In search of "Bodhidharman" - The Blue Eyed Barbarian as he is referred in Chinese Texts -  A Myth or Real?

I am leaving for China this month end on an invitation to shoot a promo on the life of the 28th Patriarch of Buddhism "Bodhidarama" as the founder of Kung fu/Zen is referred and revered in China. I consider this a rare honor indeed and even greater privilege to have been accorded access to shoot inside the Shaolin Monastery at Mount Song, Henan Province, China. It is probably for the first time that a Indian film director but most certainly from Tamilnadu who will have the access to shoot inside the Shaolin temple and also study the chronicles of Bodhidharam first hand. I am doubly thrilled that I will be shooting a film on the life of the great "Bodhidarman" who according to all available records was a Pallava prince born in Kanchpuram! Wow! What more can i ask for! 

Bye for now! And please Wish me, my camera man and our chinese crew all the luck for the safe completion of the shoot schedule.

Until next time,

hC

25/5/2014

KOCHADIIYAAN - "RAJINI" can never be imitated or animated!

KOCHADIIYAAN- “Rajini” can never be imitated or animated!

Cast: - RajiniKanth as Kochadiiyaan, Rana & Sena, R.Sarathkumar as Sengodagan, Deepika Padukone as Princess Vadhana, Shobana as Yaahavi, Asdhi as Veera, Mahendra, Jackie Shroff as Raja Mahendra, Nassar as Rishikodagan & Rukmini Vijayakumar as Yamuna

Producers – Sunil Lulla/Sunanda Murali Manohar/Prashita Chaudhary

& Crew :- Director – Soundarya R. Ashwin – Written by – K.S.Ravikumar, Music – A.R.Rahman, D.O.P – Rajiv Menon, Edit- Anthony, Sound Designer – Resul Pookutty

Studio- Eros International/Media One Global Entertainment

Running Time – 118 Mins

Poser:- “Animation is a word, a process. In India, people think animation is cartoon. Avatar was animation but is not a cartoon. Tintin is completely cartoonistic. I am creating Rajinikanth where he has actually performed. It’s captured on a camera and then put into a 3D version. Avatar took 7 years and so much budget and a James Cameron. There was always insecurity of the unknown, but we have taken a road never taken in India and broken rules and have completed the film in just a year and a half.” – Soundarya R Ashwin

Answer:- “We rolled straight into what we had done for Avatar,” Letteri says “ We developed a new subsurface technique for the skin to have it look a little better, We developed some new facial software to add a layer of muscle simulation beyond what we could track and solve from the facial capture, and we developed a new hair system that we also used on Planet of the Apes. But, from a performance – capture point of view, we are still recording an actor’s performance. It was no different from mapping data to the Na’Vi or an ape. We are making comic book inspired characters, not ones that looked like humans, but there’s always a level of animation and interpretation. We had big sequences in King Kong that were computer – generated, most of the scenes in Avatar were entirely in a CG virtual world, and Tintin is in a virtual world all the way. FOR US THERE’S NO DIFFERENCE.” – Letteri – is a senior visual effects artist. Winner of 4 academy awards & 4 BAFTA awards.

P.S. I hope I have been able to clear the confusion in the minds of the “Aam” Indian viewer regarding animation expressed by Soundarya R Ashwin. Let’s now move on to the premise of this film.

