Nandalala- Stark reality.

Intro

A Tamil contribution to World Cinema. Though I am not a big fan of these movies, they don't entertain much, I have to say that like most World Movies this one portrays a stark reality using only good filming techniques. A Tamil take on 'Kikujiro' this film adds enough Indian flavour without butchering the original.

Synopsis

What do a mad man in an asylum and a little boy in primary school have in common? A longing to meet their mother. The former to confront her as to why she left him in an asylum and the latter to simply give her a kiss. Fate has it that they travel together and in this journey they encounter unconditional mother's love albeit in a completely unexpected manner.

Good 

Not too many Indian movies have the detail of a good novel, or the aesthetics which fully exploit the medium which is film. Using montages to tell a story, especially in India, requires a lot of guts and the applause has to go to the director of the film. You will love the seeming silence which engulfs the film. And you will notice that there is depressing mood in the film like in most Tamil films which reflect the lives of the outcasts of society- Mentally ill, physically challenged and abandoned children.

Bad

The music was horrible to say the least. Flashes of Ilayaraja's genius are evident but over all it seemed like music borrowed from a cheap fusion CD. And I think that in all the detailing that went into the form or the art, there were many scenes which drew a blank or were confusing in a not so intellectually overwhelming. A little irritating at times.

Ugly

I think this film is Myshkin's failure to fill too many shoes and I think he did not have to put himself everywhere. He is a good director and a decent actor. But he should have done just one role to justify the original he drew inspiration from. There is a paradox here for Takeshi Kitano wrote, starred and directed Kikujiro. But I honestly believe Indian directors cannot play such supermen and these attempts show a vulgar attempt to satisfy the ego rather than for the art of film making. Does Kamal Hasan ring a bell.

Marks- 5/10. A missed opportunity to make one of the best films of the decade. 

 

The legend of the Gaurdians- 'Gaga over Ga'Hoole'

Intro

 Prepare to be transformed into an owl and prepare to enter their world. There is good and evil. There is ‘the will to power’ and a fight for the weak to survive. Treachery, revenge and war take the form of the owls, some of them from Ga’hoole.

Synopsis

This is the story of two brothers Soren and Kludd who are kidnapped by ’The pure ones,’ a fanatical group of owls who want to dominate the owl world. The pure ones train the strong owls to become fighters and ‘moonwink’ i.e. brainwash the weak ones to become gatherers. Soren refuses to be trained but kludd seeks the power the pure ones have to offer in the leadership of Metal Beak.

  Soren escapes with Gylfie a girl owl to go look for ‘the guardians.’ The guardians are a part of owl legend and fairy tales which Soren is very fond of, so when he learns they exist he is willing to risk his life to find them. Will he find the guardians? Will the guardians save the enslaved owl or will they become the victims of a treacherous plot?

Good

This movie will make you believe that there is such a thing as a completely awesome movie experience. You will feel the flap of the wings, the drops of icy waters, the flakes of fiery flames. You will feel moved by the story and your brain will want to make all sorts of connections between the animated world and our real world.

I for once made the connection between the enslaved moon blinked owls with the poor in India. The prosperous Indian minority believe that the weakness or poverty is because of behavior, caste and mindset of the gatherer owls. Their sole purpose is to serve ‘the pure ones’ and cannot be empowered to use their skills in a better way. The guardians on the other hand believe in cultivating the capacity of all owls not by dominating them but by working with them.  This is a utopia which modern India must embrace.

Bad

 Express avenue’s parking lot is a disgrace! They made me pay 45Rs to park in a smelly uneven debris filled parking lot. All the opulence the mall emanates cancelled out when you walk a quarter kilometer to get to this rubbish pile. Do not go to Express Avenue on a two wheeler!!!!!!!!

By the way- there was nothing bad in this movie. If you miss it then you lost out on pure awesomeness!

