GOA

GOA

Two big Tamil movies : TAMIZHPADAM(*ing Siva of Chennai 600028 & Saroja fame as hero) & GOA(Venkat Prabhu's third flick after the above said ones) released today. Finally I decided to watch TAMIZHPADAM as the whole movie was a spoofing one & promos were promising. When I reached theatre, two housefull show crowd were there & I was sure that the chances of getting a ticket is less than 1%. So went for GOA. Around 75 people were there. Once the film started, the heavy returns of TAMIZHPADAM made the theatre status as follows

Theatre : Thiyagaraja
Status : Balcony Full, FC : 85%
Showtime & Date : 11.30am, 29-01-2010

After the success of smart entertainers, Chennai 600028 & SA-RO-JA, expectations were high for a Venkat Prabhu movie as the lead stars too were from his previous flicks. But sadly the movie doesn't live upto the hypes & expectations.

 

Story

The story happens in a remote village in Madurai where people are not allowed to go outside the village borders not to introduce new culture and other things to the village. Samikkannu(Premgi Amaran), Vinay(Jai) & Ramarajan(Vaibhav) tries to escape from village. Samikkannu was treated as God's son & a flashback is there for that too. Vinay is the son of a military person & Ramarajan, son a the landlord. All three were punished like not to have any communication anymore. All three escapes to Madurai & there they see Vinay's frined marrying a foreign girl. They also decides to love a foreign girl and settle in foreign. With this aim, all three goes to Madurai to find their love. What happens to them in Goa is the rest of the story.

Performances

As in previous Venkat Prabhu movies, Premgi Amaren steals the show. Don't expect anything new, it's a remix of his previous characters & some mimicking of hit characters of movies. Jai's certain expressions and his ENGLISH were good , otherwise nothing special. Vaibhav scores in certain scenes. Aravind Akash & Sampath as gays were used for comic elements. Sampath played his role with ease with good voice modulation. Heroines Sneha, pair of Vaibhav has nothing special to do, Pia, as Jai's love interest is just for glamour show. The foreign girl who played Jessica as Premgi Amaren's lover was good. Rest of the cast did their part.

Simbhu in his cameo in climax does Manmadhan role again. Prasanna as Sneha's ex-husband was good in one scene because of his dialogues and comic timing. Nayanthara also has nothing to do other than a single smiling shot in the film.

Songs

None of the songs impresses. Some seems to be misplaced and became speedbreaker for the movie. Most of the scenes has BGM of many movies as in other Venkat Prabhu flicks. BGM of Jai-Pia episode was good.

Technical

Editing & Cinematography were good at parts. Only stunt for Premgi Amaren was enjoyable, though a bit over the board. Picturisation of songs were not upto the mark.

Script & Direction

Script by Venkat Prabhu had a promising start. But in the first half, once the characters reached GOA, lack of story & interesting twists made the movie a bit boring one. Director tried his best to make the movie an engaging one & the lead actors did their best for that, but without a proper script, what use??? No elements were there in the movie which makes the audience think what happens next. One such was made towards climax and miserably failed to entertain. Love track of Jai was boring. Director tried to make a fun holiday film, but succeeds only to an extent, only in parts of the movie. Songs in second half were boring and misplaced. The movie strictly remains as a one time watch. On the whole, GOA is a half-baked entertainer.

Verdict : Tads above average
BO verdict : Average

Venkat Prabhu + Chennai 600028 actors always cannot make good entertainers without proper script. If Chennai 600028 was a fun film & SA-RO-JA, a fun thriller, this one makes the audience bored at many places because of no surprises and twists.

BODYGUARD

BODYGUARD

Theatre : TVM New
Status : Balcony full, FC 70%
Showtime & Date : 6.00pm, 23-01-2010

The much hyped Siddhique movie, which was meant to be Dileep's comeback to series of hits miserably fails in every department to entertain us. Everything was bad here except Mithra Kurian & Guiness Pakru.

Story
Jayakrishnan(Dileep) comes to Ashokettan's(Thyagarajan's)home to become his bodyguard. Ashokettan  asks him to go to college with Ammu(Nayanthara ) and Sethulakshmi(Mithra Kurian) as their bodyguard . There Ammu fools Jayakrishnan by calling from a ID restricted mobile phone & tells him that she's a girl in the same college and she's in love with him. Towards interval she originally falls in love. How they unite is the rest of the story.