Direction, story & Screenplay: - Formula 1 – The cause - Two brothers Rana & Sena are separated in their childhood by the death of their father “Kochadiyaan”  the Commander in Chief of the army under RishiKodagan king of Kalingapuri.(Nassar)(Yes! Rajini plays 3 roles though Sena appears in only one scene the final!). Formula 2- Sentiment-The father is beheaded for the wrong reasons by the villainous king RishiKodagan. Formula 3- Revenge – Before his death Kochadiyaan draws a promise from young Rana that his people who are languishing as prisoners in Kottaipattinam ruled by Sengodagan (Sarath Kumar) will be freed from bondage. Why is Kochadiyaan forced to leave them there?  Simple! They are poisoned by king Sengodagan to loot riches and Persian horses from the ships manned by none other than Kochadiyaan.  Why does he leave them? Even more simple! Unless he leaves them there Sengodagan refuses to provide the herbal antidote to cure them! How very cruel & sadistic! Hope I am clear thus far. The story teller Ravikumar pairs Kochadiyaan with danseuse Shobana and Rana with Deepika Padukone. Kochadiiyan dances with Shobana using the Shiva Thandavam as his style while Shobana uses the classical bharath natyam. The problem here is in the animation the dance sequences truly appears slow and often comical. Though A.R.R and S.P.B keep you enthralled as standalones but as part of the film they look forced and out of place. Thank god the music and songs were not animated! Rana on the other hand even shows you some modern days dance moves though in slow and jerky motions and Deepika does a peacock dance with Rana in “Shivaji” Sahana style movements which looks straight out of a fairy tale. Children will love this!  Rana grows up to become the “Senapathi” (following his father’s footsteps) though in enemy territory under King Sengodagan whose son is Aadhi is the boyhood buddy of Rana the orphan boy. Rana’s very entry and coronation as commander in chief is a brave attempt to speed up the action using a horse but the animation even manages to slow down the horse! Rana comes up with a brilliant plan (which the dumbass prince Aadhi agrees to) to free the prisoners (Kalingapuri) and train them as soldiers and use them to capture Kalingapuri! Why should the prisoners fight their own people because by doing so they will reunite with their families. Confusing! Wait more of this brilliant plan will soon unfold!  Formula – 5 – Twist – When Rana and his army of prisoners reach Kalingapuri, Rana revels in his own brilliance as he defeats his own army (kottaipattinam) without shedding a drop of blood! How he does that is seen to be believed! To cut the story short Rana has fulfilled the word he had given to his father the late Kochadiyaan. Rana the hero turns a match maker and gets his sister married to the prince much against Nassar’s wishes.

The 2^nd half signals the entry of the animated imitation of “Nagesh”. A poor and sad imitation of the footage from the film “Thiruvillayaadal”! In fact if anyone Nagesh’s fans should protest in such shabby treatment meted out to this great comic actor of Tamil cinema. The less said the better. This half continues with Rana now being imprisoned by Nassar for repeated assassination attempts on him by Rana. There is also a bonus thrown in with Deepika Kung fu and kalari fighting with the hooded Rana. Most of this half is filled with bizarre and inconsequential scenes in which daughter/director Soundarya reduces the real Rajini to a poor animated copy of the larger than life original. Finally Nassar imprisons Rana while Sengodakkan raises an army to capture Kottipattinam. To ward of the threat Nassar agrees to trade his daughter Deepika and get her married to Aadhi (Sengodagan’s son).

& the climax:- Rana escapes from prison by inciting animals which look like a cross between wolves and hyenas with the scent of his own blood (children will love this clever ploy normally featured in Amar Chitra Katha comics). He then rides a chariot like Benhur and motivates an army and the locals and kills all the animated villains who threatened to slow the animated film to a complete stop!

Acting: - Rajinikanth is a larger than life hero. He by being himself can animate a scene in any film. Animation gives him the feel of a slow motion character which is just the opposite of his real life characteristics. In my opinion his daughter and director Soundarya has done great injustice to him by animating him in this film. I will always love the real Rajini and will never ever be able to accept an animated Rajini however good the animation may turn out to be! In fact in some scenes Rajini looked like someone who had just recovered from a bad knee operation.

Actors such as Aadi and Sarath Kumar were all badly animated as characters on screen, while the rest such as Nasser, Deepika and Jackie looked a far cry from their original selves. This proves to be a big irritant and an eye sore throughout the film. Their movements were so stilted and jerky that watching it on 3D was painful. Every time Rajinikanth and Deepika hugged it looked like two cartoon characters that are being forced to romance one another. Even during most emotional scenes in the film, one felt emotionally disconnected.

Several artificial instances such as these make the film boring and the characters lifeless. All this makes you come to the conclusion that the film would've worked wonderfully if it had been made into a feature film & not animated!

