Apr 22, 2008

Kadavul and Nepali

1) Arai EN 305-il kadavuL:

I went to this movie with a lot of expectations, both on its director and the producer. The signs of what is coming became apparent in the first few minutes of the movie. I tried to laugh at the 'jokes' but couldn't; then I thought that the director, who made us laugh heartily at '23-Am Pulikesi' has been trying some genuine jokes but I am too lame to understand it, so laughed at a few others, only to stop and think 'It wasn't funny enough to elicit a laughter'. It took a while to realize that the director is suffering from his 'second-movie-blues'.


The most absurd concept in the movie is God's 'G-box' which looks like an external memory disk and which gets powered from normal 220-volt electricity. God becomes useless without it, and any man who possesses it becomes God (Alauddinum arpudha vilakkum and Mr. India, remember?) There is constant preaching all over the movie which certainly becomes too unbearable as the movie progresses. It is like 'Bruce Almighty meets Munnabhai of 2006 and both go insane' kinda movie.


Santhanam, universally acclaimed as the 'loud-mouthed idiot' gets the hero chance probably because the director saw that he has slimmed down. Ganja Karuppu proves that he would be unbearable in any movie if he occupies more than 15 minutes of screen space. Prakash Raj is certainly no NTR; his wig is horrible. It looks like even Gods can have 'bad hair days'. The support cast, including the heroines, is less than inspiring. If there is one thing funny in the movie, it is the songs. Listen to 'Kaadhal sei', and if possible, watch it.. Alongside 'Ennai konjam mAtri' and 'Arjunaru villu', you might want to have this song playing in your car for a cheerful ride.


The lesson from this one and from 'Indralokathil...' is, if a human visits the land of Gods, or the other way around, it would be a disaster.


2) Nepali:

We get to see three Bharath's - first, a Nepali one who is killing people; second, a software engineer who is in love with Meera, and third, a prisoner isolated in a cell who is constantly taking attempts to kill himself. The story moves along in three different lines well into the second half before converging into a single axis. At one point I doubted if the director was telling three stories in one movie, and if the three characters will get to meet each other. The director has cleverly woven the screenplay to keep the story moving forward and keeping us guessing.

Initially, the romantic segment between Bharath and Meera seems to be a spoiler of what is turning out to be a good thriller and it appears to be a little too long. Trimming that part would have made the movie shorter and crisper. That aside, there aren't too many complaints from me. I would have expected a better thinktank and clever discussion among the police officers who are trying to solve the murder cases. In one scene Bharath tells Meera "neenga nadikka try panreenga.." I felt like telling the same to Bharath. But, I must add that he gets his act together gradually and delivers a powerful performance.


Another interesting aspect that keeps us engrossed in the proceedings is the presence of quite a few loose ends which are waiting to be tied. Since they get tied only just before the climax and the climax itself is quite well-conceived, it gives a feeling of having watched a fast-paced movie. There aren't too many songs and the songs are reasonably good. Overall, it is a movie worth watching.

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

How ironic it is the gal whom God remarks as "good gal" is indeed a prostitute. Is it subtlely told that she is Mary Magdalene?

Santanam's expression in 2 of the scenes makes me wonder if he is prabhu's half cousin/brother.

There can never be any other song at the moment which can irritate the as Kaadhal Sei.

In simple words, Simbudevan should be shot dead

Anonymous said...

I was disappointed with both arai en, and nepali. nepali was unbearable, bharath with his bad wig, there was nothing to the story, the hype that he plays three different roles, comeon, they were hardly any roles. arai en was decent, offcourse i could nitpick some things in it, but prakashraj did well, and it didn't turn out to be a comedy, more of a drama. santhosh subramaniam was decent, although hated genelia's character, she was highly annoying. i am hoping kuruvi lives up to dharani's earlier movies, and dasavatharam comes out great.

Anonymous said...

" Alongside 'Ennai konjam mAtri' and 'Arjunaru villu', you might want to have this song playing in your car for a cheerful ride. "

Idhullam romba over ( say it in vadivelu's style )

Ramya said...

how abt 'Anjaathey', 'Velli thirai' and 'Yaaradi nee mohini'.. Velli thirai, some said its a mokkai.. but sum said its vry good..
Anjaathey liked by most of the ppl..
Yaaradi nee mohini also totally diff comments... have u seen these movies..how r they,..