Performances
Dileep was a bad choice for the role of Jayakrishnan. Dileep misrably failed in handling the character in second half. At times, he tries to evoke some laugh, but a pure failure. Dileep couldn't handle the loverboy character & mature character transformation towards climax. His action scenes were pathetic as the story requires a better hero who could punch atleast five villains.  Nayanthara was a total failure, especially in sentiment scenes. There is no need of Thyagarajan to do this role which resembles Urmila Unni's character in Sargam towards climax. Harisree Ashokan's character Neelambaran was a straight lift from his same role in Chronic Bachelor. Janardhanan, Cochin Haneefa, Appa Haja, Nandulal has nothing to do. Zeenath was doing overacting. As in Chronic Bachelor, here too Seema.G.Nair was there as Dileep's mother with overacting.

Mithra Kurian as Sethulakshmi was the only character which was developed well & she performed well, especially in climax sequence. Guiness Pakru entertains us with his intro scene & some one-liners & gestures.

Songs
Songs by Ouseppachan is just OK. BGM was too loud.

Technical
Editing was pathetic. Cinematography was OK in parts. Costumes were bad. Action sequence was bad.

Bhagyalakshmi, the voice of 99% malayalam actresses dubs for Nayanthara & she seems to dub for Ganga(Shobhana) in Manichithrathazhu, rest of the time she does like a Fazil's movie heroine. Poor dubbing.

Script & Direction
I strongly doubt that the script was written and directed by Fazil & gave Siddhique's name to make it a crowd puller. Pathetic Script with bad comedies. No genuine comedy scenes were there. Everything was predictable comedies. There was no particular twists in the story as we have seen in his previous films. Script seems to be inspired from various other movies. Especially climax sequence was a mix of bollywood blockbuster Kuch Kuch Hota Hai & Sargam. Is there a person like director in the sets of this movie. Poor direction. All scenes which were meant to be comedies ended up as CHALUS with extra dialogues o explain that. There was no continuity in the proceedings of the movie. Utter crap script & direction. Siddhique seems to be following 80's style of script & direction which won't work with today's audience.

Verdict : Big Bore
BO Verdict : Flop

KOORA PADAM, The first disaster malayalam movie of 2010 is here. Save your cash and invest it for watching HAPPY HUSBANDS.

HAPPY HUSBANDS

HAPPY HUSBANDS

Theatre : TVM Dhanya
Status : Balcony Full, FC 75%
Showtime & Date : 6.15pm 18-01-2010

After Ivar Vivahitharaayaal, Saji Surendran-Krishna Poojappura teams together for HAPPY HUSBANDS, which is a remake of bollywood flick NO ENTRY, though it's shown in the titles like it's adapted from Prabhu-Prabhudeva starrer tamil fick Charlie Chaplin. Anyways, Saji & Krishna managed to make an engaging movie without dull moments.

Story
Mukundan(Jayaram), MD of Kerala Today magazine is a loyal husband of Krishnendu(Bhavana). But Krishnendu always had doubts on her husband. John(Jayasurya) works on Mukundan's magazine as photographer. Rahul(Indrajith) is a Romeo, but a loyal husband in front of Shreya(Samvrutha Sunil). Krishnendu & Shreya are friends & Krishnendu asks Mukundan to become Rahul's friend. Through Rahul, Mukundan mets Diana(Rima Kallingal). At a point Mukundan introduces Diana to Krishnendu as John's wife. By the time, John is in love with Zarina(Vandana). Rest of the story is how these three husbands manages in front of their wives without revealing the truth.

Performances
Jayaram is the backbone of the movie. He performed Mukundan with such an ease and evokes laughter with his own style of expressions. Indrajith as Rahul is good and refreshing, especially dialogue deliver style. Jayasurya has nothing much to do and is OK only. All the four female characters, Bhavana, Samvrutha Sunil, Vandana & Rima Kallingal has nothing much to do. Bhavana seems too young to become Jayaram's wife. Rima Kallingal's make up was horrible. Suraj Venjarammood entertains us again with his TVM slang, though repetitive in certain scenes, enjoyable at many parts. Salimkumar in double role scores with his dialogue delivery styles and looks. Manianpilla Raju is wasted. Sadhique scores in his opening scene. Rest all fits their roles.