Music: - The biggest life saver but alas purely as a standalone and not a part of this film! S.P.B and his golden voice aid A.R.R’s admirable efforts!

Edit: - The films duration of 118 mins though short by normal Tamil standards another 15 to 20 mins cut would have probably helped.

Finally to sum it all up, a quote: “When in doubt stick to the ORIGINAL!

Left right & Centre: - There were occasional cheers as and when RAJINI appeared on screen but for the rest nothing but silence!

Bottom Line: - Never try to imitate the real by animating the copy!

My Rating: - Animation- 0.75 Attempt - 0.50 Rajini- 1.25 Total 2.5/5

Until next time, 

Director Haricharan

Chennai

23 /05/2014

Vallavanakku Pullum Ayudham – “Phull” of Crap!

Vallavanakku Pullum Ayudham – “Phull” of Crap!

Cast :- Santhanam, Ashna Zaveri, Mirchi Senthil, Nagineedu, Ravi Prakash, VTV Ganesh, Rajakumaran, Siddharth Vipin, Sugunathan

& Crew :- Direction/S.P - Srinath, Story - S.S.Rajamouli/S.S.Kanchi, D.O.P - Shakthi/Richarad M. Nathan, Music - Siddharth Vipin, Edit - Sai Kant

Track list:- 1. "Takkaru Takkaru" - Lalith Anand - Mukesh - 2. "Oh Oh Nadingal Oda" - Na. Muthukumar - Naresh Iyer/Shreya Goshal 3. "Otrai Dhevathai" - Madhan Karky - Karthik 4. "Chellakutti" - Lalith Anand - Ranjith/Vishnupriya Ravi 5. "Theme Song" - Muthulingam - Ananthu

The story, backdrop and setting (Screen play), this is a classic case of a director simply saying that he will keep dishing out crap scenes one after the other based on the assumption that the viewers are dumb and will lap up any crap without a whimper! Just because Santhanam who is on a roll as a comedian decides that he is now ready to take on the lead role. So what happens next? A director approaches Santhanam and promises to script his entry as a Kollywood hero in a grand manner by remaking a successful Telugu film which happens to be a remake of an English film and even a remake of successful remakes ends up a non starter from the word go! In fact this is a case of another Tamil comedian going astray. The last one was of course, none other than Vadivelu. Let me try to review this crap which in my opinion simply cannot be termed as a film!

Premise: - An imaginary village situated in some remote corner of Tamilnadu has two feuding families. Sounds familiar! It’s bound to! This village is ruled with an iron hand by the local feudal landlord Nagineedu. (I really do not remember his screen name honestly I couldn’t care less).This village is totally oblivious of the word law and order or even a cop leave alone a police station. The younger brother of Nagineedu is killed by Santhanam’s father in an “Aruvaal” fight for reasons best known to the director. That’s not all Santhanam’s father is also at the same time “Arivaalized” killed by the dying brother. Amazing isn’t it! Wait there is more to come. The grieving widow fearing N’s wrath decides to flee with Santhanam just a baby at that time. N is furious and as per their family tradition takes a pledge (Bishma like) to wipe out Santhanam’s family if and when they track them down or they meekly decide to enter the village to become “Bakhras”. N’s 2 kids become a part of the killing with “Arivaal” pledge). This is the first of the very many examples where the director assumes that the viewer is ready for any number of such dumb scenes! And he boldly continues on and on without batting a eyelid!

