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.

ENGEYUM EPPOTHUM

ENGAEYUM EPPOTHUM

Theatre : Theni Krishna
Status : 50%
Showtime & Date : 6.15pm, 22-09-2011
How road accident change the lives of many is the crux of ENGAEYUM EPPOTHUM produced by Fox Star Studiios & director A R Murugadoss.

Story
Story begins with an accident between two buses. And the story unfolds in a nonlinear manner through the four characters travelled in those two buses - Kathiresan(Jai), Manimeghalai(Anjali), Amutha(Ananya) & Goutham(debutant Sarva)

Performances
Its the female leads who shines more than male characters. Anjali as boyish dominating lover was excellent & Ananya with typical village girl characteristics was superb. Jai as a middleclass good boy was good & debutant Sarva was promising. Rest of the characters did their part well.

Songs & BGM

Songs were catchy ones and well picturised except the second song Aarumasam featuring Jai which was picturised in a typical masala song model which was not at all fitting to the movie's total making style. BGM was superb especially for Jai-Anjali sequences

Technical
Cinematography was good and did an awesome work in road sequences. Editing was apt except the opening bus readying sequence.

Script & Direction
M.Saravanan handled both departments. Script was a refreshing one in narration with superb witty dialogues & refreshing sequences especially in Jai-Anjali episodes. Dialogues are one of the big plus points of the movie. Director had handled the story in non linear manner in an entertaining manner. The scene which will make us cry the most will be the episode of NRI father longing to see her five year daughter for the first time. Director could have picturised the second song in an interesting manner rather than following a usual tamil cinema formula. Also some of the sequences in second half were left untold, especially in Jai-Anjali sequence & Sarva sequence & why Ananya there in Chennai then and all. Saravanan definitely needs a special mention for making such a movie.

Nothing more to say a good first half and above average second half.

Verdict : Good
B O Verdict : Hit
After watching this movie, you'll drive carefully on roads.

Like director Shankar, Murugadoss also started funding for good movies.

SEVENES

SEVENES

Theatre : TVM Kripa

Showtime & Date : 09-09-2011, 6.15pm

Status : Balcony Full, FC 85-90%

Expectation were high when Kunchacko Boban teams up with master director Joshiy & script by Iqbal Kuttippuram. But sadly the movie is not as good as expected because of bad script & bad editing.

Story
Shyam(Kunchacko Boban), Sooraj(Asif Ali), Shoukath(Nivin Pauly), Sarath(Rajith Menon), Arun(Aju Varghese), Satheesh(Vijeesh) & Linto(Ameer Niyaz of Puthumughangal fame) are the Seven member football team SEVENES. Shyam is in love with Gowri(Bhama), a shop girl sister of Asokan(Mithun Ramesh) whos is a goon working with Beppoor Surendran. As part of a football match, they attacks Aravindan(VineethKumar) by mistake. For his operation expenses, Sevenes team becomes a quotation team through Habeeb(Manianpilla Raju). Though they starts the quotation work for this, needs coming again & again & they were forced to be quotation gang again & again. Things change when they were accidentally part of murder of a criminal business tycoon Ramakrishnareddy(Mahadevan). The rest is how commissioner Amala Vishwanath(Nadia Moythu) solves the case & how Sevenes team proves their innocence.

Performances
Kunchacko Boban, though not a challenging one, he did the role with ease. Especially in dialogue delivery & modulation, he's at his best. His scenes before first quotation sequence, on court ground seeing his mother, at Bhama's house confrontation with Mithun Ramesh, he delivers a power packed performance. In action sequences too he shines. Asif Ali, though he had got a good set of scenes & dialogues, he spoiled many with bad voice modulation. Nivin Pauly with limited dialogues were good & shines in final action sequence. Ameer Niyaz was good in action sequence. Aju Varghese is the one who makes a big laughter on screen when he tries to help the fallen girl on track. Rajith Menon had the final shot to perform & Vijeesh was usual only. Vineeth Kumar had nothing much to do. Mithun Ramesh was surprisingly good in second half. Bhama & Rima Kallingal were showcase girls only. Nadia Moythu had a powerful character, but bad dialogues spoiled the show. ManianPilla Raju was impressive. Mamukoya, Mahadevan, Bindu Panicker, Zeenath... had nothing much to do.

