Naduvula Konjam Pakkatha Kanom - NKPK - Movie Review

Naduvula Konjam Pakkatha Kanom NKPK - Movie Review

One truly enjoyable movie it has been. It happened to come out in 6 words for me. That's sweet...!!  If that is all I had to say, I would have rather posted on my FB wall. As I keep maintaining, FB is the death nail on my blogging....I used to blog instinctively in the past, now I FB for instinctive aspects. I AM AN OLD SKOOL GUY and still love blogging, just I don't follow my passion....

I'll stop drifting off topic and steer back to Review land...!

NKPK - Started off with an intriguing title. Many a films have had interesting titles, but there ends interests in most films (like KSY - Kathalil Sothapuvathu Yeppadi)...this wasn't to be so.. The title is as intriguing to me as the interpretations of Matrix and Inception. I still have atleast 3-4 versions of justification that churn up in my mind even after watching the movie. FYI. I had atleast 7 versions before the movie.!

The introduction of the characters via the title song, was by far...standard....just that the hero (s) of the movie each had their intro songs..!!! Nice touch to talk about all the protagonists of the movie upfront (reminds me of Thalaivar Sujatha's definition of nice screenplay - in Thiraikathai Yezthuvathu eppadi)....

I strongly believe in Director Cheran's words in an interview...சினிமாவை வெளியில தேடாதீங்க, உங்க வாழ்கைல இருந்து எடுங்க ...the director seems to have drawn more than a leaf from this. Very evident from the Cricket Match scenes. Very much a possibility. A very nice plot to actually enthuse and draw the attention of the audience...! (Lets forget the last scene revelation of the director for sometime..!!)

The main stay of the movie seems to have landed plum roles in offbeat stories one after other. Thenmerku Paruvkaatru, Pizza and NKPK....a decent actor with good restraint....

The subject, Medula Oblongata and temporary memory loss...seems to have received a make-over after the Sanjay Ramasamy era....a completely feel good flavour which has grim realities otherwise. Mr. AR Murugadoss, ippadiyum edukalam antha kathaiya..!!!

Goes to show that...its all in the making ( I mean the pudding called movie..!) The movie at times made me feel I am in a goods train...slow...real slow....but makes you relish that by serving dishes of comedy one after the other to keep you busy laughing while taking its time to establish the real plot of the movie, which you kind of keep guessing all through that initial 30 mins or so...

A good % of the movie was predictable, might have been a spoiler in a Thriller movie, but not here...the more and more you predict, you keep getting drawn to the story and its characters...

Slowly but steadily, by the time the guys freak out of GH, you get into the characters, their differences, their nuances...their fallacies, their bonding and ultimately the plot...

The firm base for the movie's success is in its script. I can imagine how much of hard work should have gone in to make a flawless logic based script...excellent work! I only see a Hard Working Director / Screenplay Writer stand out for me...that's me...:D...

I hear that the dialogue writer for the movie was required only part-time ?!!! Dialogues in majority were only repeats....Enna aachu; Peyu mathiri irukaa, Sathiskku kalyanam...hahaha...hilarious track of plot lines..!!

IMO, the guy playing the Bajji character deserves the maximum applause, next comes Saras (though Saras is the hero of sorts!!), then Prem...!! Bajji character had streaks of realism, naivity, stupidity, comic sense, presence of mind, blinking(!!!)....probably the director chose the right guy to play his part..?! much like ARR and Illayaraja, picking the best tracks of their album for their voices...!!!

Mid-way through the movie, I was very firm that the inspiration for the movie must have been real life characters, lest the thoughts of Saras, Baks and Bajji would match if it was a conned story...they having individual thought lines on how to handle the situation at the GH on the day of the incident is ample proof...I was telling my wife that this should have been an inspiration of some sort for a wonderful output like this...Little did I realize that the end title card of the movie would clear that like Mr. Ramanan's Prediction for Tamil Nadu Weather...!!!

One very good aspect of Screenplay I loved watching was - when Saras leaves the Reception dias and Bajji takes over and as expected the commotion rises on the dias and in our senses, Prem suddenly corrects the course with a ullolalaikku dialogue and we are stunned...the screenplay deftly teases and suggests in a figurative manner when Prem looks up his head to ask his friend something....suggesting that Saras has come back to the dias and Bajji stepped back...this is only for a moment before Saras is shown on screen standing between Bajji and Prem....i thought this was a nice touch to Screen Writing..!!!

