Yajaman Tamil movie review

A block buster of its times - with Rajinikanth, Meena and Aishwarya in lead roles.  This movie actually has a storyline and it is to do with Rajini as the great master or yajamaan.

The hero predictably is very caring and an affectionate master to his villagers and they look up to him but he too has some enemies.  He marries Meena after much wooing and how happy they are together is picture perfect.  The movie has some classic songs.

Aishwarya with some provocation from Napolean upsets the tranquility of the marriage by accusing Rajini falsely of some very lowly things; it does not change him in the eyes of his wife but the villagers are a little skeptical.

Then she herself clears the air by coming clean but by then some irreparable damage has been done to Meena by the same villain crowd.

The movie ends in a little bit of a twist and not the usual 'they lived happily ever after' note as Rajini wants to honor his wife's last wishes.

Vaidehi Kathirundal Tamil movie review

Vijaykanth and Revathi play the lead roles in this 1984 movie.

    Revathi plays the role of young widow named Vaidehi and Vijaykanth is a recluse whose nightly songs soothe the entire village but no one knows his story.  He scratches her name in the temple walls which intrigue the villagers and they start to speculate if the two (hero and heroine) have any connection. 
    That's when Vijaykanth narrates his tragic story to her - his beloved's name is Vaidehi too.  'Do not jump to conclusions' is one moral viewers can probably learn from her avoidable death.  This Vaidehi too opens up her history to him too, of how she came to suffer this fate at such a young age. 
    Meanwhile love blossoms between two youngsters - a new arrival to the village and a rowdy's (Radharavi's) sister.  By some circumstance the new arrival (who ends up working at a ration shop) stays with Revathy and her dad; and quite inadvertly the new person gives the idea that he may be interested in marrying Revathy.  The dad is quite enthusiastic about the prospect of a new lease of life for his daughter.  I think that it is in poor taste that the new person calls Revathy to a secluded spot just to seek help for his love which Radharavi is dead against.
   The pathos of all the primary characters forms the rest of the story.
Goundamani as 'All in all Azhaguraja' makes quite an impression which has in fact been considered as iconic.
    The music of Ilaiyaraja deserves another laudable mention.  'Indraikku yen intha' in Abhogi ragam is mesmerizing and refreshing.
 

Chinna Thambi Periya Thambi Movie review

Two heroes - Satyaraj and Prabhu - are big brother and little brother respectively being brought up by their widowed mother, Gandhimathi.  They are a happy go lucky pair and the way in which they cheat a restaurant owner without paying up and in fact destroying his eatery is quite hilarious.  Nadiya is the heroine, she is their niece; inspite of the availability of 'murai maamans' she is betrothed to another wealthy person because her parents are well off and do not want their daughter to be married to either of the brothers because they are simple village folk and not rich.  At this point I was quite curious because here are the heroes and here is the heroine but she is not going to be married to either seemed to defeat the purpose of the movie.  Hmm... 

 

Naturally both Prabhu and Satyaraj are disappointed, more so is Gandhimathi; she is irked by their arrogance to overlook close relations.  After all who would come to rescue in times of dire need, but close kith and kin.  Her sentiments prove true when due to unexpected tragedy Nadia is orphaned and her grandmother takes her in when she has no where else to go, but now she does not hold any grudge against the girl and takes care of her affectionately.  She too for her part, in spite of her luxurious up bringing does chores around the home and makes herself useful.  She also tries to take up a job to supplement the family income but in that small town there are little or no opportunities suitable for an educated girl like her. 

 

Sudha Chandran a young widow who lives with her unmarried older brother is their neighbour.  Sudha well depicts the anguishes of a girl widowed at a very young age without ever having lived a happy bride.  She has to change from her wedding silks to the widows' white sari almost immediately because her wedded life has been extremely short lived. 

 

Will either of the brothers marry Nadia?  And is the movie going to depict either of the brothers giving a new lease of life to an innocent young widow?  are some of the questions answered if you watch this movie.

 

Some laughs in the first half of the movie, the second half is more serious. 

Chinna thambi - movie review

         Prabhu as Chinna Thambi and Khushboo are the heroes in this village based theme.  The scenery is lovely and the music is very good too.  A nice entertainer if you can tolerate the extreme thali sentiment.  I say entertainer because for the three hours of watching this movie you have to be prepared to buy into the unrealistic bringing up of the heroine which has propelled her to marry the first guy, who is not her brother, that she has access to.  The hero of course is the epitome of innocence since he does not even know what a marriage means but otherwise he is the perfect hero - he can sing well, he can fight well, has his heart in the right place etc.

 

         The villains in this movie are Khushboo's over protective brothers who obviously cannot tolerate this bumpkin to be her suitor.  So they wreak vengeance in a very unique way - by pouring colored water, then applying kumkum then adorning flowers on the long widowed mother of Chinna Thambi, Manorama.  He is about to tie the thali (again thali sentiment) when Chinna Thambi promptly rescues her from that predicament.  As Radharavi, the villain hovers with the thali, my mind works fast, is this movie going to end like Apurva Ragangal movie?  So if Radharavi, Khushboo's brother marries Prabhu's mom and becomes his father is he rendering the possibility of marriage impossible?  And what would happen to his wife Sulakshana?  Thankfully putting an end to all my surmises Prabhu jumps in and saves his mother from further insults! 

