Velayudham - Just for the mass!

X-posting my FK review. Visit FK for more discussion.

Theatre: Innovative Multiplex, Bangalore
Show: 10 PM, 29-Oct-2011
Status: 80-90%

After getting torn by 7aam Arivu and Ra.One and blowing 500 Rs, I was reluctant to go for Velayudham. Picked up my pieces and went to the movie thanks to peer pressure. The movie does not disappoint. It offers what you expect from a Vijay movie. Gravity defying stunts, quite a few comedy numbers, larger than life hero, and luscious women, all tied into a neat package.

Vijay does what he does best and is entertaining. Thanks to KPN, I have watched most of the bad films from Vijay 5-6 times and this is a welcome relief. Hansika is gorgeous and I got my money's worth from just watching her prance around the screen. Genelia is subdued and a decent role for her. Saranya was good as Vijay's sister. Santhanam was quite funny without going overboard. The baddies fit the bill neatly. Thumbs up for casting Abhimanyu Singh. Downright menacing.

Direction is pretty good. Cinematography and editing adequate to keep with the pace of the movie. Screenplay is tailor made for larger than life heroism and succeeds in that respect. Velayudham costume could have been better without the obvious Assassins Creed inspiration.

At the end of the day, you get what you pay for. 2-3 hours of mindless entertainment. Switch off your brains and enjoy the ride.

TL;DR: Velayudham is a fairly enjoyable Tamil masala flick which does not stray away from a successful formula.

Rating: Decent masala flick.

7aam Arivu - Seventh Sense is nonsense!

Theatre: Fame Cinemas
Show: 10.45 A.M, 26-Oct-2011
Status: Housefull

I decided to watch 7aam Arivu because of Surya and the amount of hype that surrounded the movie. I had a major reservation with the movie ever since Murugadoss made statements about Tamilian culture, heritage and all. Reeked of jingoism to exploit the average Tamilian. And why would he need to do that? The answer stared right from the screen. In simple terms, the movie sucks.

The only thing I liked in the movie was Surya. Holds his head high from a heap of ruins. The Bodhidharman act was really good and he was charming self as the modern day Arvind. His performance in stunts showed how much commitment he had made for the movie. Circus tricks, kung fu fights, dances...he could pretty much do nothing wrong. Shruthi Hasan was ok as the love interest. You could barely blame for an overwritten character. Villain is good. He can kick ass but no opportunity to act.

Technically, the movie is frustrating. Brilliant camera shots followed by some shoddy work. Hollywooditis at its peak at certain points. Note to the makers, a shaky camera is considered as a negative in recent Hollywood blockbusters. Its not something that gives your movie credit. Editing is also shoddy at places.

By far, the biggest or rather the only culprit is Murugadoss. You claimed that Hollywood would be queuing to remake this movie (or something like that!). When you make such loaded statements, back your ass. Else you will fall flat like this. Terrible screenplay and a bad story made from a very promising thread. Direction is shoddy. Lets forget about the science part in the movie. Everybody makes concessions so that movie becomes enjoyable to the masses. But even if you consider the watered down logic (or lack of it) in Tamil, the stuff you see in this movie is downright laughable.

Mind Controlling villain. I can digest that. But a mind controlling villain who is able to teach multiple people kungfu within 10 seconds and make the cars and bikes fly? The usual turncoat Indian who is paid 300 crores(!) as lumpsum with nearly zero motives who begins lecturing about the evil plans of the evil Chinese in intricate details like a study class. If you can digest that and a lot more you may be able to tolerate the movie.

Songs are forgettable. Ringa Ringa song though good to hear is not shot very well. Rest of the songs look really good but has a forgettable rhythm. BGM is downright terrible at some places. When did high pitched shreeking became a trademark of the Chinese?

SFX were decent to good. But in many places you could feel the artificiality. Value for the amount of money spent? Decide for yourself.

What really pisses me off is the amount of time this movie took in pre-production. Looks like while Surya was doing his jig, others were out partying hard. Screenplay looks like its been written in a week and the frames look like they been hastily put together. The amount of Tamil jingoism in the movie is irritating to say the least. Multiply the kind of philosophy that Shankar pushes out in his movies by 20.

At the end of the day, you feel bad for Surya. The man gave a lot for the movie. The movie could be a hit in TN thanks to Surya, but Murugadoss should hang his head in shame.

TL;DR: 7aam Arivu is a terrible disappointment laced with a non-existent screenplay and lacklustre direction.

Rating: Avoid.

Total "Enthira"tainment!

Cross-posting the review I wrote in ForumKeralam.

Theatre: Fame Lido, Forum Value Mall, Bangalore
Show: 2nd October, 4:40 PM
Status: House Full

First things first. I am not a fan of Rajnikanth and seldom hides my disdain for the brand of "style" the man is known for over the years. For me, Rajni films are either tolerable or a pain to watch. I had my apprehensions with the movie and had a constant dread after spending Rs 400 for a ticket. By the end of 15 minutes, my fears started evaporating. Endhiran is the Rajni film I absolutely loved. Hats off to the man himself and Shankar.