Ugly

I don’t like how the movie follows the cliché in colour- dark and black represents evil while the leaders of the gaurdians are these white birds! It follows on the lines of the ‘Lord of the rings,’ banishing the evil orcs and trolls to the east while the west has wonderfully white and pure wizards. It goes against the basic theme of the film! The poor live in black, the powerless in the east. Mamatamtan resents this. Good movie though!

Marks- 8/10 Overall awesome movie experience

Boss Engira Baskaran. Excuse me boss, can I have some fun please?

Intro-

It is about time the Tamil film industry produced some original movies which can truly say- we are tamilians, this is how we are and we are enjoying being who we are! Though there are still a few clichés left intact, the story is original, the twists and turns are the funniest we have seen the industry produce in a very long time! This film is my ‘Nanben Da!’

Synopsis-

Baskaran (Arya) or Boss as he calls himself, has been trying to pass his arrear exams for a long time. In his bid to impress an intelligent English speaking professor (Nayantara), he decides to make something of his life. Pushed by his family to get a grip of his life he starts a tuition centre with the help of his best friend (Santhanam). Being a loser in life does not stop Boss from succeeding till one last obstacle forces him to take up the country sword (Aruval) and chase someone, which is how the movie starts.

Good-

The above synopsis might you think that the movie is one of those hero conquers all, beats every one up, impresses the girl kinda movie. But far from it! The twists and turns are surprisingly surprising, culminating in perfect comic timing. This is a modern day ‘Thillu Mullu’ the old Rajini starrer which had Tamil audiences ROFL. I think the glory days of comedy might be returning to Tamil land and let’s thank Arya for seeking out this wonderful script!

Bad-

Songs! No songs in good movies. Please. Please… I can only think of a few reasons to have songs in our films-

1)      Sell audio CD’s

2)      More screen time on Sun Music

3)      Hit songs, sometimes carry a crappy movie in the Tamil box office

None of these reasons explain why these songs should have such long screen times! I have a friend who has a theory- “Tamil movie culture mama! Tham break! (cigarette break)” Let me tell you this. Not too many smokers in our state anymore! And the only break we need is the bathroom break at interval. Morons! Reduce songs screen time. Ghajini hindi did this beautifully. They cut the item number to less than a minute. Watch the whole damn song in Sun Music you Perv!

Ugly-

Why are movie protagonists, especially in Tamil films these days, useless characters who have arrears. Duh… it is because most movie going tamil youth have a long list of arrears. Vaalga – VVVVS Varuthapadatha, Vekkapadatha, Vetti, Valibar Sangam. Translation- Long Live- No worry, No shame, No job, Youth Peoples of Tamil land.

Marks- 7/10 – Don’t miss it if you understand Tamil (even partially would do)

Do Dooni Chaar

I walked into the theatre thinking this is going to be one of those movies that I have to sit through without choice but I was pleasantly surprised at the end, not only was this movie different from the usual bollywood movies it also made me laugh at places.

Synopsis : The Duggals are a simple middle class family.                 Mr.  Duggal is a maths teacher who earns a simple salary and is also part of a tution centre to make both ends meet. His mode of transportation is his old scooter. His two children are both of the modern kind who prefers to have all the luxuries in life but have no option but too adjust with their family. The Duggals decide one day that their family requires a car and how and what they do to get the car is the rest of the movie.

The Good : The Comedy is good, no songs cutting the narration unnecessarily and the actors all have done a good job. Rishi Kapoor is wonderful as the  maths teacher, Neetu Singh as the mom is also nice. Rishi kapoor literally takes the movie on his shoulders. The Director has really worked well on his script , its tight and its well put on screen, even the twists and turn are nice , the director takes you through a familiar line and finally turns into a completely new lane. I totally enjoyed it and I would ask you all to not miss this one. Very few movies like this have a soul in them and its really nice to see these kind of movies coming up in bollywood. Please don’t miss this movie,I simply enjoyed it totally.

The Bad : I really have no complaints for a movie like this. 