27 years later Santhanam makes a grand entry as only a Tamil mass hero can with a “locallu” song & dance! This is another example of the director once again treating the viewer as dumb to the power of 2! Santhanam has an old cycle which has a dumb looking rubbery light with a blue shade which keeps talking on its own courtesy T.Rajender. This has nothing to do with the premise. Please don’t ask me why because if I try to find an answer I will end up losing a part of my marbles! Santhanam’s occupation is delivering 15lts mineral water cans to all the nooks and corners of the city where no vehicle dare or cannot enter. Our hard working hero loses his job as it suddenly dawns on the owner that S lacks speed and unless he gets a “Kutti Yanai” (colloquial for the fairly simple world tempo) he simply has to go. Honestly I feel Santhanam’s services should have been terminated as he is always busy singing songs or dancing on the busy streets of Chennai! Here the director being in two minds finally must have decided that the tempo was a more logical reason! After all however dumb the viewer is will expect some logic in the premise. Santhanam then tries his best to raise a loan actually he approaches 1 single Marwari financier who refuses him. Thank god the director spares the banks otherwise we would have had to watch another 10 mins of footage! Disheartened by his tireless efforts he broods on the terrace and even cracks an insipid joke to his uncle despite his depressed state of mind. His uncle decides to cheer him up by revealing that Santhanam’s father has left him a legacy in the form of 5acres of land in the imaginary village controlled by none other than N. Absolutely ecstatic at this amazing good fortune he decides to get back to his parental village with an idea of selling the land and raising the money to buy the “Kutti Yanai” which will help him continue to deliver 15ltr mineral water cans after all he is not educated what else can you expect him to do? Become Ambani? Director is getting cleverer & cleverer scene after scene and the viewer is becoming dumb and dumber!

This is how Santhanam lands up in the village where his own pre ordained death awaits him! There is this train journey to his village which I have to necessarily mention for in this very train and compartment, which is filled with jokers and juveniles, he meets the love of his life the heroine, Ashna Zaveri (Train love is no longer the prerogative of Gautham Menon). Here our hero & heroine meet in a memorable scene conceived by the director. Three juvenile idiots try to outwit the hero to grab the attention of the heroine and after a load of dumb quips and dumber counter quips the scene finally culminates in the visualization of a scene where a tender coconut takes centre stage. By the way the heroine is an artist of sorts always with a sketch book in hand and drawing primates is her favorite pastime. And guess who is the father of the heroine is? If the director has not mummified your brains by now you would have guessed right N’s “Ikkalauthi beti” or to put it in simple English, one and only daughter. Director cleverly connects the two by stopping the train as and when it pleases him and while the railways are wondering who the real culprit is N makes a call to his daughter on the train while his adiyal jumps on it with tons of food which can be served to each and every passenger on the train. In the meantime N has a side show at home where an NRI along with his entourage which includes a cackling John Vijay (a land broker who looks and behaves more like a pimp) is treated to a lavish lunch where cows freely roam in the living area and are treated better than human beings. But the moment the well fed, obnoxious broker steps out he is “Arivaalised” (killed). Moral of this story “Never step out of N’s house if you have insulted him or have any kind of “pagai” (dispute) known or unknown, intentional or unintentional, logical or illogical etc. So this is a veiled warning for our hero who is having fun time with the heroine (N’s daughter) on the train wining, dining and even singing and dancing which is a regular pastime of all our heroes wherever they are! To cut the story short the train finally reaches its final destination and the heroine gets off the train in a hurry leaving her precious sketch book behind. N, his sons along with the new entrant the proverbial “Mora Paiyan” whisk away the heroine as Santhanam is pre occupied with the complex task of trying to retrieve the sketch book which somehow gets lodged in between the seat. Finally Santhanam makes his way to the village square to enquire about his 5 acres of land and while preaching to the villagers on their dumbness gets picked up by one of N’s sons who offers to drop him off. What then follows really proves that this director and producer have sincerely taken upon themselves to test the level of dumbness of cinema viewers all over the world to the point of no return. N’s son while dropping S off overhears that S is the son of the killer of his “Chithappa” 27 years back! Immediately he is stunned and the director puts him on a freeze mode why? Of course to give Santhanam the time to magically disappear into thin air! N’s son, arrival in hand, screams, rants and raves while he runs all over the village in search of S to “Arivaalize” him. He even tries to contact N over cell phone but the signal is weak. Boy O Boy! Isn’t this director clever! He even accidentally makes Santhanam and N meet in a temple and N sensing a business opportunity (remember S has 5 acres to sell) invites him home to dine at his house. By now all my brain cells had dimmed as I meekly decided to watch the 2^nd half.

