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.

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.

Tea & Tiffin @ Shangeeta Chennai

My Mini Tiffin Idlis

Chennai Coffe 4

Sundar's Paper Dosa

Dinesh's Vada n Sambar

Shashi's Upma

Dinner @ Kim Ling Chinese Restaurant Chennai

Mushroom & Couliflower in Sauce

Vege Kueh Teow Fried

TomYam Soup

Prawn Oriental Sauce

Mandarin Promfet Fish

Chinese Tea

Vegetable Fried Rice

Raja's Great Concert

Snack @ Bee's Kopitiam Chennai

Patato Murtabak

Sesame Toast

Spring Roll

Bubur

Rajapattai Review

Director Suseenthiran [Vennila Kabadi Kuzhu, Naan Magan Alla] has a distinct tally of dealing in both countryside and urban centred stories and hones it, which is matchless. Notably, he is never game for stardom to entice box office; and that’s ability. This time around he sees to a U-Turn and gives his hero a go.
Rajapattai [King’s Course] starts with Anal Murugan [Vikram], a Cinema fight boy, muscle man and an aspirant Villain, who shares roof with his film fellows including Shanmugam [Thambi Ramaiah] who is a wannabe film director. Murugan’s tryst with Dhakshnamurthy aka Dhakshna [Director K Vishwanath], an erstwhile merchant, endears them at once and they become buddies. Dhaksha’s son Chidambaram [Avinash] tries to pocket an orphanage property from him much against his will. In comes Ranganayagi or Akka [Sana] who is a minister in power; grabes properties of natives above suspicion, for her political benefits. She is supported by rowdies of Vappa [Pradeep Rawat]. No price for guessing rest of the story.
Now, several ideas in the movie seem to have clean references of earlier blockbusters in Tamil cinema. While land grabbing played a subject in Singam, Persona of Vikram as Anal Murugan is very similar to that of Kamalhassan in Pammal K Sambandham, not to forget the Sivaji-Vijay starrer Once More in which a similar bond between the male leads was showed. Its not only tough to see Vikram do a regular Romeo-types, he also looks older for a coward lover.
5 time national award winning director K Vishwanath as Dhakshna steals the show by leading the lighter portions during the first half. Sana as Ranganayagi lets her powerful eyes express the umbrage but her clichéd role has very little substance.

The string between satire and humour and intelligence is not as thinner as Suseenthiran imagines it to be and his engagement of the so-called sharp and subtle phrases by Vikram, the fuzzily choreographed stunt sequence in the Temple scene, and those Vikram-Vishwanath-Ramaiah talks, steer the ‘Mo’ word in the balcony every now and then. A national award winner [Thambi Ramaiah] is a bad call for the role.
Once again Tamil Cinema uses the female lead, here, Dhiksha Seth [debu], only for songs and a concluding kidnap; and only here can we witness someone being snatched off; but benignly allowed mobile phone in pocket. The entire hostage drama, intended to be clever, ended being ridiculous. We can only remember the much sharper Dhil and Dhool of Vikram and how they convinced us. The 45-year-old actor gets a sprint in the movie as he gets to don multiple looks, but many of them are mere make-overs and not roles.
Yuvan and Yugabarathy get our pity as their decent work in an ordinary script sound nuisance. Lest, the disco number “Villathi Villangal…” [Malathi and Mano] is the pick among the 4 songs and melody could have been avoided in the fore. By the time “Ladu ladu….” stars with the credits, the hall gets empty.
The amount of details put into Vikram’s miniature make-overs, stylish good looks and trendy outfits could have been done with the script as well. With good screenplay, the movie could have been an all time comedy of Vikram’s Filmography. The movie is baby honour to the much-exploited gym boys in Tamil Cinema. The stunts often seen in the air, with sounds of bone cracking makes it all the more irksome. In Rajapattai, many of them manage to rouse chuckles with their hairdos and cowardice. They will survive as long as nutty heroes dominate Kollywood.
Only clear sense of humour and not mere references could have put a good show for Rajapattai.

Mayakkam Enna Review

Story

Dhanush is the pivot around whom the whole story revolves. Karthik (Dhanush) is a freelance photographer who lives life his own way. He does work hard and wants to leave a mark as an photographer. Though he does portfolio and weddings, his pasion is wildlife photography. His only desire in life is to work with Madhesh Krishnaswamy (Ravi Prasad), a world renowned wildlife photographer. 

Karthik prefers to spend his time with his close buddie Sundar (Sundar) and their gang have a gala time. One fine day, Kartik is introduced to Yamini (Richa), Sundar's girlfriend. Kartik and Yamini turns cat and mouse and often end up quarreling. But call it fate, Yamini is slowly attracted towards Kartik. There begins a different journey in the lives of these three people. What happens then forms the rest.

Performance

Its straightaway a Dhanush special. The National award winning actor has proved that he can do any role with ease. His expressions and body language  are the hallmark of the movie. Selvaraghavan has understood the strength of Dhanush and played it well.

Richa is a Revelation. She brings right emotions and has a meaty role to play. Sundar walks away with honours and does chip in with his best.All the erst of the characters add pep to the proceedings.

Direction & Technicalities

Selva has a nose for picking right technicians. Cinematographer Ramji is the apt choice. He pictures a poetry on screen. His camera captures the events in rich colours with clarity. G V Prakash's music adds strength. The background score give filip to the scenes.Kathal En Kadhal, Pirai Thedum and Naan Sonnadhum are all woven into the narrative seamlessly, while the first number Voda Voda.. is shot as a fun music-video style number. Selva's dialogues too deserve a mention.

Strength

Dhanush, Ramji's camera and Selvaraghavan's screenplay.

Verdict

Very Good