I was genuinely disappointed inspite of judiciously avoiding pre-judice…and I felt
a) VTV took a plaintiff story and made it look even more plaintiff thinking *yet another love story* tagline would work!
b) And VTV sucked-up the viewer’s patience big time with a huge hole after 2/3rd of the movie and I was literally counting for the climax!
I am neither biased against love stories nor against Gautham Vasudevan Menon (GVM). I can explain!
The movie starts off with usual boy meets girl stuff. We think, okay, this is fine, nothing overboard or askance…let it go!...
The movie continues to be the same…we still are fine…just that some of the dialogues under the guise of falling for the girl looking 3rd grade…though it is simbu who utters them, I can see GVM behind each of them. This I thought is not what you expect from a director of GVM’s caliber. This was exactly like how Shankar posed himself as *youth* and did stuff in Boyz…which wasn’t warranted for a Shankar film, leave along a youth film…!
There is no major substantiation/reason to say why Simbu falls for Trisha except the *attractive girl* logic…which doesn’t make it look like the Love that the movie advertises that it portrays! I for the little cinema that I know of, would have expected substantiation of the love factor with prudent scenes or instances which were missing!
Onto the next irritating piece in the puzzle…Trisha…I feel it an irony when people say Trisha is good looking. Bull waste! Good looking aint just good costume. It is personality, attitude, the character weight… If it was not for character depths / attitude / personality, Mallika / Gopika wouldn’t have even made a mark in the movie *Autograph*. Their characters are stil vivid in memory 6 years on now, without Nalini Sriram’s costumes…J…Agreed Nalini shouldn’t be credited with this folly. It is the Invoicer. When Shankar could invoice so well from Nalini for Sivaji – The Boss, we tend to feel GVM played a tad too deep on the good looks aspect. Even so, the half-straight, half normal hair looks completely unkempt, a diagonally opposite personality feel for what Jessie is portrayed to be!...Instead there could have been a half normal and half curly hair which would have suited the oomph factor which seems to completely surreal…!
On the dialogues again, they have been the biggest down-ing factor for this movie… they are sooo long and so draft-verison-ish. I always got the feel that it was the first cut version of dialogues that it made it to the re-recording…because, I for most of the scenes felt the dialogues except for a countable few lacked finesse and the crispness of *potato chips*!!! This costed dearly for the movie’s feel good factor as you always end up irritated what with few 3rd grade lines interspersed!
Music as perceived on screen…my goodness…the less spoken the better! Music, per se has been reviewed at length in my previous blog entry – simply put – it is godly, except for the comment that I had earlier on – there could have been more variety in the music that was invoiced..! I stand by that. I also read in some place that ARR should have been on hurry to catch a plane on his way to completing the re-recording. I would second that. Where are the beautiful interludes juxtaposed in the story, that would tell a story on its own!!...If re-recording was second-class, the song picturisation was definitely third grade.
For the lovely song that Hosanna is and for the lovely impact it had on your ears, it seldom is remembered in the movie primarily due to a basic cinematic fact that viewers are less attentive in the first 20 mins or so and that’s why screenplay pundits clearly demarcate the lighter stuff and intro stuff for this time. What was the logic to put the best song of your album in the first 10 mins?!!! Man…criminal waste, according to me..:(
Omana penne – Simbu’s attire never fitted the hats / hoods he had on…! I thought the hat never fitted with the rest of the costume, neither did the hooded visuals of the song which also looked very casual. It is 300 % more responsibility on the director to ensure that such master piece sound tracks are given due supporting credit by way of fitting visuals. Because master piece sound tracks have their powerful / potent story telling capacity, if the movie differs from the initial feel that the audio release brings in, the viewer is disappointed and is beginning to get disinterested. And boy, that final Malayalam interlude of Kalyani Menon, who on earth would shoot a bathing scene that too on some exotic western world beach for an authentic Malayalam lyric replete with fitting instrumentation. If it was any solace, trisha emerges with a bath robe that is Malayalam looking silk! That’s the remotest close encounter that this song had with God’s own country other than the verse – Omana penne!
Oru Naal Sirithen – what a number it was shaping up to be on headphones…The song was completely misplaced wrt feel. Any sane person who listens to the audio can figure out the feel the song conveys… that too on a platter. Angst, a lightly haunting feel, painful at that! Alas, the song is placed at an exactly opposite sequence in the movie when Simbu successfully meets up with Trisha in her house after the marriage and they kind of formally complement the love they have for each other – mutually. Rahman’s passionate rendition fitted Simbu’s lips only the first time when Simbu reacts with a lot of zeal on the tiny boat which is almost rocked by his enthusiasm! For whatever little knowledge that I have of cinema, if I can churn up so much of filmi gyan, I would expect that GVM knows this on Day 1 ! Why am I having to key such long statements for so basic an aspect!
Un Nanban illai – I thought the song did not have contrasting aspects like the ARR song nor did it have anything great to rave about! I don’t remember a thing about that song now…hahaha…J. Good for GVM!
Aromale – I thought this song was pretty nicely fit into the scheme of things in the movie…! For a moment if I can juxtapose this with the fact that GVM mentioned in the audio release that this was a Free supplement volunteered by ARR, I wonder how this aspect would have been shown on screen by GVM without this song! Anyways, what is good should definitely be appreciated! And GVM deserves a pat for this song and it picturization
Anbil Avan – equally fitting was the placement of the song in the movie and it was very obvious that it should have been the marriage song like my comment in my audio review. What irked in this piece though was the dance by people on the park. How many more movies would GVM use the same clichéd technique. Sir, please improvise!
Vinnai Thandi Varuvaaya – the feel of the song was snugly captured in the sequence and the song / video did mutual justice!
I have endeavour-ed a music-video review above purely, because this was touted to be a *Academy award winner’s musical, fitting rewarded with a genuine love story*! I now feel tired of this!...and few more milstones to comment on before I retire on this topic///
If there were a few good things in this mediocre love story it was
a) Simbu – Simbu has been stellar in his performance, the least to say! rightly like GVM’s comment in one of run-up shows, Simbu walks away with more than 2/3rds of the credit in the movie. I would have to admit that 1/3 of this 2/3rds credit should be GVM’s for etching the character, but the bigger aspect of essaying the same needs mention. TR’s blood is alive and kicking (!!) in simbu who has been able to bring in a fierce yet completely subtle performance on-screen. Appreciate it!
b) Climax – This is probably where I realized I am watching the movie of a film maker who gave us Vettaiyadu Vilayadu / Vaaranam Aayiram / Pachai Killi Muthu Charam. None of that wizardy was evident until the fag-end of the movie when he played us upside down with the Real Life – Reel Life mix-match, though it was predictable at the Brooklyn bridge sequence!! Hatz off GVM!
Sorry, I was long and hard here, but so many mistakes cannot happen in a critically acclaimed director’s movie. Most of my comments are not my observations (which could be questioned, btw)…but are basic aspects any movie maker should care to cover!
Good Luck with *the* Asal Hero movie next! Hope we don’t have as many things to feed-back to you on!!
Vinnai Thaandi Varuvaaya - Vinnai Thaandi Varamudiyavillai !!