The Ugly : None for this movie

Marks : 7/10 ( Movies like Do Dooni Char is a rare thing, don't think twice just go for this movie and enjoy it fully)

 

The American- Clooney is hollywood's Rajini

Intro- Slow, gentle caresses of long round slippery...barrels...its guns not whatever you were thinking. Subtlety in everything- dialogues, visuals, music. Its hollywood's very own superstar- George Timothy Clooney.  America's obsession with guns, fantasy of being a lonely mysterious stranger who boinks (its the new f* word) beautiful women, psychological thrillers with attempts at many layers.

Good- Though not a big fan of slow movies I could immerse myself in the whole experience, though only to a certain extent. Because this type of plot has been reproduced a million times like the McChicken burger, its hard to enjoy the flavour as you chew on it.

But as it goes down your throat, you think well maybe it has the nutrition of a vegetarian sub.  The cinematography is great, treatment screams I am a digital offbeat, serious, world cinema. The medicine had very little sugar. Mary poppins is going to be very disappointed.

Bad- At this point you are thinking I am not revealing too much about the movie. But there is nothing to reveal. I could tell you the story in 5 lines and you would be angry with me if you were a Clooney fan and you wanted to see the movie. For the rest of you, the movie in five lines-

Line 1- George Clooney and his character progression (layer 1)
Line 2- George Clooney with a dangerous girl
Line 3- George Clooney with another girl who...(suspense and build up)
Line 4- George Clooney with a spiritual dude hence adding a layer
Line 5- George Clooney with an close to extinct butterfly adding another

Don't watch the movie if you are not a Clooney fan.

Ugly- My cultural analysis is this. Like Mr. Rajini Kant and all he stands for in our culture (nobody degrade it or tamil tantrums will sock you where it hurts most) is a paralel to Mr. Clooney and all he stands for in the American culture. Style here subtly there. Punch dialogues here, no dialogues there. I think our brand of cool is so much cooler, because there is recklessness about it. It's maddness and we don't pretent otherwise. I am a big fan of Clooney but this movie is way too pretentious. As Baba is to Rajini, The American is to Clooney.


Marks- 4/10 Just passed

Eat, Pray, Love- Ate, Prayed (for this movie to end), Slept!

Intro

If ‘The American’ represents the sick male fantasy of males in the US of A, this movie reeks of sick female fantasy of females in the US of A or is it just Julia Robert’s sick fantasy. In the light of her converting to a Hindu and embracing travel as a religion, I think we can call this Julia’s autobiographical portrayal of her mid life crisis. Who the boink wants to see that?

Good

This movie made me hungry. The visual depiction of food is absolutely stunning. Do not watch this movie on an empty stomach, because the only thing good about this movie will become torturous. A good use of the visual medium in small portions of the film- The parallel edit, when Julia tries to put on new jeans along with a café full of Italian supporters cheering the national team is the icing on this small cupcake.

Bad

This movie is horribly slow and horribly dependant on long philosophical dialogues and very so cliché at times that you wonder why would Julia subject the world to her contorted views on how life should be, or how a woman’s life should be. It is a moral lesson, not a story which weaves the colours of all the beautiful locations. Instead it leaps into the pressure cooker of stereo types- Italians are like this, Indians like that and people from south east asia exist to cater to all of Julia’s needs. By the way- where the boinkers did Julia get so much money to embark on such an expensive trip anyway. She is a professional zero in this trip and when she has no money in the US of A how can she just stay in what looks like expensive resorts where ever she goes?

Ugly

 Why must Indian arranged marriages get dragged into this movie? Another Indian wedding, where the girl’s stands around with sadness on her face telling the western woman how she covets her freedom. I think Julia gets a huge kick out of deep frying all the handsome male character’s hearts, and she does not bother the contrast of their handsomeness with her ugly ass self! Just like Vijay Kanth has no qualms about acting with women half his size and twice his out-worldly beauty. If you are a Julia Roberts fan, stay away from this movie, if you are not- you can yell cheap shots all through the movie. Julia bares herself for ridicule and I appreciate her flabby guts!

Marks

 1/10- Watch the 1^st half hour and get out after the eating.

Just eat and leave!