By now, you should have realized that this was more of my outpour on what I loved in the movie in a review like un-review...but I strongly believe that the makers had great passion about the story and its impact on their personal lives..! As goes the famous saying, *If you love what you are doing, you will not be 'working' even for a day*... the makers, am sure wouldn't have felt the burden of the daunting task of a commercially viable movie, as their output clearly shows their passion and their strong belief in the story / Screenplay.

Good Luck guys!!! We want another movie like this...but you don't have to pelt a stone on somebody's head   next time for a realistic story line...hahaha...!!!

-Rajesh

Nandhalala - Movie Review

Am brimming with the energy to type down all of my observations...rarely has a movie done this to me except for the compulsive blogging disorder that I was going through until 2007!

Nandhalala - the Myshkin movie has met 100 % of my expectations and as a matter of fact is exactly like what Myshkin quoted in an interview. Here's the quote - " A director can probably make 2 or 3 good movies in his career, Nandhalala is definitely one of mine". IT IS EXACTLY the best movie he could have made and I wouldn't shy away from quoting this to be one of the best movies made on Indian-wood land...! Some people might feel this is a tad taller order for a tamil movie, but I would strongly urge them to watch this movie without prejudice, and they would come out beaming with atleast a couple of tears welling up their eyeballs, I could see a few when I came out of the theater!

Nandhalala as a movie is a genuine answer to India's search for that elusive best foreign feature film award at The Oscars. Now dont catch me on the mis-interpreted foot, I aint behind that craze, but this is a wish that I have had for long to say that India on its own, without any English or Western collaboration can still make movies that make short work of movies of Hollywood land...This is genuinely one such attempt and wish the jury board of this year's oscar nomination committee in India make note of this!!

Exceptionally crafted as a emotional roller coaster, this oozes Myshkin's passion for cinema in every frame, every dialogue, every shot, every character, every bit of sound on screen. Man, can I stop..?! As far as I can remember, this evoked so much of an overwhelming emotion in my heart as much as The Matrix did for its sheer concept novelty! I think Myshkin is justified in casting himself or rather an unknown face to this character. Any other actor known as a hero would have ruined the genuinety of this sketch!

Myshkin,as far as I can see has bridged that elusive gap of an Art film that can gross commercially! This is the true divide that other creators can try and emulate and still make commercially viable projects! The deft sequencing of scenes, the crisp and getting-ever-crisper dialogues vieing for the top dialogue title if there was one for a movie are ample testimony to the hard work Myshkin has tasked himself to - to make this movie a commercially interesting one. It is easy to get lost in the passion of such a story and make it look like an art film, which it would have probably been if not for the genuine comedy and near-to-life characterisation of the lead roles.

As far as I know this is the ideal road movie that could have happened to Tamil Cinema and makes *Paiyyaa* a supposedly road-ish movie look like a comedy-piece according to Vadivelu!! Each character team that the boy and the larger-boy (myshkin) meet enroute to *annavel* and *thaivasal* are as genuine that you would meet in any road journey out of madras! Kudos to the director to have sketched a never ending set of vehicles to make them reach the destination and all the while making all of them look completely plausible!!

There is this set of directors that I am loving in Tamil Cinema from Parthiban to Cheran to Vasantha Balan to Myshkin who make lovely movies out of an ordinary strand of life and make it look larger than the *Red-giant*, *Cloud-nine*, *Mohana Movies*, *Sun Pictures - kalanidhi maran* backed movies. Unfortunately, Tamil Cinema is led to experience only these power-houses powered movies as *real cinema*...:(

The movie starts of with a school-boy who badly misses his mother and another boy-ish man in an asylum who badly wants to slap his mom for having left in the asylum. The definetly takes its time to settle into the groove and the first 10-15 look like an art movie and thats the only trace of this aspect in the movie. Once Myshkin and Agi hit the road, the story narration actually picks top-gear and each acquaintance en-route is a Story-in-Story, be it the Auto Driver, the lady with the kid, the limp guy, the old man selling tender-coconuts, the jumbo twins and most importantly the Lorry driver with the horn and the call-girl who definetely make a serious impact to the entire movie.