The plot is wafer thin as is the case with all Shankar films. Quite welcome that Shankar has made no attempt to steal the story from somewhere. Rajnikanth, a robotics scientist, makes an android capable of superhuman feats and models the look after himself. Things go wrong after the doctor introduces emotion to make the robot better. The robot falls in love with his girlfriend and threatens the world with a little help from the doctor's jealous mentor.

I loved Aishwarya Rai in the movie. Basically, she does her job as an ornament (a delectable one at that!) and does not have anything to act ala Raavanan. After a long time it was refreshing to see a normal intro for a hero, that too from somebody who has a stamp on the intro scenes as Rajnikanth. Director has succeeded in making the scientist Rajnikanth as human as possible. A terrible workaholic, prone to mistakes, jealous...the feelings which are unknown to the "normal" Rajnikanth. Rajni does his part decently to his credit. The robot Rajnikanth was simply mindblowing. I always thought Rajnikanth would make a great villain and he proves it. The Robot in the first half is an emotion less being which reminded me of Arnold in Terminator. In the second half, he turns into an evil monster. Rajni steals the show as the scheming, snarling supervillain. Other actors did not have much to do. Danny Denozgpa is upto the mark as the mentor jealous of his protege's success.

Music from Rahman is pretty average. The only song I really liked was the Endhiran song towards the end. The songs are shot extremely well. Songs oscillate between shot in exotic locales and imaginary locales. Lavish and stylishly shot. Choreography left much to be intended in my opinion. At some places it was really good and in most places it was just average.

Now to the best part. Graphics. I have never seen such perfection and polish regarding graphics in India. In fact, Endhiran would easily match a mainstream Hollywood blockbuster in the graphics part. One aspect I would like to mention is that, you would never see some of these graphics in Hollywood movies specifically because they don't have a compulsion towards songs. Almost all the graphics work in the movie are brilliant or close enough to being brilliant to allude most of the prying eyes.

My reaction to the movie was Holy S**t! My friend, a Rajni fan's reaction was Meh! According to him, the movie does not have anything that a Rajni fan would expect. No punch dialogues, no introduction, nothing to make his pulse race. May be this could work in the favour of the movie since the movie could have an universal appeal beyond Rajni fans.

TL;DR: Endhiran is a landmark movie in Indian cinema. Watch it for the jaw dropping graphics. Entertainment guaranteed!

Rating: 7.5/10

Excuse me, Mr. Kandaswamy...

...you suck. Period. No two ways about it. Batmanish vigilante superhero, whose day job as a CBI officer. Plot stirs some interest in you. When the movie , the interest evaporates. Right from the first frame.

I have no idea why Vikram chose such a movie. More specifically, why such a Director. The man is absolutely devoid of ideas. There is nothing in the movie that excite the cerebral audience or the front benchers. Tamil cinema is often accused of catering too much to the front gallery, but if this movie did even that, it would have been tolerable.

You get a sense of Deja Vu when the movie starts. A priest advising a troubled woman to right a letter to Lord Kandaswamy to help her. She does as advised and gets a packet of money the next day morning. Being the good samaritan she leaves it at the Police Station. Needless to say, the Inspector pockets it for himself. Since this looked like a job for a superhero, Vikram makes his entry. Dressed as some sort of Cock Man descending from the roof. Anniyan reloaded? Your fears are soon dispelled, he starts strutting around and making 'cocky' noises. Your reaction? What the fuck!

Then the plot plods on to show how the human Kandaswamy in his day job busts all the rich dudes with black money. Ashish Vidyarthi is one of the villains. He does a decent job but doesnt get to do much. Shriya is his scheming serpant of a daughter who eventually falls in love with Kandaswamy. She looked gorgeous with her short hair and all. So I will spare her the rod. If I get a chance may be not! Plot plods on and on in a boring meandering way. We learn that Kandaswamy is not alone. He has a big set of friends who setup the ambushes and help him categorise requests and give out money packets.

Then Kandaswamy goes to Mexico with Shriya. Mexico locales have been wasted, thanks to the Director devoid of any imagination. Mexico deserves its own paragraph since we witness the worlds dumbest bunch of thugs. Kandaswamy is tied up and blindfolded. There are 8-9 dudes around him with guns! Still they manage to lose, thanks to some "breathtaking" action and with a little (very little!) help of a friend plus the fact they decide to kill him with bare hands! You lose faith in humanity and decide to commit suicide.

The fact that I didn't can be attributed to some skin show by Shriya and the item dance towards the climax by Mumaith.

All in all a monumental waste of your time. Cuntswamy would be the apt name of the movie. The movie mercilessly saunters on for a cool 3.5 hours. Music is terrible and there are zero hummable songs. At Rs 170 a ticket, a monumental blunder by the six of us. Should have spent the money at some pub where we could have the seen the same amount of skin as in the movie.

Thrilling part of the night? Six of us cramped in an auto travelling nearly 10 KM at 1 AM!

Verdict: 3/10. Just for the skin and some cool camera work. Avoid at all costs. Not worth watching even on DVD. Just watch the trailer if you are really curious!