Songs & BGM
Songs were stricly average & BGM was just fast version of song music & lacks punch & at times loud too.

Technical
Ajayan Vincent with ARRI ALEXA camera(for the first time in Malayalam) delivers new angles at times. Editing by Ranjan Abraham was bad & spolied the final sequences. It could have been a lot lot better. Art Direction was good. Costumes were realistic especially for Kunchacko Boban, Rajith Menon & Ameer Niyaz. Action sequences lack freshness.

Script & Direction
Iqbal Kuttippuram fails to make the proceedings in the movie interesting though the story had enough energy to make it so. Bad dialogues, especially Nadia's were another highlight. Bad & cliched execution of a better plot. It is direction by Joshiy which makes the movie this better & watchable. Still Joshiy is not at his best. He seems to have taken the movie in an easy manner. The climax portion makes me think so. Also bad editing spoiled the whole show.

On the whole, a watchable first half & strictly average predictable second half.

Verdict : Tad above average
BO Verdict : Average

If Mohanlal was there in Nadia Moythu's role, movie would have taken another dimension.

Dr.LOVE (Doctor Love)

Dr.Love

Theatre : TVM Ajantha
Showtime & Date : 09-09-2011, 2.10pm
Status : Balcony 75%+, FC about 50 people

After back to back hits, HALLO & MUMMYnME, producer Joy Thomas Shakthikulangara is back with his third movie Dr.LOVE starring Kunchacko Boban in title role, written & directed by debutant K.Biju.

Story
Movie starts with a song by Lal(in cameo) & Asif Ali(in cameo as himself) explaining about Vinayachandran(Kunchacko Boban) who is a romance consultant, a person having tips & tricks to solve lover's problems whatever the problem or situation. On seeing this, PT master(Innocent) of nearby college invites him to college as a canteen staff to solve his love problem with Aanandavalli teacher(Bindu Panicker). When Vinayan solves Bhagath Manuel's love problem with Manju(debutant Vidya Unni, sister of actress Divya Unni), he becomes ROMANCE CONSULTANT in college. When Roy(Hemanth of Living Together fame) comes to him to solve his romance issue with Abin(Bhavana), the "devil" of college. When Abin comes to know that Vinayan tries to help Roy, things change & it leads to a rocking entertainer.

Performances
It was a full length KUNCHACKO BOBAN SHOW. Chackochan plays the character in a SUPERB way. An energetic performance with humour & seriousness in perfect blend. Especially in second half, he scored with superb expressions. Once again I would like to say, it's a clear KUNCHACKO BOBAN SHOW.

Manikuttan was another actor who gets some viewers' attention with good oneliners. Hemanth, though good, had some dubbing problems in between. He had a nice role in Interval part. Bhagath was good. Aju Varghese, Rajith Menon, Shravan Eapen & newcomers did their part well.
Nedumudi Venu, Innocent& Vijayaraghavan were good. Salimkumar though good, his track looks totally out of place. Baiju Ezhupunna had limited scenes. Kalabhavan Shajon & his helper guy were good. Ananya was perfect in her role, both in looks & acting. Bhavana was cool though her makeup was a bit over at parts. Shari, Bindu Panicker, KPAC Lalitha did their part well. Vidya Unni was OK in her role, but was missing in second half. Nimisha & Others did their part well

Songs & BGM
Vinu Thomas impresses with his songs in audio CD. In movie, only Aakasham Doore & Nannaavoole was there in full. Rest of the songs, Ninnodenikku(One of the best in recent times), Ormakal, Avanalle were there in parts. Best thing is all were picturised well & perfectly fits. Superb work!!! THEME MUSIC needs special mention

Gopi Sundar's BGM too impresses, especially Dr.Love theme remix SUPERB!!!

Technical
Cinematography, Editing, Art Direction all were superb. The title cards animations were amazing.

Costumes by Sameera Saneesh needs special mention.

Script & Direction
What to say, superb script & superb execution. To point out as negative we can say, Salimkumar's episode seems to be a forced one. Otherwise there was nothing to point out. Also the execution was Top class. FRESHNESS was there in every frame & sequence in the movie. Smart screenplay & Superb dialogues. 

What to say more, waiting for his next movie

Verdict : Superb Feel Good Campus Entertainer, Don't miss this!!!
BO Verdict : Superhit
This one will be the ONAM WINNER of 2011.
Never expected such a superb product from a debutant who handled both script & direction.