I loved the sequences where the Lorry driver ends up with a tussle with Myshkin and then they get-together and then that *Das-anna* song, wow what a moment in the movie. Infact, I would rate that as the best sequence in the movie. So much for the feel, because it was coming from the roughie-like-lorry driver akin to the *Irumbile oru irudhayam mulaithathe*. to me, this sequence scores better than the call-girl story though this had ZERO dialogues!!!

I can visualize the maker in Myshkin to have put in *umpteen* versions of the script before it passed *re-recording* and reached the silver screen, because every scene looks complete and poised and has the finesse of story on its own. Trust me, Very very rarely do we get to see scripts like this and it would be a pity if the audiences dont acknowledge it!

Apart from the script and the story which are absolutely fab!, there are so many more elements that make the movie look so competent such it puts to shame so many movies which touted themselves as *realistic cinemas* and one way or the other has masala items.

Some of the other key aspects of the movie demand a group of accolades, and here goes the credit list,

* absolute brilliance in titling all of the behind-the-scenes technicians before the actors, goes a long way to let us peek into the director's deep thought process!!
* The fact that Myshkin did not include his name in the cast titles and left it only to *Ezhuthu - Iyakam* slide is a great gesture!
* the *12 nodikalukku Nasser* title card, I consider a great respect showered on Nasser!
* the *Thaiyai Thedi* interval card was placed at such a beautiful moment that for a split second, i expected the movie to have ended (!! - trust me - I did go and ask the food counter if the movie was still on post the break!!) the reason I mention this is the fact that the movie was not made for the audience perspective but from the perspective of a story. If it were an english docu movie, it could have well ended with the Interval card!!!
* the music of the movie. Myshkin is completely justified in crediting *Ilayaraja* with the first title in the movie and rightly so! the background score definetely tells a story on its own and trust me, if one just listens to the movie as a *oli-chititram* (audio-version that was once famous in All-India Radio), 90 % of the movie's effectiveness would be perceivable in the air
* the Das-anna song was superb, if i was to use a solitary word!!
* the reason I mentioned 90 % effectiveness in an audio is because of the amazing action both of the kid (agi) and myshkin show on-screen. I should say, there was not scene where their acting looked amateur-ish!! hatz-off to myshkin to have made every single actor be as natural as you would expect on a highway in souther india
* Rohini though having a very little space in the movie, didnt look out of place at all!

It was definetely refreshing to see the progression of the characters once they face the reality of the situation! be it the boy accepting the girl-on-the-highway as his mother after noticing that his real mother is elsewhere; be it myshkin maturing in his composure once he realizes his mother's state and admitting her into the asylum.
Much better when their lifes turn for the better and the mental-boy-turning-into Bhaskar Mani mama and the kid taking the lady as his mom to home!!

Lovely and positive ending as opposed to cliched remorse ending that we are used to in such genres in India and elsewhere.

To sum-up, this must have been the most non-coherent post of my blogging career since 2004 and i really dont care if it did not follow a structure, because I am as dead-passionate to record my thoughts of this movie as Myshkin has been to make this movie caring like hell when it came to conventions / stereotypes wrt characters, actors, story telling flow, yada yada yada

If I were to leave a parting note,

Nandhalala is a glowing example of technical finesse, directorial brilliance, to-the-story acting, lilting background score and what a story!!! I doubt if Myshkin himself can match this effort in the future, leave alone others.

Lets all watch this magnum-opus on-screen and feel Nandhalala touching our senses in the movie hall!!

C Ya,
Rajesh

My take on Vinnai Thaandi Varuvaaya

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 !!

ThiruMagan - A Movie Review

People...especially film makers should remember we are in 2007 and they should be atleast aware if not abreast of what kind of films that are made world-over and not the least in Kollywood.... man....we are moving to Dasavadaram, Sivaji and we still see archaic pre-independence kind of scripts for movies...still...and that too completely lifeless...

There is nothing wrong in dusting old-swords...but atleast make sure you are able to weild the old sword judiciously...which is where the director has failed miserably....and if it is the directors first movie( I donno...and don't really care)...and if he feels its his best shot...then I am sorry, I suggest some other profitable profession for the man....I am sorry the movie can be sloppy, listless and lifeless, scriptless...but not cinema-less....:-)...