The 2^nd half: - Santhanam enters the house and surprise! Surprise! What coincidence Santhanam meets the heroine and they all share a meal as one big happy family. The director now suddenly remembers that he has Santhanam the comedian under his roles and allows him to crack a few jokes while dining. The comedy is short lived as N’s son enters, shocked to find Santhanam happily enjoying a joyous meal with his father! All hell breaks loose as the son reveals the truth to the father and the brother, of course in private. After all, the director is fully aware of the women and children present at the dining table. Immediately N and his two sons pick an Arrivaal each and with their eyes turning red and muscles and veins twitching decide they will finish Santhanam then and there. But better sense prevails after all they cannot overstep the family tradition of not “Arivaalizing” any one inside the house and more so in front of the cows! In a dramatic moment created by our clever director, Santhanam somehow finds his way into a room and chances upon a reveal all photo album and almost at the same time overhears the brothers talking about killing him. The director then goes on to the cat and mouse mode!

This is where Santhanam on his own tries to pep up the act and makes an honest attempt to make up for all the dumb acts of the director but honestly the damage has been done and all his efforts are simply wasted and in vain. All his antics of trying to remain inside the house as N and his sons try to get him out to kill him, becomes ridiculously pathetic. In fact the “Morai Paiyan” or the mama is a do-gooder who finally ends up as a loser who desperately attempts to play match maker between Santhanam and Ashna. The cat mouse game is trivialized and lacks any kind of intensity. The heroine keeps changing her mind once too often and ends up being shown as a fickle minded girl. VTV Ganesh looks more like a jester from a circus who simply sleepwalked into a film set.

& the Climax The director finally decides to take the viewer to the abyss of dumbness! Starting from the cycle chase and ending up in mindless running races and car chases. (Oh! Sorry forgot to mention that Santhanam gets back his T.Rajender cycle. Please don’t ask me how or why! I have by now lost all my sense of reasoning and logic.) In the meantime the heroine finally decides that she is in love with Santhanam and not the “Murai Payyan” and decides to elope with him but the dumb Santhanam thinks that she only wants to help him get away from the village. While N, his sons and adiyal are busy chasing Santhanam all over the village in an effort to “Arivaalize” him. The villagers the police and the whole wide world have no inkling of what’s happening in this village neither does the director. The director finally loses his mind and freaks out. I watched the final scene quite numbed as my brain froze and only my eyes registered colour and movement on the screen. Hundreds of Arivaals are thrown from one side of a bridge by N and his cronies at Santhanam as he stands on the other side of it over a gorge of sorts simply not knowing what to do! As N and co have no more Arivaals to throw at him S lowers a plank and quietly walks across meekly surrendering as he discovers that the heroine actually loves him. Unmindful of all this N decides to bash up Santhanam with bear hands owing to Arivaal shortage and finally unable to stand anymore dumbness from the director the heroine jumps into the water to save Santhanam but nobody can save this film! I walked out of the theatre seething with anger for subjecting myself to such mindless and thoughtless film making!

Acting:- My opinion on the performance of the actors? Is that your question?

Ans: - I am invoking my right under the 5^th amendment under the U.S constitution and save myself from being implicated as the royal “dumb ass”!

Finally to sum it all up, a quote: “If the viewers endorse such films it will serve as an encouragement to film makers who will continue to make such dumb films for even more dumber people to watch!”

Left right & Centre: -

Three young men were sitting on my right. One of them constantly kept on whining about the film. After a while his friend in total exasperation exploded! “Dei! Indha Padamei oru Thalaivali idhukku melai neeuyum Nai Nainnu kittu! Indha padathai ennale nirithamudiyathu at least neeyavathu niruthudda please! “– This served as an inspiration to write this review.

Bottom Line: - Good films have shorter reviews as they simply silence the critic! Bad films have longer reviews as the critic needs a longer time to release the pent up anger!

