A LONG STORY!

MOVIE: ANJAADHE
DIRECTOR: MYSSKIN
CAST: NARAIN, PRASANNA, AJMAL, VIJAYALAKSHMI, PANDIARAJAN, LIVINGSTON, M.S.BHASKAR
RATING: ***

It might seem vague, but it sure is a lot sensible to compare Mysskin’s ANJAADHE, with another movie on the ghetto, namely Vetrimaran’s POLLADHAVAN. Doing so, adds a lot more credibility to your work, for both the movies have the same flaws, being the heroine, and certain songs. While in Polladhavan it was the whole album, in Anjaadhe, it’s just a single number in the form of ‘Kathaazha Kannala’ (Surprise, isn’t it?), which is the only song this year to be promoted to the anthem level. The heroine are mere extra additions in both movies for both are male dominated, despite Anjaadhe dealing with women-nappers, since performers are strong men in both cases. Polladhavan showcased some of tamil’s finest muscles, while in Anjaadhe, mental spunk was the main aspect, amidst the flabs.

So what really let the serious Anjaadhe drop down below a completely commercial Polladhavan, that lost all sensiblity but delighted us all the same in a riveting climax? Ahhhh…. There it is: The climax. That’s the problem with Anjaadhe. Though lot more engrossing than Polladhavan, this piece of cinema has the worst last half-hour the director could ever have in store, and yes the climax in itself is nearly a half-hour. When you’ve created a steam that blazes one second and sparks in another, you’d expect a blast in the climax, with all the darkness in the movie turned into a violent explosion. City of God had that and so did Reservoir Dogs. But that’s exactly what Mysskin’s Anjaadhe failed miserably in, for the climax was a faithful reminder that this was for the tamil audience to watch.

That doesn’t mean Anjaadhe is worthless: It just means it lets you down, for you always increase your expections a million-fold when you’re viewing a movie already elevated to the zenith. The director made me exclaim with glee a lot of times, the longest being a song-sequence, a whole 10-minute scene that told me perfectly that the female lead was in love with the male, without any subsequent hints at it. He also took my breath away for a moment by the way in which he had treated a scene in which Kripa (Ajmal) sees his lungi wrapped around a victim of Daya’s (Prasanna) with a battalion of policemen watching. The scene was in slowmo, devoid of any music but the sound of the movie’s overactor hitting hard on the helmet he wore in agony. Touching really is the scene when M.S.Bhaskar hits Narain with his slippers after an untidy brawl in the middle of a religious celebration. The whole sequence with a couple of Vijay’s numbers in the background is stupendous and the editor needs to be given a special applause for not using any jump-cuts through the whole length of the movie, that’s a fad nowadays…

Dark cinematography, great camera angles, some really good cinematic exploits make Anjaadhe a visual delight: A delicacy rather. Mysskin knows his ethics too, when he makes his protagonist change after the insulting encounter with his dad, when he makes Ajmal change heart after seeing his gift on his friend’s (Narain) chest, and when he knows which way to choose to kill off a smiling Prasanna that would have made Krishna from the Mahabharatha proud. He also knew what he was doing when he chose his last film’s music director again, for the background score is a huge asset for the movie. The extensive use of the violin, and rather sober melodies of the score confirms the director’s craze for Jap movies. The duet is fantastic, and is one of the best contemporarily, thanks to some phenomenal music, and great choreography and art direction.

Which brings us to the climax – An unnecessary drag that really kills your overall respect for the movie. Halfway through it, you start hoping the movie ends the next minute, and get terribly infuriated when it goes on for eternity. Cliché is the ruling term for the climax consulting a dictionary of cinematic abuse terms, for the director fails to let go of the hero-villain barehand fight, or the usual I’m-not-going-to-kill-you-when-I’m-a-policeman act of the hero, or a more infuriating cliché when Ajmal kills unwantedly a very active performer in the one-armed Kuruvi, by shooting right on a T-shirt that has the symbol of peace on it. Also a potent good movie-killer is the hero living up to what he said in the end and nothing surplus. Some other enigmas of the movie are the casting and also the character of Pandiarajan as Logu, and a Motta who is called the same, whose face is deliberately not shown throughout the movie! But inspite of it’s cliché, one positive aspect of the climax is that it lives upto all it’s predispositions, and without doubt, all the happenings of the climax are predisposed.