Yes...it was as though some radio-drama unfolding.....and it keeps on unfolding, scene after scene, without a pre-conceived direction...and though we know the ultimate end...there seems to be no plotline to take it to that level....and only until the last 15-20 minutes...do we get the heck of what that was aspired but never attempted to be told...was a pure love story and not action based...as lot would have suspected as the story(...ooops...there wasn't one) / movie proceeds....:-).....

There are a host of heavy-weight actors...VijayaKumar, RadhaRavi, Ranjith, Meera Jasmine..and our hero SJ Suryah (who can also act...if he knows his limits).....with such acting talent, even if 10% of screen space was dedicated to each of these people, we should have had a pretty good movie to contend with...and the pity was only 10% of the total movie time was devoted to some emoting and all these stalwarts...shared their screenspace and did some work only in the last 15 minutes....which was pathetic...considering the rich talent one has at his disposal....

Each character in the movie is disjoint and hangs on Trisangu Swarga....and nobody knows the reason of existence....the three part premise of story/screenplay writing seems to have absconded from the director's mind....and the last 15 minutes is what one can take back from the movie....and after all the lifeless show for the previous 2 hours...one loses complete interest in the proceedings...and looks for the exit....:-)....

There was no real purpose in what the director wanted to say....The hero shown as an innocent villager...defies logic....what with the Hero's face-make over, his ageing stature, and to top-it-all that he studies Standard X+2....this is first rate slip-shoddiness....

Adding a masala character to the movie is an archaic trait...of the 80's....which is sour as a bitter-guard...and with every heroine pressing on the oomph-factor these days...having Malavika do that masala character is pointless...and to put it blunt....It was cheap....

Every damn character in the movie....is non-original...and save originality...atleast it should have been unique....which wasn't the case...Had this movie been made in 1980's....which is typically 25 years REWIND....there could have been a case of sensibility for the plot....nevermind it suceeds or not....

Now onto the characterization follies....a) RadhaRavi's character...was like a dormant volcano...and it was like...he is gonna explode anytime....and that never happens...particularily after how virile his brother is.....that is a mistake in screenplay...YOU shouldn't mislead your audience...and you should establish the credence of a character...be it positive or negative beyond doubt in the first few scenes....unless you have a story based on the camouflage you are planning with the characters ( ala thriller/murder mysteries)....neither of which is Thirumagan....:-(.....

b) Meera Jasmine's character is a criminal waste...I would say....what did she get to do...???except for emoting a couple of dream scenes...where SJ Suryah sizzles with her dreams..???? I wondered how National Award winning actors like her choose to and continue acting like these....which are nothing but "I am sorry".....bullshit....

c) Even the eternal goodie of villlage films....Nattamai Vijayakumar lacks poise in the movie...for no fault of his....and is just a pawn in the hands of the floundering director and his screenplay....

d) Only Ranjith, according to me...got to do some decent acting in the movie...and he excels as usual at that...emotionally correct ( but a villain for the story ) role....:-)...good...:-)

e) Actors like Illavarasu should be used to the fullest...see what Cheran did with him in *thavamai thavamirundu*.....particulariuly considering the potential of his character in Thirumagan.....

There were shades of *Mudal Mariyadhai*, *Kilakku Seemayile*, *Pandavar Boomi*...and innumerous Village movies of yesteryears....but the worst part is...nothing has been used to get some quality work done....:-(......pity......

Double entenders in the movie I think are to please the hardcore SJ Suryah fans...who I think wouldn't be endorsing such stuff otherwise....And also these should have been influenced by the man SJ Suryah himself....I dont understand how long SJ Suryah can sustain the *NEW* innoncence in his characters.....which is by the way pathetic exhibition of emoting-on-screen....I am sorry ....it was so irritating to see his character on screen....yuck...:-(.....

Songs, background score...and re-recording are all pretty sub-standard ...just as the movie is...

And Lyrics....???!!!..Its amusing to note if the lyricist was caught in a time-machine or something like that....!!!! cuz...the lyrics didn't suit the rustic looks that the film portrayed.....this is again a major flaw in reasoning.....cuz....visual / logical flags as to which time frame one is in...is very important for the present-day cinema audience...he/she is no gullible self to blindly accept what is on offer in a dark room, unless you make them believe in what they see by spellbinding display on screen....:-))....which wasn't a remotest possibility for Thirumagan....

ala SUN TV if I had to summarize with a one-liner....it would be....

THIRU MAGAN...THIRUNTHATHA MAGAN.....:-)