know me thts my alternate blog!!

Raju said...

Brindha, Thank you so much for this clue, which helped me zeroing-in on 'that' movie and re-thinking about the varous songs.

Yeah, though all the songs of PkMc are good, my fav one by a small margin is 'Un sirippinil'..

I didnt know that Gautam dubbed for Jeevan in KK and in PkMc.. esp. since he himself appeared in KK as a 'Encounter specialist'. I didnt observe the difference in Jeevan's voice in 'Thiruttu payale' as well..

Read ur review. It was good.

I knew that it was you.. just for the sake of addressing you, I used the name (sonata) that you provided here..

Blabber-blogger said...

Hello.. been long.
Well for this movie - was pleasant to watch a different movie. And the songs are so beautiful. Had to see the movie.

Overall.. very worth watching.

Raju said...

Nyneishia, Welcome back.. yeah.. long indeed.. super busy-ya?

Yeah the songs are terrific.. I keep watching them in youtube often these days.

Believer said...

Good review...though I'm a Gowtham fan, I kinda felt he could have done a lot better. The scenes were predictable to me..prob due to lot of movie watching!

anyways..i was curious to know-why is that, this movie is named with an old title? do lemme in the secret too!

Raju said...

Believer, welcome to my blog.

Even some of my friends who watched the English original felt that some scenes were predictable. And they are movie buffs too..

The movie was originally named 'Silandhi', probably to reveal the net that it so beautifully spins to catch its prey. W'd have been a very apt title but then came the TN government's decision to provide tax cuts to the movies with pure Tamil titles. Though 'Silandhi' was a tamil word, it was the name of an insect and there was speculation if it would have warranted the tax cut. So, Gowtham decided to play safe and choose a real Tamil title. When he was discussing about it to his lyricist, Thamarai, she was humming 'Pachai kili muthucharam'.. which caught Gowtham's attention. Thamarai too felt that Sarath's life being a 'Muthucharam', it is disrupted by a pretty parrot, to almost make the pearls fall of the thread and hence the name 'PKMC'..