 

     And all ends well when the villains repent for their deeds and decide to get their sister (re)married with her lover.  (She had already married him in secrecy - in fact Prabhu himself did not know that he was making her his wife by tying the thali around her neck!!!)

 

 

 

Thillu Mullu (new movie) review

This movie is hilarious!!  Even though I had my doubts about waching a remake it was not my choice to watch this - it was playing on TV and I eventually stared watching it, laughing with it and eventually liking it.  Let me confess that I am not a great fan of remakes or remixes - only an original can intrigue me - or so I thought until I watched this.  The whole team - Shiva, Kovai Sarala, Prakashraj, and even those who play minor roles have turned this into a first class entertainer.

Firstly the story line is so well adapted to modern times - like taking a cell phone video, using contact lenses etc etc- which makes it so well- believable.

Secondly the story line seems original - the old and the new have blended so well that the outcome is a super entertainer.

And then there is that independent spy who spies with such class and evokes laughter by his silliness!

If you crave some laughter you should watch this!

Chennai Express movie review

Let me start by saying that I am no fan of SRK; just find him  incredibly adorable in some scenes; and again as in JTHJ there is a reference, be it minor, to his increasing 'seniority'; though, of course, he 'does not act his age'; the initial scenes in the movie where he prepares to go to Goa and the ones in the train where he encounters the goons are unbelievably juvenile and cinematic.

Most of the time we see happy families speaking with a heavy accent and a liberal mix of Punjabi vocabulary in their Hindi in Bollywood movies.  Chennai Express offers a refreshing change of scenario to beautiful Tamil homes and streets.  In fact the movie itself has loads of dialogues in Tamil.

But what mars this beautiful change is Deepika's Tamil accent!  Unbelievable!  Infuriating!!   Does this mean that all Tamilians speak Hindi with such an annoying accent??  Listen to Vidya Balan, Hemamalini - just two great actors I remembered from the top of my head!  They speak Hindi more beautifully than many other native speakers of the language!  Of course the Hindi that non- native speakers speak will have some remnants of influence of other languages but that is quite negligible.  I think in Chennai express the 'accent' thingy is supposed to be a comedy in itself, but according to me its in very poor taste!

Chennai Express has some vibrant colors in it; breathtaking scenery ( for all I know could be graphics) but overall a good entertainer!

Jab tak hai jaan - Hindi movie review

SRK, Katrina Kaif and Anushka Sharma

One refreshing thing is SRK acts his age at least for some part of the movie.  It is a welcome break from seeing him as 'just out of college' kid.  With the opening, Samar (SRK) is shown as challenging death, he takes on risky assignments such as bomb defusing in the Indian Army.  According to him, its only his death which will make Katrina (Meera) lose her faith in God (with whom she has a barter system going on).  She has given up seeing him because of one such barter, even though she is deeply in love with him in spite of being engaged to another man.

Meera's understanding of love is somewhat incomplete; she thinks love is something to be avoided.  Her mother's elopement with another man when she was 12 probably had a huge influence on her outlook.  But in comes Samar with his happy go lucky attitude and creates a reunion between mother and daughter.  She sees her mom very happy and content with her partner.  After the reconciliation Meera's outlook on love is entirely the opposite of her previous one - now she thinks people have to run away to find true love.  Her habit of 'praying' to God frequently and having an ongoing agreement of barter system is very annoying. 

However Anushka's character (Akira) is more annoying with her rustic attitude of youngsters and sex.  She has no problem bringing it up even to strangers.

Unless you are a fan of either of these actors, you can skip this movie.

Moondru per, moondru kaathal - Tamil movie review

Three people, three love (stories)....Hmm...Once again what made me want to watch this movie was Cheran.

The story moves slowly at times; certainly a unique perspective of love.  One of the heroes has completely sacrificed love; another has lost his loved one.  Both these instances have affected the third hero so much that he decides to do a little soul-searching and comes to the conclusion that what he felt as 'love' in fact was nothing deep.

This movie raises one question for me: does one have to sacrifice love in order to do social service?  Is not Love a sense of overflowing bliss that it would encompass all in its path.  Its certainly a very reasonable wish for a girl (or a guy, for that matter) to want to spend the rest of her(or his) life with the person she looks up to - as a friend, soul mate, inspiration all in one.

Chennaiyil oru naal - movie review

A wonderful movie! 

I started watching it because it has two of my favourite actors - Prasanna and Cheran but soon was drawn into its nail-biting suspense and thrilling story line.  This movie is in fact star-studded - Radhika, Sarathkumar, Vijayakumar, Prakashraj, Surya.  

The first part of the story moves slower than the latter part.  Post interval literally adrenaline rushes, with the viewer not knowing which way the see-saw would turn; but all ends well except for the young man with so many dreams to make it big in journalism, who is almost fatally knocked down in a road accident.  Its his heart which has to be taken to Vellore Hospital from Chennai.  