Songs
Though songs & its picturisation are below average, while watching the movie, those will fit the bill.

Technical
Manoj's editing was superb. Anil Nair's camera fails to experiment in good available locations in the movie

Script & Direction
Krishna Poojappura has translated NO ENTRY to malayalam with malayalam flavours for our audience and he succeeded in that. Saji Surendran was able to make this an engaging movie without much lagging. The first half of the movie lacks much interesting sequences. Also Jayasurya-Vandana track was out of place and was not good compared to the whole movie speed & comedy. The second half of the movie was a roller coaster ride which makes the movie a fast comedy entertainer of recent times. Don't think of anything else. If you want to enjoy 2hr 40minutes, GO FOR IT!!!!

Verdict : Fast Comedy Entertainer
BO Verdict : Sure Hit

After Gulumaal, another bollywood remake is becoming a winner in Kerala Box Office. We have only a James Albert now who has come with no cliched scenes in script in recent times.

EVIDAM SWARGAMAANU

EVIDAM SWARGAMAANU

Theatre : TVM Sreekumar
Status : 99.99%
Showtime & Date : 6.00pm, 01-01-2010

Director Rosshan Andrrews is cheating Malayalee audience by making movies once in a while. A director like this, who handles the script very well must do atleast one movie a year. Once in a while only movie like this happens, a movie in which characters can be identified by all with some new info to audience. It's a superb entertainer with no sidetrack slapstick comedies, songs & a love affair.

Story
Mathews aka Mathevoos aka Mathachan(Mohanlal), son of Jerumias(Thilakan), is the owner of 3 acre land in which he is running a farm. Aluva Chandy(Lalu Alex) is a land mafia person who wants to buy Mathews's land too. Problem starts when Mathews tells Chandy that he won't sell his land. Chandy, the man who has influence in govt offices tries his best to acquire the land by creating unnecessary problems with the help of officers and using forged certificates created by Bhuvanachandran(Jagathy Sreekumar). The rest of the story is how Mathews overcome these problems and protects his land.

Performances
Mohanlal as Mathews is not a different or special role for him. But the actor playing such a kind of role after a long time gives some freshness. Lalu Alex as Aluva Chandy is good. All the three female leads are apt, Lakshmi Rai's lip sync needs to be improved. Shankar, Innocent, Sadhiq, Chalipala, Edavela Babu....all did their part well. Baiju Ezhupunna as Aluva Chandy's supporter is a refreshing one on screen. Thilakan has nothing much to do. Kaviyoor Ponnamma is a big minus. Sukumari is wasted.

Though in limited scenes, Sreenivasan as Prabalan/Koshy, Jagathy as Bhuvanachandran & Manianpilla Raju as lawyer simply rocked. Jagathy as certificate maker was excellent in his expressions & dialogue delivery styles. Sreenivasan acted as a catalyst for the second half of the movie's proceedings. Manianpilla Raju in his climax scene was good.

Songs

Director has taken a bold decision that not to have a single song in the movie. If there was a song, it would have been be a speedbreaker for the movie. BGM by Gopi Sundar was good. But repetition of the same BGM in many scenes could have been avoided.

Technical
Art directon was excellent, Cinematography too. Editing was good, action too.

Script & Direction
James Albert, the script writer once again proved his talent. EXCELLENT!!! EXCELLENT!!! EXCELLENT!!! James developed the story through sequences which will give some freshness to the audience. All the characters in the movie, even an actor appearing in a single scene has got a characterisation. He was able to increase the pace in development of the story gradually and able to make it racy towards the climax.  Dialogues are EXCELLENT. The home work done by Script Writer is clearly visible in all scenes, especially court matters, register office proceedings & above all Jagathy's character and his LAB.

Directon by Rosshan Andrrews is good. He was able to make the audience travel through the problems of Mathews. SUPERB DIRECTION with great technical perfection.

Nothing more to say, GO FOR IT!!!