Anonymous said...

ramya harish, out of those 3 movies that you mentioned, i felt anjaathey was the best, velli thirai was ok, and so was yaaradi nee mohini. anjaathey truly felt good, different kind of movie, a little violent. vellithria was just another one of those movies where they showcase the cinema life, and yaaradi nee mohini has dhanush, need i say anything more.btw, raju heard kuruvi and dasavatharam songs, all are ok. i think himesh has done a decent job, kuruvi is no gilli, dhill, or dhool. songs are ok.

Ramya said...

oh is it nitin.. I heard dasavatharam songs r not upto the expectation..

Raju said...

Agno, ya forgot to mention about Santhanam's those two scenes.. Initially I thought he and the director were trying to make fun of such similar scenes in Tamil cinema, but when it repeated, I realized that it must be Santhanam's attempt to acting. Bad flop at that..
Madhumitha's role is less than half-cooked.. nothing to say about that..
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Nitin, I actually did like Nepali. I didnt know about any hype around Bharath's roles, but they came across as a sincere effort by him. Though the convergent point in the movie was a cliched one, I thought the director recovered well with a good climax.
On the other hand, Arai Enn was a torturing movie for me. I gave up whatever hope I had during the intermission in the few minutes post-interval. My bad luck with movie-watching in theaters continues for over a year now..
Santhosh Subramaniam was entertaining.. so there are different opinions about Genelia's hyperactive role. I sort of welcomed such a character, since she is sweet (even if too sweet), friendly (again, even if too frindly) and likable.
I have gr8 expectations on Dasavatharam.. keeping the fingers crossed.. :)

Raju said...

Pappuli, LOL.. it was an intentional parody.
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Ramya, Anjaathey is certainly the best movie of the year so far. Though a bit long, one doesnt feel it, as the movie keeps us engrossed with the proceedings. Technically superb too. I love the well-made 'KathAzha kannAle' song..
'Vellithirai' was a bit slow. Prithviraj looked jaded and tired. As Nitin mentioned, it wasnt so different from a couple of other movies based on tamil cinema (Maha Nadigan and Kodambakkam).
'Yaaradi nee Mohini' was just OK. Nayanthara continues with her stone-faced acting of Billa. The way they showed the Brahmin family and Dhanush winning their love all seemed cliched. Can say just a decent movie. Thats all.
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Nitin, I heard all of Kuruvi's songs. Liked two of them (Happy new year and Mozha mozhannu); the third (Thaen thaen) was spoilt by Udit Narayan.. nice lyrics.
So far listened to only one song of 'Dasavatharam' (Kallai kandAl).. very well sung by Hariharan. Surprised to see Himesh delivering a Carnatic-based song.

Did you manage to watch/follow IPL? I try to watch some games, and I like the cricket so far.

Anonymous said...

yeah, just looking at scores after the matches. pretty upset with harbhajan's attitude towards his own national team member sreesanth, something needs to be done about this guy, anger management maybe. but yeah, chennai is doing well, still cannot ignore the fact that players from other country teams are coming to rescue, not much contribution by the indians except for sehwag's 94.

Ramya said...

every news channel has bhajji n sreesanth weeping scene all the time.. after playing years, cant a person control his anger,,..shame on him.. n paavam sreesanth

Raju said...

Nitin, hmmm... I do watch them online during the weekends.. Only thing is that i need to get up at 6.30 AM to catch the action.. but most of the matches have been good so far.. especially the six by Warne to win against Hyderabad.

Yeah, Harbhajan has been volatile for quite sometime, especially aftr his performance started to dip. He certainly needs a visit to a shrink.

True about most foreign players pulling the cart so far.. I will probably write a post on IPL once it reaches the half way mark.
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Ramya, yeah I heard about the news channel making full use of this recent spat. Bhajji certainly deserved to be punished but Sreesanth is no saint either.. He is too eccentric on the field, and on several occasions crosses the line that separates aggression and abuse.