Monday, 16 January 2012

Vettai Review

Linguswamy is one of the very few directors in Tamil cinema who has understood the pulse of the Tamil audience. That’s the reason he could deliver these successful wholesome entertainers. And, ‘Vettai’ is no exception in his line-up of successful movies!

The director has done it yet again with a superb commercial cocktail called ‘Vettai’ with all the right ingredients of an enjoyable entertainer!

‘Vettai’ has a very intense story of two brothers, Thirumurthy and Gurumurthy, who live for each other. The elder brother becomes honest police officer and the younger is a carefree one who is forced to take a different route in his life. The brothers fall in love with two sisters of the same village. The happy story takes a twist and the ‘Vettai’ starts. And, how the happy lives of these four is changed after this is told with high-octane action sequences.

Madhavan as an elder brother and an honest police officer has done a tremendous job and Arya’s has again wonderfully portrayed that happy-go-lucky guy! Sameera Reddy and Amala Paul have also given one of their best performances.

Ashutosh Rana, Nasser and Thambi Ramaiah has also come out with a neat performance.
Credit goes to the director who has etched the characters and cast the right stars.
‘Vettai’ is just a simple one line but the director has made it as a wonderful action based commercial script with romance, comedy and colourful songs to make it a super entertainer.

Yuvan Shankar Raja has scored the music and the songs are one of the pluses of the film. The song ‘Pappapaa…’ had been a rage even before the official music album of the film.

Nirav Shah’s camera work has supported Linguswamy to tell the story what he wanted; especially the action sequences and the colourful songs!
Anthony’s editing is another big work in the film.

Thirupathi Brothers has produced the movie and UTV Motion Pictures has distributed the film.

‘Vettai’ is the right film who wants to enjoy an action-packed entertaining movie. The film offers something more what you expect. Thanks to the director, Linguswamy and the cast and the crew!
This ‘Vettai’ will definitely entertain you, in Linguswamy style!


Positive :-Madhavan, Arya's brotherhood,Sameera Reddy and Amala Paul's hotness,Naseer and co's funny moments,Yuvan's Bgm,Crisp Editing & Nirav Shah's Brilliant Cinematography.


Negative :-To much of action & Simple storyline.

Nanban Review

Nanban is the Tamil remake of a hit Hindi flick 3 Idiots which itself was adapted from Chetan Bhagat’s novel Five Point Someone. The story revolves around 3 friends and their college life. After the college days one of the three friends has cut of the chords and is not having any contacts with anybody from the college. Two of the friends go in search of their close friend who was an eye opening mentor for them. During their journey they memorize the good old days and the special moments they have shared together. This is a movie with a message especially on the methodology in which our education system should be formulated. The movie also has all the elements required for a commercial movie with a good blend of comedy and emotions.
The movie is well casted which includes Vijay, Srikanth, Jeeva, Satyaraj, S J Surya etc. The performance of each one of them is good but has not reached the levels of the original movie. They had done their best but the original was excellent. This is once in a blue moon opportunity to see Vijay in this decent outfit. The dance in the movie is choreographed by Farah Khan but don’t expect too much as the steps are simple ones.
The movie is an exact replica of the original movie and the director has tried to make it frame by frame. Usually songs are one of the highlight of Shankar movie and he has failed in this regard. Apart from the song “Asku Laska” rest of the songs is not that much ear soothing ones. The settings built for the song sequence are good the usual Shankar style.

One director’s flaw I observed in the movie is where Ileana hands over her brother’s suicide note to Satyaraj and it is evident that it is blank paper. Don’t know why an ace director like Shankar who is famous for spending too much money for his movies has missed this silly point. Whenever the frames of Ooty appear in the movie, The Ladakh which is pictured beautifully in 3 Idiots comes to my mind and is in no way they are comparable.

Ileana & Sathyan however failed to capture the magic of Kareena & Omi Vidya respectively. Satyaraj has definitely done a decent job but falters with respect to Boman's brilliance.
This is a good entertainer and I will give 5.5 out of 10 for the effort Shankar has put forth not to destroy the original one. You will enjoy it if you din watch the original.