The cinematography is amazing.  This movie has all the usual elements like power politics, powerful message, kidnap/carjacking, unity of people, emotional manipulation etc, but all these weave into a unique perspective.

Makes one realise the value of the gifts that we have been endowed with and the greatness of organ donation.

Kadal - movie review

     Coming from the Mani Ratnam banner, I started watching this movie with lots of expectations - good story line, catchy music, hero/heroine being lookable/likeable etc etc.  

      Story is alright, the motto being 'truth alone triumphs' which is very noble.  After watching this movie I am starting to think Aravind Swamy and Arjun are the real hero and villain respectively.  Gautham Karthik is just a person of circumstance; drawn into the influence of the former first then the latter.  His convictions seem to be un-crystallized, which is probably because of his troubled or non-existent childhood.  The heroine Thulasi looks good and exhibits very promising talent; her costumes look a trifle incongruous and in most frames she wears white.  It struck me that she smiles and giggles a bit too much and found out towards the end that this was in fact intended.  The local dialect and way of life is well depicted.  Overall a good movie.

         

Movie review - Vazhakku en 18/9

A wonderful enactment, full of pathos.  Two parallel tracks, one of an upper middle class family in an apartment and another a slum.  The two tracks and the people involved meet only after the poor servant maid, Urmila Mahanta, survives an acid attack.

The police conduct a thorough investigation and the culprit is caught, but he is not brought to justice, sadly.  The usual powerful politics pokes its ugly nose and the innocent poor Sri is framed.  His love for the servant maid is exploited and he consents to plead guilty.

The unexpected turn of events consists of Urmila taking matters in to her hands and the film ends in poetic justice for the corrupt policeman.  What is not justice, poetic or not, though is Urmila having had to suffer the disfigurement and the jail sentence too.  Sri makes a very convincing and endearing young one-sided lover.  His friend in the roadside restaurant is initially irritating but he turns out to be an honest fellow.

On the whole a very gripping narration.  All the atrocities that can be done with the mobile phone are well brought out.  This film made me understand the hatred I have for rich spoilt teenagers.  

The end leaves the viewer feeling sad for the innocent and gullible people in the film as well as all those out there whose stories never make it to the world outside. 

Movie review - Main Gandhi ko nahi mara

I was left wondering how this Gandhiji related title was suitable for a film based on dementia/Alzheimer's. 

Anupam Kher dons the role of an absent minded professor, whose absentmindedness is actually the beginning of a more serious brain deterioration.  It could be age-related, because he is retired from active service for a couple of years, but still remembers some incidents with vivid detail.  Urmila Matondkar is the only daughter between two boys, older one away in the US and younger one still in college.  Not wanting to trouble her older brother she takes up the responsibility of caring for her father - taking him to doctors and worries over him.  The younger brother immaturely talks about admitting his dad in an 'asylum' which angers Urmila and rightly so.

Things shoot out of control when Urmila's four year boyfriend's parents visit to discuss the possible marriage when her dad bursts out in anger for having kept a teacup inadvertly on Gandhiji's picture.  Urmila is caught in between her father's deteriorating mental health and the insensitivity of her boyfriend.  Its when she finds him married that her world collapses, but she has to pull on for her father's sake - he has had more instances of running away from home and even setting his room on fire.  He repeatedly says that it he did not kill Gandhiji.

A good doctor comes into the picture and his approach turns around things.  The family unlocks their father's obsession with his guilty feeling.  An unexpected experiment turns out to be a success and things get back to normalcy.

Its only possible in Indian movies that the topic starts off as brain dysfunction and ends up in patriotism! 

Movie review - Kahaani

I give full marks for this movie.  Very gripping story which keeps up your interest till the last scene.  A nice plot which even entertains your brain.  Vidya Balan plays very well her role of a very pregnant woman who visits Kolkata to search for her husband gone missing since two weeks.  How she takes revenge on those who were the reason behind her husband's death and so many other innocent victims in the Kolkata metro train poisoning is the theme of this story.  The story plays out so well, that at last, it is confusing whether it really happened or not.  That's why this movie is named so aptly as 'kahaani' or 'story'.

Movie review - Moonu

The thing that stands etched in my memory about this film is Shruti Hassan's crying face.  I think in every alternate frame, this dame is crying - for something or the other and for no apparent reason whatsoever! Whew!  

The story was okay, certainly an off the beaten track one and based on a 'psychology' subject and could be considered 'trendy' I suppose!  The first part of the movie moves well and both Dhanush and Shruti can pass off as school kids. Prabhu and Bhanupriya seem typical parents of a laid back boy, the mother very protective and the father too strict.  Though they seem affectionate and acquiesce to his every wish, why are they not in the picture when he has a serious problem? 

I would have liked the movie to start on a more positive note instead of Dhanush's funeral.  The anguish of a young widow is portrayed well. Shruti makes a very convincing grieving young widow who is torn in her sorrow.  What makes it all the more unsettling is that Dhanush has been killed in his own apartment, in broad daylight, but there are no signs of a struggle or nothing robbed from the apartment.
The movie flows on briskly, weaving together the past and the present and how finally Shruti finds answers for some very troubling questions.
On the whole, an entertaining watch if you are into serious themes.