PRAMANI

Pramani

Theatre : TVM Anjali
Showtime & Date : 6.30pm, 27-03-2010
Status : FC not more than 80 people, Balcony no idea(much better than FC, identified from claps & koovals during power off)

B.Unnikrishnan's new flick Pramani is a predictable flick with no surprising twists or turns in script, making & performances. He tried to make the movie, the same way he did Madambi. But what lacks here is a well packaging.

Story
Vishwanadha Panicker(Mammotty) aka America is a corrupt Panchayath president, who gets into other's issues and solves the problem thereby making money through illegal ways and makes official papers for what he gets in the name of Somashekhara Panicker(Siddhique) his nephew. There comes Janaki(Sneha) as a loyal Panchayath Officer who defends president's deeds. Caestro Vareedh(Janardhanan), the president of nearby village, is angry at Vishwanathan as he didn't allow the panchayath's development programmes. Vareedh appoints Mavo(Suraj Venjarammood) to destroy Vishwanathan. There comes Mangatt Vikraman(Suresh Krishna) who wants 100 acres of land for IT park, though not real. Eventhough Vishwanathan agress this in the beginning, he regrets for what he agreed as teacher(Lakshmi) reminded him of what was his mentor & her son's, Varkkichan's(Prabhu in a cameo) dreams. When Vishwanathan asks Somashekharan to stop the deal, because of the huge amount they're going to get, the whole family disagrees and asks him to leave as nothing was there in Vishwanathan's name. The rest of the story is how he stops the plan with the help of Janaki & Baby(Shanu), Varckichan's son.

Performances
Mammootty as VishwanathaPanicker has nothing much to do as the script demands nothing new. His dubbing also was not that good. Siddhique as Somashekharan, again a villain role & nothing special.  Suraj was irritating and evokes no laughter, except 2 dialogues. Sneha has nothing to do and the dubbing artist's voice was not suiting for her. Lakshmi's role is a straight lift from B.Unnikrishnan's pevious flick, IG. Janardhanan was OK only. Salimkumar was OK in his 3 avilable scenes and succeeded in evoking laughter except his intro scene. Rest of the cast has nothing special to mention. Anoop Menon, Prabhu and Kalabhavan Mani in their cameos were unimpressive. KPAC Lalitha was an unwanted character for a single scene.

Shanu aka Fahad Fazil as  Baby was refreshing but no scope for good performance. He performed well in limited scenes he got, especially the scene with Mammootty asking about his father's death.

Songs
Theme song was Average only. Karakarangana song was not that good. Oru Vennila song was good and well picturised.

Technical
Art diretion & Editing was OK only. Good cinematography by Sham Dutt though certain visuals seems repeated.

Script & Direction
Script vy B.Unnikrishnan has nothing new to offer. Each and every scene in the movie is predictable and something we have seen in many movies, even in his previous flick Madambi(which was a well packaged old wine in new bottle, even the Pathanamthitta slang). Script is an old wine tried to be packaged in new bottle but sadly, the bottle was the same he used for Madambi. An overdose of unwanted sentiments were there. As a dialogue writer, Unnikrishnan excels in many scenes, though screenplay fails. He could have worked a bit more to bring the freshness in screenplay. As a director too he offers nothing new in executing the scenes. Altogether Pramani is, at max average only movie mixed with serial kind of sentiment scenes & predictability.

Verdict : Average, at max
BO Verdict : Flop

Glorifying the hero towards the climax was a bit too over. The movie is strictly a DVD watch. Watch the movie in theatres if you have no other movies left in theatres.

VINNATHAANDI VARUVAAYA

Vinnaithaandi Varuvaaya...

Theatre : Thiyagaraja
Showtime & Date : 2.45pm, 12-03-2010
Status : Balcony 70%, FC just 50 people

After Vaaranam Aayiram, Gautham Menon is back with a feel good love story Vinnaithaandi Varuvaayaa & this time A.R.Rehman deals the music department.

Story
Karthik(Silambarasan), a hindu guy, is a mechanical engineering graduate who wants to become a film director. Jessie(Trisha) is a Malayalee Christian girl staying in the first floor of his rented home. Karthik falls in love with Jessie. The rest of the story how he convinces her his love, different problems they face and whether they unite or not.

Performances
Silambarasan as Karthik is best character of him till date as this one has no punch dialogues, superhuman fight sequences, dappamkoothu songs. He performed well though his dialogue delivery style still has the traces of his mass hero roles. Trisha as Jessie is the character around which the whole movie revolves. The whole movie is the incidents because of the inconsistent mind of this character. Trisha was looking good throughout the movie but performance wise I don't think that she diid 100% justice to her role. Ganesh, one of the producers of the movie as the senior cameraman and friend of Karthik in the movie makes us laugh with his comedy timing. Rest of the characters perfectly fits their role though nothing  much to do. NagaChaithanya & Samantha in their cameo roles were not that impressive.

Technical
Cinematography by Manoj Pramahamsa is top class, especially Alappuzha sequnces. Editing by Antony is excellent which makes the song sequences watchable repeated times though the way it is picturised is almost same. Art directon is superb, especially song sets & Trisha's home in Alappuzha on marriage day night.

Songs
Music by A.R.Rehman is good. BGM score was excellent.

Script & Direction
Gautham Vasudev Menon's screenplay is clear & superb without any subplots in between. Dialogues were fresh and excellent. The way the story is told to us reminds us of Gautham's previous outings Kaakha Kaakha & Vaaranamaayram, like the central character talking to the audience. Song picturisation also seems to be rehashed version of Vaaranamaayiram songs. Direction was top class. First half was excellent. Second half lacks pace as in first half & lengthy dialogue sequences made a bit boring. But the climax was superb and told in an excellent way. Altogether a good love story in Tamil cinema after a long time.

Verdict : Good
BO Verdict : Hit

In my opinion, new faces were the best option for the lead characters which would have been given a much more freshness.