DON"T MISS THE SCENES WHILE THE TITLE CARD ROLLS

Sad that movie is released in limited centres. In coming days, it'll pick up as word of mouth is Superb.

Mohanlal fans had enough dialogues in start & climax of the movie.

Kai Onnadichen song was not there which had enough beats

If this movie is watched with full house mass audience, it'll be going to be another great movie experience, such a Superb script

TEJA BHAI & FAMILY

TEJA BHAI & FAMILY

ദിലീപിന്‍റെ നാട്ടില്‍ നിന്നൊരു പൃഥിരാജ് ചിത്രത്തിന്റെ റിവ്യൂ
Theatre : Aluva Matha
Showtime & Date : 11.20am, 30-08-2011
Status : Balcony around 50%, FC 55%

After the runaway hit CRAZY GOPALAN(a good revenge story with a good second half), Dipu Karunakaran is back in tinsel town with his new movie TEJA BHAI & FAMILY which was promoted like the image makeover of Prithviraj as a comic hero sadly fails in almost all departments to entertain.

Story
Teja Bhai(Prithviraj) is a highly paid underworld don in Malaysia who falls in love with a social worker Vedia(Akhila) without revealing his real identity & meets her as Roshan Varma. Things change when her father Damodarji(Thalaivasal Vijay) decides her marriage as per priest(a comic baffoon character) Vashyavachas said(Suraj Venjarammood) whom in which Damodarji strongly believe.With the help of Vashyavachas, Teja introduces himself as Roshan Varma who is from a reputed family. Damodarji asks Vashyavachas to be with Roshan & get his family details. Roshan aka Teja, by the time with the help of Vashyavachas himself tries to find his lost parents at the age of three ending up with a group of fake relatives to be with him to make the marriage happen. The rest is whether Vedika & Damodarji comes to know about Teja & whether they unite.

Performances
Prithviraj, though marketed as his comic role didn't delivered a single scene which will make us laugh. As a don in malaysia episode too, he looks bad(His look in Thanthonni was perfect for this role). When Suraj enters the movie, Prithviraj was seen in few scenes only. His intro scene was horrible. Suraj as Vashyavachas tried his best to save the movie. Sadly he too fails. Except a very few oneliners, nothing worked. The best scenes in movie belongs to him - the final shot & the scene in which he imitates Mohanlal in Chithram. Salimkumar had a Mahabharatham storytelling episode & one dialogue to make us laugh. Bheeman Raghu in his cameo imitating Mammootty of Rajamanikyam didn't work. But the scene in which Suraj imitating Bheeman Raghu in his presence was good. Akhila was just a showcase item in the movie. Thalaivasal Vijay was ok. Suman as baddie was just another routine role for him. Asokan was just ok in his role. Nedumudi Venu, as usual, eventhough a cameo role scores. Shobha Mohan had no dialogues & just 2 shots in the movie. Shakeela couldn't make in any impact in his cameo. Rest of the cast - Jagathy Sreekumar, Kochu Preman, Premkumar, Nandulal, Indrans, Kollam Thulasi, Bindu Panicker, Manju Pillai, Manka Mahesh & a set of kids were there to fill the screen only.

Songs & BGM
Deepak Dev disappoints this time. Except Shishiranilavil, nothing worked. Remix of Oru Madhurakkinavin didn't work as expected. In BGM, you can find lots of Hollywood, Bollywood, Tamil & Telugu movie BGMs.

Technical
Cinematography by Shamdath was OK. Art direction was fine. Action sequences lacked freshness & picturised in an ordinary manner only. The real villain of the movie is the editor Manoj. I think he was sleeping for the first 15-20 minutes. Editing was bad as a whole.

Script & Direction
Both departments are handled by Dipu Karunakaran. Basic story had all the elements to be a mass entertainer. But the screenplay lacks the punch to make it entertaining. Everything was predictable & many scenes looks similar to rehash of old Priyadarsan movies like Boeying Boeying. Though the movie was marketed as comedy movie, comedy was too old fashioned & artists tried their best to make us laugh, but without proper script & bad dialogues, what they could do. Director seems to be unclear of how he could present the movie before the audience. Teja Bhai as don was presented very badly on screen as a not at all serious one. Many scenes looks like a TV serial at times. Climax was just rehash of Pokkiriraja climax. Direction lacks experience & many frames & shots look repeated & a copy of some other language movies. Dipu Karunakaran did an OK job only.