Underplay rules the movie, the exceptions being an annoying Pandiarajan, and to some extent and in some scenes, the young new Ajmal. Though lifting your adrenalin levels in promo shows, the Kathazha Kannala number, with some great camerawork, and fantastic choreography is the film’s Heroin, depressing the pace set up already, and wasting a very valuable 5 minutes.

Overall, Anjaadhe is a new tint to Tamil Cinema in which people used to belive good cinema was all about soap-operas and dramas. An intense action thriller, with a little lenghty climax: that doesn’t bring it a lot down, does it?

P.S. I know my review drags on and on, but who can blame me? I saw Anjaadhe, didn’t I? ;)

WHAT LIFE'S ALL ABOUT...

As i had mentioned in my earlier post about HORTON HEARS A WHO, my review about the movie has been published in the hindu's supplementary Nxg. And people should think i'm utterly delighted at this prospect, which i'm totally not!
As per the paper's restrictions, it took me a whole of 3 hours to cut my page-long review short to a mere 300-words, and while doing so, i had to ensure i don't alter the meaning, the concepts i outlined, or the overall poeticity of the review (Yes it was poetic!). But what do i get, when i see it in form of the print media? Shock?
yes it was shock, and not a pleasant one to the least. I was devastated to see my review short by an arm and a leg, and as i dig deeper, i see that they've eaten it's heart out too! I do not say i'm not happy to see my name in print for the first time, but anyone who had taken so much pains to construct such an elaborate review would agree with me, that whatever the reason maybe, it really is terrible for an artist to see his work spoilt: It can be metaphorically compared to the shock a mother would feel when she sees a doctor eating away her delivered baby's limbs, and slowly nudging towards its heart, saying simultaneously "Congratulations, madam". (Boy that was creepy enough wasn't it?)
Anyway, if the excuse of lack of space was convincing enough, i wouldn't have gone on a rant about this, but to my horror, i saw that a companion review of mine (A rival actually!) had a full 293 words in it, with mere description of what she saw in its story (Yes it's a girl!). 293 words without a touch upon how emotional an experience the movie gave her, for the movie was targeted for your heart, since no one in their right minds would make a fantasy drama for any other purpose. And she happily discards the 71 mark rated movie (on a 100) as a waste of time, unless you're under 12. Then what's Roger Ebert? A kid in primary school???

I know a good artist doesn't touch upon others' work while he moulds his own, but when you've been kid upon, you don't sit flat on your back, saying, "Wow i'm atleast glad my review made it"! Read the review guys in Nxg, and compare it with what's been posted two posts previously in my blog: You'll be able to spot a mutation, and a nelson been transformed into the title of Ryan fleck's flick...

THAMIZHUKKE KEDAIYYA NEE!!!

Katradhu Thamizh, a.k.a Thamizh M.A. is a movie that contradicts itself. Being a movie that has been regarded highly by acclaimed critic Madhan (Madhan’s Thiraipparvai on Vijay TV) Katradhu Thamizh fails miserably if you have high expectations about it, and fails yet, even I you don’t have expectations at all.

Let’s start from the theme. It’s supposed to be a film that deals with the sufferings of any man who is a graduate in Tamil. Though people may argue that Tamil graduates can be well placed with an M.Phil, it still is reality, that a lot of Tamil Graduates are unemployed, or work for meagre wages, in unrelated jobs. But Katradhu Thamizh most certainly cannot deal with the toil of a tamil Graduate! Not when the protagonist is actually a psyche, who’s mental stability has been hampered right from his childhood by a car accident that lost him his mother and grandparents, and a rail accident that lost him his dog. Violence has always been a part of his life since then, and he is a person who can be provoked by a slight disturbance. This is ceratinly not the case of studying Tamil, or hailing from a lower section of the society.

Next is the incidents of the movie: It’s a mix of the real and surreal, which itself is a blunder as silly as Matrix without graphics or Sci-fi. It doesn’t connect really, the real and the surreal, and that’s what is a major letdown of the movie. The reality portrayed in the relationships of the movie, particularly between Prabhakar and Anandhi, and between Teacher and pupil, is hampered by the surreal part that is actually supposed to be the storyline: Prabhakar’s angst against the society being vented out as he kills, assaults, gets a cameraperson to express himself on tape, and even escaping a lot of times from the police. Believe me, this is as surreal as the stuff superman comes up with, and certainly, Prabhakar is no superman, for he actually tries to kill himself.

