Naan Mahan Alla

Susinderan's debut movie "Vennila Kabadi Kulu" was different and interesting. Next comes "Naan Magan Alla" now, which is again a interesting take on youngsters who take a different stride and their potential outcomes. On a whole the movie is very decent and can be enjoyed a lot.

The first ten minutes of the movie reveals that this is not our usual flick. A group of college going guys show their intoreable violence to a girl and a boy and the title card scrolls up. And my mind said I am going to witness something new and interesting. And what i saw is some clichéd scenes in the first half and the rest is just plain awesome.

Jeeva(Karthi), a cool guy who takes life the way it is meets Priya (Kajal Agarwal), a confused girl and as by the golden rôle in Tamil cinema - they fall in love. The scenes which involves the love and how they talk is made interesting with full of humor. The entire VKK team is here and Karthi pulls it nicely. The story progress as Priya's dad is unlikely about her marriage with Karthi. Karthi takes up his new work , then he quits and things go normally. Meanwhile the police finds different parts of a boy and a girl thrown in different places, On the other hand, the four ultra violent guys try to murder Karthi's father. However he escapes somehow. Why they tried to kill him? What they were upto? To what extent will they go to kill him? Will they really succeed in what they trying to conceal? Susindran answers in style with a racy screenplay and with fine characters moving around without any major logical flaws.

First half is more on the lighter side. There are lot of interesting scenes and a few clichéd scenes here and there. The first song though nice to hear is unnecessary. Second half goes on a perfectly opposite direction and the movie is more serious than expected. Kudos to the director to give a thriller like that. I thoroughly enjoyed watching the second half. So did the others.

Yuvan is brilliant in this flick. It will be a sin if I don't mention the BGM for this flick. Some hard work has really paid for him. It simply takes the movie to the another level.
Iragai Pole is soothing to hear. Mathi's choice of colors and few shots are exceptional. Particularly, the secluded places in the start and end of the flick was shown with the expected vagueness. Take a bow sir.

Karthi is cool and becomes a real baddy when its needed. He is far better here than in Paiya. Thank god, he didn't dance much :) Kajal Agarwal is cute and that's it about her. The real hero is the director and the best characters are not the main cast but those college guys and the one who helps them. You should see in what all possible directions the movie goes. Man, this is brilliant piece of work. On the flip side, the ultra violence has to be cut down as I saw some audience leaving the theater during those scenes. Climax is little disappointing to me.

On a whole a decent movie with loads of laugh in the first half and loads of surprises in the later. Go for it and you won't regret yoour choice :)

Finally a nice movie to watch with your friends.

500 days of Summer

I am not a big fan of romantic comedies. Still this movie is very close to my heart. It makes you feel good and when ends it slaps on our face. I am sure, each one of us can relate to this story and the feelings the protagonist undergoes is a honest portrayal of each and everyone who got dumped by one or the other.

Tom works in a company where his job is to write quotes for the greeting cards on different themes. He studied architecture and out of no choice he started working in the greeting card company. One fine day, Summer joins Tom's office as manager's PA and the sweet love story begins. The story is told in a nice non chronological order which makes us guessing what happened to her. The dialogues are awesome throughout the flick. For instance,in one scene , when Tom's friend says Tom that he is stalking Summer. Summer will be inside the room. When she comes out Tom asks did she hear anything. She says nothing, and she gotta go since she is stalking i mean starving. Like this the film is filled with scenes which will make you smile.


The editing is perfect and the director uses split screens to show what Tom thinks and whats the reality in one scene and that's just perfect. The film is full of OSTs. Some or the other songs is being played in the background if not, somebody holds the mic and they start singing. Nothing bad, those are the cool moments and certainly the OSTs feel so good like very few romantic flicks. Somehow "Notting Hill" comes to my mind.

And coming to the performances, Levitt and Deschanel did their rôle perfectly and their onscreen chemistry is one of the best which I have seen of late. And the sister of Tom. Oh my! Man mark my word, she is going to chew everybody in the next 10 years. Her rôle in "KIck Ass" was phenomenal and even here too. The good part is she knows how to act.

Having said all these, the true beauty of the movie lay nowhere in the things mentioned above. It lay in the relationship between the two and how beautifully its shown and the hard hitting climax. This is one of the movies which will touch every human's heart someway or the other. Period.

Madrasapattinam

It may sound clichéd when every critic or every other person writes as "Chennai to Madrasapattinam" when reviewing this flick. Believe me or not, that's just true. First of all kudos to the trio - director, cameraman and the art director respectively. Its splendid work of art to see the trams running in the city, a beautiful kuvam river with boats plying and the wonderful clock tower and etc etc. The stage was set so nicely and no loose ends when coming to bringing the erstwhile Madras Presidency before us. So what about the story then?

Nothing new here. Yet, the interesting characters make the difference. Aarya as the brawny youth and Amy as the beautiful english lady who visits Madras. As expected, she falls for Aarya on seeing his braveness. Language indeed comes as a barrier between them and the way they tackle it is shown just like a poem. Amy not only looks beautiful but acts very naturally given the scope. There are laughs here and there and nice action sequences when needed. The songs are pretty good though one during the second half halts the pace of the flick. The day of independence was shot beautifully and it's a treat to watch. There are a couple of supporting characters and each played their rôle effectively.

Many complain the movie is like Titanic. May be. The way adopted to tell a story seems like Titanic, but the script is original. The complaint I have about this movie is the exaggerated climax and a comparatively snail paced second half. Forget these flaws and you have a real good flick before you.

Madraspattinam - May be a old story but it glitters.