VELAYUDHAM

VELAYUDHAM

Theatre : TVM Dhanya
Status? An unwanted question, HOUSEFULL with family audience even at first front row of first class
Showtime & Date : 5:55pm, 26-10-2011(DEEPAVALI)

YESSSSSSSS!!!!!!!!!!!
BOX OFFICE GHILLLI IS BACK

When Jeyam Raja joined with Vijay, everyone expected a remake or a usual mass masala film of Vijay like his previous films, even trailers too were not different, but the final product is not something we expected, it's something different which had all the elements to satisfy all.

Story
Movie begins with Tamilnadu minister in Pakisthan-Afganisthan border joining them to implant bombs in Chennai. Freelance journalist(Genelia) & her friends tried to find out the crimes happening in Chennai. They were caught by villain gang & kills them. Luckily Genelia escapes. When the villain gang gets killed in an accident, she creates a character VELAYUDHAM who is after criminals. Then story unfolds with introduction of Vel aka Velayudham(Vijay), his sister(saranya Mohan) & his friends going to Chennai & their story flashbacks. They came to Chennai to get the amount back from Chit Fund for Saranya's marriage. There Santhanam, a small time thief joins them as friend. Velayudham accidently rescues people from bomb blasts 2-3 times. When Genelia realises that everything happened without his knowledge, she asks Vel to be real Velayudham. Though he rejects, later he was forced to be Velayudham. The rest is Velayudham vs Villains.


Performances
First of all, thanks to M.Raja for utilising not only the mass hero only, but the good actor in Vijay which we have seen in Kannukkul Nilavu, Priyamudan, Sachein, Thullatha Manavum Thullum, Shahjahan.....Its a clear ILAYATHALAPATHY SHOW. This time the screenplay was fresh not giving him an over buildup or lots of punch dialogues or much over the board action sequences. VIJAY once again proved after Rajnikanth he's the one who can carry an whole film with his charisma. Watchout for his performance in second half towards especially towards the climax. Sentiment scenes were superb!!!

Genelia got a powerful role, but her lipsync was bad & expressions were almost same. Hansika Motwani was surprisingly good especially in comic scenes. Watch out her expressions in the train sequence. Hansika's role was limited one. Script could have provided much more comic scenes as she was capable for comic scenes execute well. Shayaji Shinde & Pandiarajan were good. Santhanam will make us laugh. The one who narrates Vijay-Saranya flashback in train was superb. Rest of the cast did their job well. Villain characters failed to create any impact.

Songs & BGM
Vijay Antony once again scores. Sonna Puriyathu is the best mass number in recent times. Picturisation was rich & colourfull, SUPERB!!! Chillax was a forced one, though enjoyable in richly made sets. Mayyam Seythayo seems unwanted, but picturisation was innovative. Molachu Moonnu is the best melody in recent times but picturisation & choreography was not upo the mark. Rathathin Rathamey was good.

BGM was SUPERB!!!

Technical
Cinematography was superb especially in action & song sequences. Editing was good. Milan's art work was good. Stunt director's did a good job.

Script & Direction
Here comes the man behind the show - M.Raja aka Jeyam Raja. Story is inspired from Nagarjuna's hit telugu movie Azad. But he took only the basic thread only. Screenplay was fresh & racy with all commercial ingredients. Subha's dialogues were good & superb at many part Direction was racy & tried maximum to avoid the buildup & over the board scenes though a set of scenes are there which were enjoyable with the flow of the movie.. Instead of executing a script with Vijay on mind, M.Raja seems to be executed the final script with Vijay. Yes, a director's movie in which Vijay scores with his charisma, thats VELAYUDHAM.

Verdict : Superb Mass Entertainer
BO Verdict : SuperHit/MegaHit

THE FINAL SHOT OF THE MOVIE WAS INNOVATIVE & EXECUTED WELL.

When M.Raja said that he was not worried eventhough 10 films like RA-ONE or 7AM ARIVU releases with VELAYUDHAM before release, I didn't believed. Now I can say HE WAS RIGHT, 100% RIGHT

SANDWICH

SANDWICH

Theatre : TVM Ajanta

Status : Balcony FULL, First class 99.99%

Showtime & Date : 5.55pm, 16-10-2011

Expectations were low after watching the trailer of the movie. Those expectations reached below zero level after reading reviews on net too.

Story

Sai(Kunchacko Boban), a software engineer met with an accident which eventually resulted in the murder of  goon Ajayan. Murugn(Vijayakumar) brother of Ajayan threatens that he’ll kill Sai. By the time, another gang by Andiptti Naikkar(Suraj Venjarammood) enters the scene & claims that Sai purposefully killed Ajayan for him. Thus Sai gets sandwiched between these two gangs. The rest of the movie is how Sai escapes from these two gangs.

Performances

Kunchacko Boban as Sai, a software engineer was not a challenging one for him. He performed well with good dialogue delivery. Suraj Venjarammood was usual only but surprisingly he didn’t go over the board except in one second half sequence.  Ananya in her cameo was fine. Richa was ok, but her lip sync was bad. Vijyakumar was surprisingly better with comic moments. GaneshKumar was good, Sreekumr & Lalu lex too. Indrans, Kottayam Nazeer…. were OK only.

Songs & BGM

Songs by debutant verge only. Chembullimaane was misplaced in the movie. Panineer Chembakangal was enjoyable. BGM by debutant Bose Santhosh was engaging & impressive at parts.

Technical

Cinematography was ok only. Art direction by Boban was fine. And the real hero is editor DONMAX who had done n impressive work which makes the movie a watchable one.