The film has positives scattered, outnumbered by negatives in the ratio of millions. But certainly, it has its pluses. The first fifteen minutes of the movie for example, is remarkable as it quickly tells us why the protagonist wants to die, and what stops him from dying at the same time. Then, honestly, all the scenes of the movie are quite good, with some actually getting your heart, such as the fact that a school teacher (Azhagamperumal), who is Prabhakar’s Gabriel, speaks like every other person you’d meet with no senti-dialogues. Also, Anandhi’s is an extraordinary character, and I have got to say, the girl Anjali is the best actress I have ever seen in a tamil movie. Next, the screenplay, the music (Yuvan!), the editing, the camera, and the lighting are all good, with the locations providing a boost to the movie.

As a summary, Katradhu Thamizh for me, is a huge two-thumbs down, thanks to a story that contradicts itself, and a director who clearly shows that the story is about a psyche, but still claims that his story is that of every Tamil Graduate living in the city. Though the scenes in the movie, particularly the realistic ones, are quite good, the movie as an overall entity is a failure to invoke anything except a longing for the intermission, that actually comes quite late. A good ploy perhaps…

MY RATING: *1/2 (Just for performances and music, for there was no movie otherwise)

Horton lives life on anime

This is actually a review that i have attempted to send to a newspaper, another first on my list, and i don't know whether i'm gonna be successful. But i'm still satisfied all the same, for i've expressed what went through my mind, totally.

Personally i think, and i know that hollywood's anime movies are way better than our own tamil crap. So, i venture to see any anime movie, ahead of any buzzing new release (Dasavatharam, for that matter). I frankly have got to say, i was looking at a dreamer, someone who is an exaggerated version of myself, (both in mind, and of course, in size!!!) in horton the elephant. The questions he asks, and the things he thinks, and of course, the depiction of everything in the film can be drawn parallel to an everyday occurence. It's a fantasy, a marvellous adaptation of human life to be portrayed by animals and other creatures. And of course, the animation is fantastic, and the overall effect of the movie is bittersweet, though initially hilarious.

One thing i didn't like in the movie was the sense of Americanism that ran throughout the movie. A Kangaroo villain, a vulture named Vlad, that speaks English with a Russian accent.

Come on! Russians ain't vultures!!!

LIFE ON ANIME

FILM: Dr.Seuss’ Horton hears a who
DIRECTOR: Jimmy Hayward, Steve Martino
CAST: Jim Carrey, Steve Carell, Carol Burnett, Will Arnett, Isla Fisher, Seth Rogen
RATING: ****

20^th Century fox’s Horton Hears a Who is a refreshing break from the monotonous life we lead, as it provides a journey through the triviality of life, and those silly little enigmas that are often brushed aside by us.

A piece of cinema that takes you into it seldom makes you look for credibility: Flaws show nowhere when you ingest a movie totally, and Horton is one such. Horton (Carrey) an elephant, comes across a speck that speaks to him, and he comes to know that the voice belongs to a rather grumpy Mayor (Carell) in a world called Whoville which is subjected to strange climatic changes, and must be taken to a safe place at once. Horton volunteers, but is confronted by a vulture called Vlad along with a battalion of apes, hired by a power-mongering lady Kangaroo (Carol). Whether he manages to save Whoville, and whether he manages to convince the wicked Roo is the plot.

Horton is a refreshing movie, particularly noteworthy because of a narration that actually rhymes, and some extreme digital animation that makes the first ten-minute sequence of the speck’s journey a marvel. Equally awing are Horton’s acrobatics, and a sequence in a gigantic clover field that is so lush, you can smell it.

It has a refrain in the narration, and also in Horton’s quotes: “A person’s a person, however small”. It lives up to it, interestingly, for in no place is a meander from the main stream. The movie is feel-good stuff, no doubt, but it still is quite deep, exploring the nuances of truth, belief, godliness, and the power innocence has in this world.

A must watch to quench this summer’s thirst for good movies. And of course, Horton is for all ages; After all, a person’s still a person, however small!!!