Adurs- The others

It's a Telugu movie with Junior NTR. Forced to watch this movie while taking a bus from Vizak Andhra Pradesh to Chennai. The movie is like the food there- sets your stomach on fire, wash it down with some curd. Our neighbors like an overdose of colour, dialogues, dance sets, dance moves, sound effects, fight scenes of Matrixian proportions, visual effects!

Good

Excellent effects and excellent effects and excellent effects. Every transition from shot to shot will leave the best compositor in Chennai going- 'what.' This while film lovers go 'Why.' Jatang lighting for...well...come to think of it every thing.

Jn. NTR dances really well. I was wondering what is with our films and dancing? Vijay, Hrithik Roshan, Prabhu Deva and now Jn.NTR, know not how to act but can do some cool dance moves. I think we Indians get the wrong idea, that dancing around like a monkey with fits will attract girls, because of these onscreen idiots.

Bad

Oh my god, where do I even begin. Thank god the DVD got stuck as the bus went through a bad patch of roads, I did not watch the entire movie but after half an hour I guessed the ending. Why? Here is the structure of the movie-

Scene 1

Intro- Hero twin 1 the comic relief. Some funny scenes.

Scene 2

Intro- Hero twin 2 the hero heeeeeero. Beats up 50 guys with guns using nothing but his bare hands

Scene 3

Hero1 dances with heroine 2 song sequence 1. 3 crore worth dance set 1.

Scene 4

Same as scene 3 switch hero and heroine numbers

Scene 5

Father held by villainous villain who catches Hero 2 to bring to the father who will not construct weapon of mass destruction (seems like patriot missiles) unless he sees his son. What the boinkers!

Scene 6

Hero1 dances with heroine 2 song sequence 2. 3 crore worth dance set 2.

Scene7

Same as scene 6 switch hero and heroine numbers

Skipping to scene 80

Hero2 with the help of Hero1 kills Villainous Villain and saves father. There is no way this prediction could go wrong. It's Jn.NTR and there will be riots in Andhra if the hero fails(not the Telengana parts)

Don't ask me why there had to be twins in this film. If you did I will slap your face and tell you- 'So the compositors can have more work'. I think the Hyderbad film industry is nothing but an ensemble of expensive dance sets where the art director goes- 'glassu, tallu blue glassu, shortu redu glassu, riveru of goldu through the middlu, yellow lightsu, lessu clothes on the girlsu, even lesser on the heroinu'. Then there are expensive post production studios where the director goes- 'effectu, special effectu, special special effectu.'

Ugly

How long must South Indian Audiences endure the same story with convoluted plot ideas like this. The movie also has a comedian who has nothing to contribute to the overall story line. How long...I am literally crying. I can not take this song and dance no more. Thank God for bad roads!

Marks- 2/10 Brain Damaggu

Endhiran – Entertaining yet Dismissing

Rajinikanth’s new movie Endhiran directed by shankar, is a definite superhit but a movie with such a big budget and high level technicians could have done better. The graphics is really good for tamil cinema but I guess an overdose of anything is bad. Before going into details on this movie I will say this, if you’re a true rajinikanth fan you will love it and you will enjoy every thing that comes on screen, if you’re the kind who goes "it’s tamil cinema that’s how it is" then you will like it too but if you are a general movie fan who likes to watch all kinds of movies this one will fall flat as it really had the chance to be so much better.

 

Synopsis: Dr. Vaseengaran aka Vasi (Rajinikanth) builds a robot Chitti (Rajinikanth) which looks like him and is programmed to help humans and his basic idea was to donate his creation to the military and stop the loss of human lives. Chitti is programmed to know all languages and arts forms known to man, he can cook, dance and fight to protect people on requirement. When Dr. Vasi tries to get it Patented and certified Dr. Bohra ( Danny Denzongpa) manages to make the robot to almost stab Dr. Vasi and hence denying the patent, following a series of unfortunate events Dr. Vasi decides to give the robot human emotions so that it can decide between right and wrong but this in turn makes the robot to fall in love with Dr. Vasi’s Fiancé Sana ( Aishwarya Rai) and it wantedly fails an evaluation of the Indian army this causes Dr. Vasi to get angry and chops Chiti to pieces and throws him into the scrap. The movie goes further on how Chiti reconstructs himself and becomes bad on the addition of a red chip into his system by Dr. Bohra and then attempths to kill Dr. Vasi and get Sana for himself, will the Evil Chiti succeed or will Dr. Vasi be able to save the day I don’t want to spoil the movie for the rest of you so watch the movie to know what happens next.

