Thursday, March 30, 2006

Kalvanin Kadhali - Movie Review

A one liner for the movie would go like this: Story line - cliched; Screenplay - Refreshing !!

To put it bluntly, the prejudice I had before entering the Hall expecting the movie to not be anything but mediocre, vanished into thin air...when I came out of the hall....mildly surprised....with a neat screenplay and clear characterisation.....the movie comes out unscatched with the viewer...which in itself...is a great tribute for the debutant director....

Few from the general public would know that this is not a SJ Suryah directed movie...but he pulls his weight purely as an actor in this movie.....real talent, though without the looks... The movie starts with suryah's now familiar pranks..and to be frank.....the first half hour was slightly uncomfortable with cheap dual tone dialogues and scenes. Agreed that Suryah's character is a womanizer..but the scene's take it too far...

Wading through the first half hour....and then you are made to situp with Nayanthara's entry...wow.....the real star or you can call flag bearer of the movie....she moves around the camera with such poise, beauty, freshness...you feel for nayanthara's portrayal in Ghajini..where she was shown in poor light...photographically..I mean..... Any hero would want to act with Nayanthara after seeing this movie....she carries herself..excellently well...the reason for this is her neat characterisation...one is at home with her portrayal...

The story moves around with beautifully picturised and composed songs....credit to Yuvan..who churns out such tunes non-chalantly like his father...not exactly in his father's class though!!! Songs as well are a major plus for the movie.....actually the director has proved that with neat character sketches, screenplay, music and direction, one can get away with such cliched subjects as well....

Overall an enjoyable movie if you are an youngster !!!

-Rajesh

Saturday, March 11, 2006

Internet Explorer 7 Beta - PREVIEW

Was hanging around at Novell's new desktop news site...when they said...Novell will have the edge over Windows Vista by about 6 months..so I went straight to Windows Vista page...I have been having a keen interest on Vista...coz...I alpha tested Vista way back in 2003, when it was doing the rounds....

this time around, the website does look impressive..as always and like any other microsoft page....Got interested in IE 7 beta....Signed up for that...knowing well the alluring danger in Microsoft Beta products...(I had a tough time with Windows Media Player 10, in 2004-2005), the temptation was too much...to resist...

downloaded IE 7 Beta 2,

Installed it...

Took 5 minutes....restarted Windows....

Opened IE....surprised to see IE looking refreshing....with TABS...and the toolbars have been given a face-lift...

A search toolbar akin Firefox, Opera...Finally IE has succumbed to the needs and has followed suit with most of the features that the competitors provide....

Does not look like such a memory hog...except for some javascript pages...the memory usage was pretty ok.....thats until now...only over course it will mature...

Have already suggested three enhancements to the IE mailing list..:-)

Without any outstanding improvements to boast about, IE as standalone will not succeed...but when given with Vista..will sail in as a successful browser...looking to match the advances Microsoft has made to the OS as whole...a significant forward movement from Windows XP...one would say..!!!

More comments after a couple of weeks..when it will be stress-tested...:-))

-Rajesh

Thursday, March 02, 2006

Thambhi - Movie Review

Thambhi....literally meaning younger brother...but colloquially used to represent any lovable fella in ur neighbourhood....so here is this fella caring about his neighbourhood...that is the crux...a social movie...

A violent movie without violence and blood shed...to sum it up..!!!! aint' different???? True...I was impressed with most part of the movie....which is in itself a credit for the movie, though low key in publicity and openings....:-) The opening sequence of the movie...though remniscent of many a hollywood war movie...was truly impressive...setting the expectation levels for the plot.....and to top it, the title sequences....given as much care as the screenplay & dialogues.... When the title card for the director says...ACTION & IMPACT -- SEEMAN, you would definitely have clap for this thambhi behind the scene for the confidence he had in his plot....I appreciate it !!!!

I read that Madhavan, had foregone his primetime host position in DEAL YA NO DEAL....to concentrate on his career in tamil film industry....Looks true, when one watches the movie...he has shown ample signs of that....Kudos for his commitment to the role -Hardwork..for sure pays off - Such characters are all the more difficult because, madhavan is not the cool dude and heppy guy...he is used to being....so u get to see a rustic madhavan in this action flick... good characterisation....and emotion from Madhavan..this is definetely a break for maddy, the chocolate boy hero....the hair-do has aided and jelled with the characterization..!!!

Enough of bragging about the director and movie....though they are the fulcrum for this movie....the movie in itself..demands some comments....So lets do justice to that part...??? what say..???

The movie...is a classic TAMIL movie...with very little shade of english dialouges and deviod of english music...for once Dr. Ramadoss..and the supposedly Tamil Fanatics cannot complain about this movie....a true TAMIL movie...all characters have been named consciously and carefully... Velu Thodaiman...aka Thambhi....you are forgiven if you have heard that name yet...??? coz....such names are a rarity in movies...hah..one more compliment...these small things...which were appealing..have forced me to write a review for this movie...!!!

Depicting the hero as a Karate exponent and keeping the fight sequence in complete realism to karate needs a pat....but the jarring fact was Maddy's belly...it was lil too much for such a powerful character....people will never know if it was intentional...nevertheless.....stunt choreography is simply stunning....to go with the excellent camera work.....

The story in a nutshell.....The protagonist is a middle class family man...gets pulled into a Dada's trial as a witness..the price he pays for this is the loss of his family...., which forces him to take up to clearing up the mess in the society....not ala the normal hero, who sets out on a holy mission to decimate the villains..... here the protagonist...instead chooses ahimsa and preaches the villain to stop these brutalities...the reasoning sounds logically and need a revisit for the depth of thought that has gone into that...Ultimately though..in reality..how much of this is practiceable is up for dicussion....once the scene gets over....tough actually....

The dada gets pulled into the trap he lays for creating havoc in the city...and here as well, the hero comes to save the villain's family...amidst all the hungama...this rivets the ideas of the hero into the villain, but it is too late...as the hero..is drawn into another trap and killed...taken revenge on..... might not be a fantastic story line, but this story line sails through mainly because of four reasons...

4) Madhavan's acting
3) Dialogue of the movie
2) Impact of SEEMAN
1) Screenplay of the movie

Overall an enjoyable experience for the true cinema lover..who expects substance and clean narration in a movie...I am certainly game for this movie...!!!

See ya,
Rajesh

Merger Announcement

This is a formal announcement that involves the merger of my other blog, http://reviewkorner.blogspot.com, with this weblog. The blog "In Perspective", has been in operation since September 1, 2005. The Initial idea behind the blog was to dedicate one for movie reviews....but I never had any traffic interests..then....so didnt care to make it public....but my friend sujay, has conciously sowed the "traffic...and counter funda" into my mind....so I have decided to make the merger, after ..................."much thought"..you would have thought, but in actuality, "without an after thought"....so you would be able to see my reviews....in this web stop itself......what with everybody going in for convergence.....I didnt want to be left behind....hahaha...;-)