Verdict : Strictly a one time watch if u have nothing else to do or no other movies left on theatres
BO Verdict : No competition for 9 days & wide release might help this one to enter safe side, but whether budget of 6.5c will be covered is yet to be watched.

The hardwork in script & execution seen in CRAZY GOPALAN was absolutely missing in this one. This one eneded as just a movie to project Prithviraj among family audience, some dialogues in the movie too tells that.

If u watch this movie on DVD, you can finish it in just 1 hour

ROWTHIRAM (ROUDRAM)

ROWTHIRAM (ROUDRAM)

Theatre : TVM Anjali
Showtime & Date : 6.18pm, 12-08-2011
Status : Balcony No Idea, FC 45-50%

After the success of KO, Jiiva is back with his new movie Rowthiram, produce by his father R.B.Choudhary, scripted & directed by debutant Gokul easily enters the list of worst movies in Tamil Cinema & worst movie of Jiiva.

Story
Genuinely speaking, there was nothing like that in the movie. Movie starts at Azhagiya Pandipuram in Kanyakumari district where PrakashRaj is a Kalari expert who saves a man from a set of goons which impresses the child Jiiva. He too trains under him. Then after 20 years, in Chennai run by a set of goons played by Gauri(the hairy baddie in Naan Mahan Alla) &  Kittu(bollywood choreographer Ganesh Acharya), enters hero Shiva(Jiiva) who reacts to bad things around him. As usual impressed by his heroism heroine Shreya, daughter of assistant Commissioner played by Babu Antony falls in love. Once Jiiva fights with a goon in his intro scene & till climax goons ae after him.

Performances
Jiiva as Shiva had just to look serious, fights & romance with seriousness. Nothing else to do. At times his seriousness seems over forced. Shreya had nothing much to, but much better compared to her similar roles in previous movies. Jayaprakash was cool & convincing as Jiiva's father, the best among the cast. Sathyaraj with comic scenes fails to evoke laughter. Babu Antony had just 6-8 dialogues. The crying father emoted by him in climax ended up as comedy. Malayalam actor Santhosh as commissioner had nothing to do. Rest of the cast including baddies could not make any impact.

PrakashRaj in his cameo had just one action sequence & three line dialogues.

Music
Music by debutant Prakash Nikki was a big flop. None of the songs impresses. All are misplaced ones in the movie. Also the treatment of the movie & songs differs a lot(Heard that the songs were reshooted after the success of KO). Bad picturisation too. BGM by Raja was okay at parts. BGM was missing in lots of places.

Technical
Cinematography by debutant N Shanmugham was just OK. Editing was bad. Action scenes were endlessly going. Art direction was OK. Action sequences lacked freshness. Infact the first & final action choreography looked similar.

Script & Direction
What happens when a first time director decides to make a commercial movie with a routine formula happened to watch NAAN MAHAAN ALLA & a week before shooting, he is getting DVD of a Mysskin movie & happened to watch a Shaji Kailas & Amal Neerad movie on a malayalam TV channel & at the end he wants wants a commercial product of proven formula? Exactly that happend I think. There was nothing called story or screenplay in the whole product. First half was better compared to second half as first half sticks to the proved formula. Second half was a big bore & too lenghty. The whole movie runs two & a half hour plus. Lack of familiar star cast also makes the movie boring. The screenplay was so bad that Nothing more to say!!!

On the whole, a watchable first half & a bad boring second half.

Verdict : Escape
BO Verdict : Flop, chances for a disaster.

In a scene, where Naan Mahaan Alla baddie threatens Shreya, Babu Antony comes there. Comment from audience was "ടാ പയലേ അവന്‍  ഒന്ന് ചാടി ചവിട്ടിയാല്‍ നീ പിന്നെ എണീക്കൂലാ"

Though the title of the movie is ROWTHIRAM, its treated as SHANTHAM.
For producer this movie will end as BHAYANAKAM
For those who watched the movie, its VEERAM as they have taken a big risk
Those who are waiting for next show, those who have seen will say KARUNAM as they are coming with SHOKAM

Audience were not even having the strength to boo at the screen as they were crying in their mind twice or thrice the level Jiiva cries at the final shot.