Script & Direction

Story by Ratheesh Sukumaran had enough elements to be a smart entertainer. But the screenplay failed the show. Movie which would have been a good action thriller was converted to a comedy flick with not so good dialogues or twists. First few sequences were promising. Later forceful inclusion of comedies in each & every scene spoiled the show. Climax sequence was a better one. Debutant director M S Manu offers nothing new. Also script was conceived very ordinarily. It is editor DONMAX who saved the show.

Verdict : Watchable

BO Verdict : Average(considering low budget) to Flop

If it was not DONMAX who would have done editing, verdict would have been something else.

Once again Kunchacko Boban-Lalu Alex combo worked well in the second half sequence.

Hope Producer Sudeep Kara't will compensate for this movie with VEEDU, new movie by Sohanlal starring Kunchacko Boban in lead scripted by M T Vasudevan Nair.

VAAGAI SOODA VAA

VAAGAI SOODA VAA

Theatre : Theni GopiKrishna
Status : 55%
Showtime & Date : 2.15pm, 09-10-2011

After Kalavani, Director Sargunam & actor Vimal joins together again for a movie, this time story happens in 1966 in a village backdrop.

Story
This 1966 story starts at Puthukkottai. Veluthambi(Vimal) is an educated youth who had completed teacher training and waiting for a government job. His father(Bhagyaraj) asks him to go to a village called Kandeduthan Kadu as Village Sevak to teach the illiterate children there so that he'll get a certificate with which he could get a priority in government job posts. Things were not that interesting for him there where children & parents were not at all interested in studies or make their children educated. They depended on brick making for livelihood. Though his attempts fails in the beginning, things changed as the story progresses. Watch it on screen.

Performances
Vimal was apt as Veluthambi-the innocent educated Vaathiyar and he performed well too. Bhagyaraj in his limited role was superb especially in second half. Debutant Iniya as Maari, who is after Veluthambi is promising. Thambi Ramaiah was good. Ponvannan had a routine villain character only. Rest of the cast were apt. The kids were superb.

Songs & BGM
Songs by debutant Gibran is enjoyable especially Sara Sara Saaral Kaathu. Though songs were more in second half, the picturisation makes it enjoyable. Except the romantic song in the second half, the rest perfectly fitted. BGM was superb.

Technical
Cinematography by Omprakash was awesome with wide angle shots of the village & some natural beauties. Art direction by Cheeni was wonderful. Action sequence though a small one, was realistic to the core.

Script & Direction
Sargunam handled both departments. Sargunam had come up with a social issue of Child Labour presented on the backdrop of 1966 with a set of wonderful character portrayals & an engaging screenplay. Though song placement of 2 songs may find unwanted, the picturisation & music makes you forget all those. The romance track of Veluthambi & Maari was refereshing though the length of climax shot between them was a bit lengthy. Though the story unfolds only on second half, first half had enough elemnts especially kids & witty dialogues to keep you engaged.  With realistic village characters & realistic portrayal on screen, director Sargunam makes an impressive movie again.

Verdict : Don't miss this!!!
BO Verdict : Hit

Social Issue is dealt in a very strong manner on the backdrop of 1966, Impressive though and excellent execution. Another Good Tamil Film.

MURAN

MURAN

Theatre : Theni Vasanth
Status : 50 people
Showtime & Date : 2.20pm, 02-10-2011

A thriller movie in Tamil created by Rajan Madhav & music by Sajan Madhav-sons of malayalam music director Raveendran - MURAN. As the name indicates, the movie too had unexpected events & uncertainity in proceedings in first half, but the later half was just ordinary for a normal film goer.

Story
The movie begins as a road movie in which Nandha(Cheran), a struggling music director asks for a lift to Chennai to Arjun(Prasanna), a spoiled brat of a millionaire. In the journey, they tell their stories each other & towards the end of the journey Arjun comes up with a plan to solve each other's problems.What happens next is the rest of the story.

Performances
Cheran as Nandha was good in parts. In second half, his character demanded much more emotions which Cheran failed to emote. Prasanna as Arjun was good except in flashback episode in looks. First half belongs to him as he had best set of dialogues and scenes. Also his looks & costumes added plus to his performance. In second half, his character got sidelined and ended as a usual character. Among heroines, it is debutant Haripriya who impresses us with terrific looks and ease acting. Nikitha had nothing much to do. Another debutant Suma Bhattacharya was fine. Jayaprakash as usual did his part well. Rest of the casts were fine.

Songs & BGM
Except the party song towards the climax, all were enjoyable and situation ones. BGM was good in first half, but failed in second half.

Technical
Cinematography was superb. Editing was superb in first half, but needs trimming in second half. Art direction too was good especially Cheran's flats. Sound mixing by 4 frames as usual impresses.

Script & Direction
Debutant Rajan Madhav handled both departments. Basic story idea seems to be inspired from Alfred Hitchcock's "Strangers on a Train". But Rajan had beautifully developed the idea to a thriller one. Dialogues were superb. Screenplay was an engaging one. The bonding between Cheran & Prasanna seems to be made in a fast manner to develop the story. First half was a well made one. But second half though engaging, it was having a repeated set of scenes in different locations with predictable twists. Climax was an easily predictable one and was a big letdown. Still the movie is worth a look.

On the whole, a good first half and half baked second half with usual climax

Verdict : Above Average Engaging Thriller
BO Verdict : Multiplex Hit

Haripriya may be seen in some malayalam movies soon. She was superb.