Verdict : Very Good
BO Verdict : Super Hit

I felt only one negative in the movie. The opening school visit sequence of Shobha Mohan was a bitlengthy. Watch it atleast 2-3 times in theatres. ENJOY!!!

CHATTAMBINAADU

CHATTAMBINAADU

Theatre : TVM Anjali
Status : 100
Showtime & Date : 6.30pm, 24th Dec 2009

After the lukewarm response of Shafi-Benny P Nayarambalam team's LOLLIPOP, they are back with a Mammootty starrer one which has nothing new to offer but an entertaining one with never a dull moment.

Story
Veerendra Mallayya(Mammootty) comes to ChembattuNaadu aka ChattambiNaadu. He comes there to buy the properties of Manoj.K.Jayan's character who is the son of Vijayaraghavan's character. Nagendran(Siddhique) is the rival team. The rest of the story is the acton-reaction play of Mammootty and Siddhique & a flashback episode.

Performances
Mammootty as Veerendra Mallayya is good in his Kannada Malayalam slang. Siddhique reminds us his role in Maadambi & Prakash Raj's role in Ghillli in two scenes. Vinu Mohan repeats his Kunchacko Boban-Jayasurya play again. All the thrre female characters Lakshmi Rai, Maidhili & Meenakshi has nothing to do. Maidhili has only one dialogue. Janardhanan, Vijayaraghavan, Saikumar all are apt for the role.

As Benny's previous Mammootty flick AnnanThambi, here too Suraj Venjaarammood & Salimkumar are the big plus points of the movie. Salimkumar reminds us of his role in Mayavi. But his dialogues are good. Suraj was good in certain scenes but went overboard on certain scenes. His Bheeman Raghu act was entertaining.

Technical
Action by Anal Arasu was good. Rest all were usual only.

Songs
Below Average.

Script & Direction
Script by Benny P Nayarambalam is  mix of Rajamanikyam & Annan Thampi. An entertaining one till the preclimax episode, a misunderstanding, then truth reveals, film over. Direction  by Shafi is racy, but nothing new.

Verdict : Tad above Average Mass Entertainer
B.O Verdict : Above average

When I came out after watching the movie, I saw a flex ALL KERALA VINUMOHAN FANS ASSOCIATION, CHENGALCHOOLA UNIT. Not a single comedy scene in the movie will come anywhere near this COMEDY.

GULUMAAL THE ESCAPE

Gulumaal the Escape

Theatre : TVM Kripa

Status : 100%

Showtime : 6.15pm

After a series of flops, V.K.Prakash has finally come up with a movie which entertains the audience. This time VKP has come with a comedy genre one.

Story

Ravi Varma(Kunchacko Boban) needs some money to release his father(Nedumudi Venu) from jail. After trying all possible ways, he decides to do Tharikida to get money. He joins Jerry Mathews(Jayasuriya) who is a hardcore conman. They decides to sell a copy of a rare painting to an NRI Emir(Devan). In between Shambhu(Suraj Venjarammood) & assistant(Bijukkuttan) is in search of these two. Also Jerry's sister Saira(Mithra Kurian) works in the same hotel where Emir stays. The rest of the story is how they are selling the painting to NRI and some surprising twists.

Performances

Kunchacko Boban as Ravi Varma has come up with a good performance in his new look, especially in jail sequence with Nedumudi Venu. This one will be a good comeback for him. Jayasuriya as Jerry did his conman role with ease. His hospital sequence in second half was good.Though Suraj and Bijukkuttan track was totally out of the storyline, it was enjoyable, though nothing special. Mithra as Saira has nothing much to do. Devan, Manianpilla Raju, Nedumudi Venu had done their roles well in limited scenes, especially Devan in climax scene was good. APPY BIJU played by Kottayam Nazeer needs a special mention as he rocks in his single scene he got.

Songs

Manu Ramesh has come with songs which stays true to the genre of the movie. Kilukilukkum is my pick with 80's orchestration. Voice modulation by Sithara Balakrishnan was superb.

Technical

Camera Woman Fouziya Fathima has done a great job. Editing was good. As 2 cameras were used, assistants need special mention.

