GAJAPOKKIRI ( JULAYI )

GAJAPPOKIRI(Malayalam version of Telugu movie JULAYI)

First of all, thanks to r Ganesh Kumar for his idea of theatre grading which makes the screen, seats & overall atmoshpere off Anjali theatre looks better. Happy to see a well made reservation counter too in SL Complex

Theatre : TVM Anjali
Showtime & Date : 6.15pm, 29-08-2012
Status : Balcony No idea, a pretty good status was there I think as the claps from balcony was superb, FC 50%

Allu Arjun, after the much hyped failure BADRINATH is back with his new movie JULAYI which made a release in malayalam as GAJAPOKKIRI after 1 week of Telugu release. Trivikram who made one of my all time favourite telugu flick ATHADU is the director of this movie. Lets take a look

Story
Ravi(Allu Arjun) is a youth dreaming of becoming rich in short time span. On the way to a bidding centre for IPL match, he accidentally meets a bank robbery gang of Bichu(Sonu Sood) planning a Rs.1500 crore robbery from a nearby gang. Ravi with his intelligence traps Bichu. From then on its a cat & mouse game - An intelligent hero and an intelligent villain.

Performances
Allu Arjun delivers a cool performance as usual in a role in which he is at his best - Happy golucky easy careless youth. Ileana was usual in a typical telugu film heroine. Her looks in initial few scenes looked superb. Rajendra Prasad as timid police officer was awesome. Brahmanandam as a thief was funny, M S Narayana too. Sonu Sood as intelligent villain Bichu is his recent best role.

Music & BGM
Music by DeviSri Prasad disappoints a bit this time. Julayi & Osey Osey were the best. O Madhu also works with the movie. Picturisation lacks freshness & most of them looked same except in location & costumes. Placement of songs kills the thrill. BGm was good

Technical
Cinematography was good. Editing was crispy though second half needs a bit trimming. Art direction was fine. Action scenes were typical.

Script & Direction
Both departments are handled by Trivikram. Plot was a supercool one which he succeeded in converting to a mass entertainer. The biggest plus point is the baddie is also an intelligent sometimes more intelligent than hero. A superb first half with all ingedients to make viewers happy is the main plus point. INTERVAL sequence was one of the best one in recent times. Compared to first half, second half is a bit down though enjaoyable. Climax episode was also a cool one except Sonu Sood's comic acting in climax similar to PrakashRaj in Pokkiri. Second half could have been a better as the plot & proceedings were superb. Intelligent is the word that can be given to the script as it proceeds with simple dialogues in first half for future proceedings. Thanks to the malayalam dialogues by Sathish Muthukulam, even comedy scenes worked well in theatres in dubbing edition. Producer Khadar Hassan had made lots of changes in banners & other items in movie to make it a malayalam cinema which is very much appreciable.

On the whole an enjoyable mass movie

Verdict : Intelligent Entertainer
BO Verdict : Hit

NANBAN

NANBAN

Theatre : TVM Remya

Showtime & Date : 6.00pm, 16-01-2012

Status : Balcony Full, FC 10%

Ilayathalapathy VIJAY with south india's showman director SHANKAR, remake of well acclaimed movie 3 IDIOTS, Jiiva & Shrikanth in supporting roles, Ileana's second innings in Tamil, calling cards were several including the well edited TRAILER. Yes, the movie is a 101% genuine remake of 3 IDIOTS where Vijay the actor plays the lead role with no punchlines,no action & no mass masala elements usually seen in his films.

Story

The story is told as a flashback by Venkat(Shrikanth) whom with his friend Saravanan(Jiiva) with silencer(Sathyan) in search of his friend Panchavan Parivendan(Ilayathalapathy VIJAY) who were college mates in Ideal Engineering College run by Virumandi Sandanam aka Virus(Sathyaraj). Watch the rest on screen friends even though you have seen the original.

Performances

Its an ILAYATHALAPATHY VIJAY show. Happy to see that VIJAY which we have seen in SACHEIN last time. He lived as the character - the body language, even a single smile makes an impact on screen. We can expect more good characters from this ACTOR.

Jiiva once again proved his versatility. In my opinion, he's the best in South Indian Cinema now to perform well as a drunken guy. Boss Engira Bhaskaran & Siva Manasula Shakthi are good examples. 

It's a comeback for Shrikanth & he performed well, I should say we will forget his previous movies.

Sathyaraj as VIRUS was a good choice which he performed well in his own style at parts. Ileana was okay only as her makeup was bad at many parts,  but surprisingly lip-sync was better. Anuya & S J Suryah in their cameo was impressive. Sathyan did the role of silencer well but lacks the perfection as he immediately speaks in normal Tamil soon after the Teachers Day sequence. 

Though in a small role, once again director Shankar included a malayalam actor in his movie - Indrans

Happy to see Ajay Rathnam again in a Shankar movie after a long gap- if I'm not wrong

Songs

Harris Jeyaraj's music had the charm especially En friende pole song's beat had that haunting effect. Aska Luska & Irukkana was good though picturisation of both lacks usual Shankar charm though made in rich sets.

BGM was superb especially En friende pole beats.

Technical

Manoj Paramahamsa amazes us with his awesome cinematography, superb visuals!!! Editing was fine with first half but second half could have been better. Art Direction was superb!!! Resul Pookkutty made his mark with clean & clear sound mixing.

Script & Direction

Story is inspired from the book 5.1 Screenplay by Rajkumar Hirani & Abijath Joshiy in hindi is the same used here. But the dialogues by Shankar & Karki made the script more powerful. The placement of Irukkana song looks misplaced and could have been avoided. Also second half seemed too lengthy & the proceeding could have been ore interesting. It's the first remake movie of director Shankar to which he did 101% justice without ruining the original but made a bit better than original if the total making perfection is considered. But song picturisation could have been better for Aska Luska & Irukkana which looks totally out of place for the whole movie. I felt that the theme was not conveyed to that extent as in original which made a good mark along with other sequences.Climax sequences could have been better.

Eventhough you have seen original, its worth a watch for Vijay as its the actor & not star here.

Verdict : Good

BO Verdict : Superhit

What Shankar said on audio launch time was right - people who don't like Vijay will start liking Vijay after watching this movie