My Rating :- Director/Crew - .5 Cast - .5 On Moderation For the sake of Santhanam - .25 Total 1.25/5

Until next time,      

Director Haricharan

Chennai

10/05/2014

Hi! Wanted to share with you all that CWIFF has shortlisted my daughter's short film titled "Colour" for screening on the 23rd of May at R.K.Studios. This should serve as an inspiration to her to achieve more!

hC 

2 States - 1 State Short!

2 STATES – 1 State short!

Producers: - Karan Johar/Sajid Nadiadwala

Cast:-Arjun Kapoor as Krish, Alia Bhatt as Ananya, Amrita Singh as Kavita Malhotra, Revathy as Radha Swaminathan, Ronit Roy as Vikram Malhotra, Shivkumar Subramaniam as Shiv Swaminatahan

& Crew:-Direction/SP- Abishek Varman, Story - Chetan Bhagat, Dialogue-Hussain Dalal, D.O.P - Binod Pradhan, Edit - Namrata Rao, Music - Shankar Mahadevan/Loy Mendonsa/Ehsaan Noorani, B.G Score - Parik/Tubby, Costumes- Natascha Charak/Manish Malhotra/Nikita Raheja/Shiraj Siddique

Track list:- 1."Offo" - Aditi Singh Sharma/Amitabh Bhattacharaya 2. "Locha -E-Ulfat" - Benny Dayal 3. "Mast Margan" - Arjit Singh/Chinmayi Sripada 4. "Iski Uski" - Akriti Kakkar/Shahid Mallya/Shankar Mahadevan 5. "Chaandaniya" - K.Mohan/Yashita Sharma 6. "Hullaa Re"- Shankar Mahadevan/Siddarth Mahadevan/Rasika Shekar 

Total duration of songs: - 25.29 mins.

Premise:- A story about a romantic journey of a culturally opposite couple - Krish Malhotra and Ananya Swaminathan. They meet at the IIM-Ahmadabad College and during the program they fall in love. Complications arise after the program comes to an end and they decide to get married. Krish and Ananya belong to two different states of India. Krish, a North Indian Punjabi boy from Delhi, and Ananya, a Tamilian Brahmin from Chennai. They take a conscious decision; they won't get married until their parents agree. Everything goes downhill when the parents meet. There is a cultural clash and the parents oppose the wedding. To convert their love story into a love marriage, the couple faces a tough battle in front of them. It is easy to fight and rebel, but much harder to convince. Will Krish and Ananya's love for each other sustain the battles? Will they manage to convince their parents and make it to their wedding? – A UTV write up and cut & paste job nothing more!

The story, backdrop and setting (Screen play) 

The Tamil half of the film:- The film starts with Arjun Kapoor in a monologue about his life in general and his love story with Aliya Bhat. Then the story moves to the IIM canteen where Aliya is fighting with the chief cook about the quality of Sambar. The director uses this scene to 1, Introduce the two protagonists of the story & 2. That one of them is a Tamilian and the other one is a Punjabi. Neat but rather clichéd. Then we move on to the next scene as the director establishes that Aliya is a spunky Brahmin girl who loves chicken! Once the Chemistry between the two is established their initial differences blossom into the usual love affair. There were a couple of classroom scenes which never has a follow up sequence for e.g. the classroom scene where the professor pulls up Aliya and makes her look dumb in spite of her being good in that subject. The director follows it with a scene in which Arjun turns up to tutor Aliya to bring them closer. Once again rather clichéd. After their love is established where Aliya ends up making the first move by kissing a diffident and confused Arjun. Their love "affair" progresses with a few scenes visualizing their emotional bonding but then again what follows is probably far too many scenes of jumping into bed at the click of a finger or even less. Here a certain amount of guarded love making would have helped like usage of condom, anti pregnancy pills or even better a false test of pregnancy would have aided the premise far better. Finally once they both commit on a long term relationship which may end up in both of them getting married provided of course if both set of parents consent. We have been touching on all this from the days of "Ek duje ke liye" While in E.D.K.L, Balachander created some good emotional scenes here in this half of the first half the director was found wanting. But to give the devil it’s due the movie picks up from here on. The moment Arjun lands up in Chennai (gets a job in YES bank) in hot pursuit of his lady love Aliya who by the way gets a job in Sunsilk (I thought the company is known as Unilever) Anyway how convenient! The better part of this half is the Arjun's Tamilian connect portions that has some good moments. The efforts taken by Arjun to get Aliya's parents to consent is touching and times hilarious especially the power point presentation & spending quality "booze" time with Aliya's dad. Getting Aliya's mother to sing in a concert. His description of Aliya's house during the monologue definitely brought a smile. Arjun presenting rings to the entire family & seeking acceptance was well conceived and did touch an emotional chord. This part felt good. 