Monday, 2 January 2012

Breakfast @ O'Brian

2012 starts with breakfast at O'Brian.You must first eat healthily to live before you can live to enjoy your food.

Irish Cofee

Vege Wrap

Egg Mayo Sandwich

Don 2 Review

Did I go to watch the Don return, or was it Mission Impossible 5?? There were car chases, buildings being bombed, hi-tech bank robbery sequence, 300 feet jump off a building, a mask involved.. did I miss anything?? In one word, it was a potpourri of say all the MI, Ocean's Eleven, and every other Hollywood action film of similar genre put together into a 2 hours 26 minutes film. But wait, it doesn't end there; unlike all other films, this one has the bad guy playing the lead role.

Directed by one of my favorites, the film is very stylish, but is also long and disappointing. I expected something more sensible from Farhan. I never thought I would say this, but go watch the film only for Shahrukh. He's perfect for such kinda roles, and he sure delivers. He tried to carry the entire film on his shoulders, but its the script which fails him. If you aren't too fond of him, wait for the DVD to release.
For a detailed review, read on...

Plot
With the European mafia planning to kill him, Don (Shahrukh Khan) surrenders to the Interpol in Thailand. He  is sentenced to death, and is sent to a Malaysian prison where he meets Vardhaan (Boman Irani). Don and Vardhaan escape from the prison and reach Berlin. Together, they plan to rob a bank while Interpol officer Roma (Priyanka Chopra) is trying to chase them down. The rest of the story is all about how the robbery is executed, and Don's real motive behind the robbery.

Actors Performance
Shahrukh Khan is brilliant as Don. He suits such kinda roles to perfection. I cant think of any actor from the current generation who can do a better job than him. Hrithik Roshan just proves that in his brief cameo as Don (oops, sorry!!). SRK looked really stylish all throughout the film. I liked his antics (which are very decent unlike his regular films) and dialogue delivery. Priyanka Chopra has a limited role in the film. She tried too hard to get into the character, and failed miserably. Kunal Kohli was alright in his brief role. Strangely, both Om  Puri and Boman Irani looked out of place. The guy who played the role of Jabbar, Nawab Shah, was pathetic. Lara Dutta was pretty good in her cameo.

Story-Screenplay-Direction
Written by Farhan Akhtar, Ameet Mehta and Amrish Shah (also credited for the screenplay), the film, as mentioned, relies too much on other films of similar genre. The first half of the movie was well written, and made sense, but the second half was like a half-baked cookie. The whole episode of the bank robbery, which forms the crux of the story, just doesn't make sense. If anyone could walk into a bank and get into its safety vault so easily, I believe there would be a robbery every other day. And ya, why did Don need Vardhaan with him exactly?? The best part was Don going back into the bank with Roma in order to save the hostages. Even better, what's with the bomb blast after Roma was shot?? The whole episodes involving Don and Roma seemed entirely ridiculous. The screenplay was decent, but too haphazard, especially towards the climax. For the first time, Farhan Akhtar fails as a director. Except for SRK, I thought that everyone looked out of place, with blank/straight faces for most of the movie. He shot the film very stylishly and even brilliantly in parts, but failed to generate performances from his artists.

Other Departments
The usual's of an Excel production film are all here. Music by Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy is a definite asset to the film. There are only three songs in the movie though. More than the music, its the background score and the re-recording which make an impact. Lyrics by Javed Akhtar, and dialogues by Farhan are good. Editing by Anand Subaya could have been more crisp. Cinematography by Jason West is again, fantastic. The action sequences were alright, but a little to much to handle. With the 3D, I could neither make head nor tail of most of the action sequences, cos everything happened really fast. Otherwise, the 3D effect was alright. Production values by SRK and Excel Entertainment are pretty good. It is apparently the first Indian film to be shot in Germany.

Verdict
Inspired from a whole bunch of movies, Don 2 lacks the punch of the first Don. Its not that MI - Ghost Protocol dint have its flaws, but it managed to cover them with the action and direction. But for this film, except for SRK, nothing else holds. Plus points are SRK, music, cinematography and a couple of action sequences. But its the senseless script script and mediocre direction which pull the film down.