Script and Direction

Script by debutant Y.V.Rajesh is a straight lift from Argentenian movie Nueve Reinas. But he succeeded in making it an enjoyable one with changes for malayalee audience. It is the energy level of the lead stars which makes the movie enjoyable with beautiful sequences. Sequences in which Ravi and Jerry cheating each other was superb. Dialogues were not that powerful in certain scenes. Length of certain scenes should have been reduced. Also climax should have been made in a better way, atleast as in the original which was much more effective and superb. VKP, as usual was able to show something different on screen, this time audience too liked it. On the whole, it is a watchable mass entertainer.

Verdict : Above average

BO Verdict : Already a hit, may become a big hit because of low production cost

 As 98% of the audience were families, claps and koovals were not there much. Only for three scenes the whole theatre applauded.

1. Suraj's Chirappunji & Sadashivan Maaman dialogues.

2. Jayasuriya's dialogue "Hey man, come and THORA"

3. Kunchacko Boban's expression when Devan says 3 lakh, DOLLARS, 1.5 crore

VETTAIKAARAN

VETTAIKAARAN

Theatre : TVM Parthas

Showtime : 6.15pm

Date : 18th Dec 2009

Status : 100% with extra chairs

Debutant director BabuSivan suceeded in making a fast mass masala entertainer with Ilayathalapathy Vijay, who badly needs a hit after three consecutive not so successful films. Here there are not many overdose of heroism scenes.

Story

Devaraj IPS(Telugu actor Real Star Sreehari) is an encounter specialist in Chennai. In Tuticorn(Thoothukkudi), Ravi(Vijay), also known as Police Ravi is an ardent fan of Devaraj and is dreaming of becoming an officer like him though he didn't pass plus two four times. Finally he pass the exam and decided to go to the college where Devaraj studied and like him, he decided to do part-time job as an Auto-rikshaw driver. On the way to Chennai, Ravi meets Susheela(Anushka) and falls in love. In Chennai, he had a clash towards the interval with Chella(Ravishankar), a womaniser. Police arrests Ravi & officer Kattabbomman(Shayaji Shinde) plans to do an encounter. Though Susheela seeks help of Devaraj, he didn't. Then Vijay escapes from encounter and meets Devaraj, who is a blind man now because of Chella & his father Vedanayakam(Salim Ghose). From then onwards Ravi starts his hunting.

Performances

Vijay as Ravi is the main attraction and backbone of the movie. His immense screen presence makes his counter with baddies a visual extravaganza. He was superb in comic sequences with Sukumari & Anushka.  Anushka, after Rendu is back in Tamil, as Susheela, Ravi's love interest mainly for songs and romantic sequences. The only scene she had got to perform was his scene with Sreehari, where she asks his help to save Ravi. Sreehari has done his part well. Cochin Haneefa & Sukumari were good with limited scenes and superb dialogues. Sathyan has nothing much to do. Salim Ghose and Ravishankar were apt as villains. Shayaji Shinde was good as comic villain especially scenes with Manobala who plays press reporter.

Songs

Vijay Antony was able to make all the songs different genres where "Naan Adicha.." is the pick. BGM with Naan Adicha music was superb.

Technical

Gopinath's camera work was superb towards the interval especially chase sequences. Kanal Kannan's action has nothing special to do in second half, but rocked in first half. Art direction remains usual. Editing was good, but needs trimming in second half.

Script & Direction

Debutant BabuSivan was able to make the first half superb with correct mixture of comedy, action, songs as the viewer won't thinks of anything else at that time. But the second half becomes a predictable one which could have been made a bit tricky one.

Second half needs trimming. Though songs "Oru Chinnathaamarai" & "En Uchimandele" are good to hear, both are misplaced ones in the movie. Also the dialogues of Salim Ghose after a time becomes so lengthy which makes irritating. Also Sreehari's flashback episode makes us remember Sundar.C's Thee(Another Sun Pictures outing, remake of telugu movie Operation Duryodhana). Vijay's meeting with Salim Ghose at Vedanayakam Tea Stall sequence was excellent. BabuSivan proved that he's a good dialogue writer in Kuruvi itself. In this one too dialogues are good with non-repeating punch dialogues.

Altogether the movie has got a superb first half and a tad above average second half.

Verdict : Above Average Mass Entertainer

BO Verdict : Hit

100 times better than Kuruvi & Villu