 
The Good - Rajini does not have any of his usual entry song sequence. The Differentiation in the three different characters  played by Rajini is clear and has been differentiated  very well. The graphic sequences  is really cool I must say that its one the best for an Indian movie till date, Rajini is really cool in the negative shade. The part were Rajini pulls all the iron objects towards him and stands like Kali is totally cool.

The Bad -  The song sequences in between were really annoying for a sci fi movie. I did mention the graphics was good in this movie but in certain places it was overdone and tends to get annoying (for eg. the formation sequence) certain sequences  tend to defy logic completely (for eg. the  car chase sequence where the evil chitty abducts sana and the cops chasing them sequence), the problem is not that it defies logic, The real  problem is that there  is not even an attempt in certain places to make it look real.

The Ugly - The Sequence where chitti talks to the mosquito is all weird considering the fact that chitty is programmed all the languages in the world but when was he programmed mosquito language and its not a cartoon flick where animals talk and stuff, places like this its like as if the director seems to have added scenes without logic thinking the audience will accept anything put forward at them. Another place which I find weird is the part where chitti is fighting with all the rogues and villains but no body is surprised of his super human abilities etc, its not like a robot  is a common thing amongst us.

 

Overall the movie will be a hit with the local audience but sadly the director had the opportunity and the money to make a movie which could have reached out to a wider audience. Rajini has delivered once again well am sure this movie would not have got the same pull if another actor had acted in it. Wish the song sequences were cut on screen and the director had used even that money on the Graphics.Over all every hardcore Rajini fan will love this movie to the core and for the rest i think its worth watching once at least for the graphics.

 

Marks- 5/10 (Average)

 

                       

Welcome Address

After constructing a small stage in the middle of the road, obstructing traffic, garlanding chief guests, and then wrapping them with a cheap yet shiny piece of cloth, I invite speaker one- Mr.Tamil Tantrum to bore the audiences and 'talk like a poem.'

  This space is a place where we lost, extreme south Indians (pun intended) talk about our culture and our social lives. Unfortunately we learn and disseminate culture through our movies. It is also a good way to understand what we are thinking. Our repressed sexualities, our hidden fantasies, our dark as well as good sides are manifested so colourfully on screen.

So this blog is largely an analysis from this perspective. This space is also our reflections on foreign culture based on their movies.

I would like to finish this fine speech by saying we hope to stun audiences and create a revolution by putting dirty thoughts in your head and by seating you on an office chair and spinning it around till you scream - "What madess?" We are doing what our movies do to you! So let the tantrums begin.

I now invite the 2nd speaker. Mr. Mallu Maddness.

Heeellllooooo Every body! Please do not scream thank you for the applause, I like to thank all the people on the road on their vehicles and watching us never expected such a huge crowd thank you. I am not as eloquent like my friend and i can not talk like a poem like him but i shall try my best. I promise you on this coconut i hold in my hand ... oops one sec let me pick it up again...oops anddd  aaaah there we go i promise on this coconut that, we shall dissect movies and try not to reveal the plot and give you a good idea on how good or bad a movie is.

As my friend rightfully said this space will be used to let you know about movies which are running on screen and about movies which are off screen as well, this forum is all about movies and it will not be restricted to movies of any particular genre or language.

So the less said the better may the madness and tantrums begin

I thank you all for being supportive through this event, i request our honourable guest of honour   Mr. Uurandappan to declare this space open.

Uurandappan : " I hereby declare this space open".