Now to the point which fell well short is the intro to Chennai. Come on! I am resident of Chennai and more particularly of Mylapore for over 5 decades and have never come across a street like the one Aliya and her family live in. A Mylapore Street house so serene and peaceful looks more like a street in neighboring Pondy! What's lost here is the true ambiance of Mylapore. Secondly the way Chennai was visualized was even more bizarre it starts with visuals of the proverbial auto drive and moves on to the Marina beach so far so good. The director then loses his way around Chennai a street filled with locals dressed as if they are on the way to act in a drama or a fancy dress competition! Women dressed in Kanchipuram silk saris having fun in the blazing sun at the Marina beach? Come on year! "Director Sahib Yeh kya tamasha dikha rahe ho yaar!" You are doing a film with a Chennai back drop you should have applied more thought into it! Aliya mentioned in an interview that she is not an "Aiyo" girl which appears to be the overall North Indian template of the "Arrey Yaar Paavam" version of Chennai. There are some lovely locations in Chennai which would have served the film better. Once again the director skirted around the problem of casting a non Tamil speaking heroine by making her speak a few ‘Learn-Tamil-in-30-days’ words like "Amma/Appa/Seri etc". Somehow Aliya's bonding with her parents and especially brother look half done.

The "Punjabi" second half now it is the turn of Aliya to impress Arjun's parents and get their unequivocal consent. Here the director has quite effectively shown the contrasting cultures and behavior of both the families. Arjun's mother is a brash Punjabi lady who wants the best for her son more because her husband, a retired Army officer, hits the bottle more often than not and for some unexplained reason at least at this point in time keeps abusing his wife and does not communicate with his son. Though later the reason for his strange behavior is revealed it is not entirely convincing in fact appears rather contrived. The mother’s possessiveness towards her only son explains her very abrasive behavior towards Aliya and her parents and is quite effectively characterized by the director. The auto ride from the airport of the mother and son. The non vegetarian vs. the vegetarian quips by the mother. Her conservative attitude of tolerating her husband’s abusive behavior. Her middle class mentality in aspiring for wealth etc are a few such examples. From this point onwards the film felt protracted and was stretched beyond operable limits in the sense even after one set of the parents consent , Arjun's dad, a mere spectator, and Arjun's mom, on the verge of giving in, the director starts overdoing things a bit. The vacation trip arranged by Arjun and Aliya was in my opinion a lag and unnecessary. This was simply done to create a separation and lacked conviction. Even the earlier cooking part was in a sense better as it brought out the mom's queen of her kitchen attitude. 

What failed in the Punjabi half was the big & lavish Punjabi wedding bit and the "Mei Hoon Rajini" role played by Aliya to reform Duke and save Minty's life. Here the small car dowry bit was tame and insipid to say the least. This was preachy and lacked content and was a drag. The Psychiatry bit too was half fulfilling. The director once again failed in the follow up. Arjun and Aliya's professional side never seemed to get affected which is again a minus. Even the ambience of Gujarat etc was not fully visualized. The repeated breaking of the whiskey glass never touched any emotive chord.   

& the Climax the big fat South - North India wedding with the shore temple back drop was the highlight of this half. To be honest it reminded me of my daughter's wedding at a similar place so it probably touched a chord somewhere in the back of my mind. The appearance or the re appearance of the dad in their lives was a nice touch.  

Acting: - 

Arjun Kapoor as Krish is quite effective initially as a semi geek/hulk kind of portrayal. His portrayal of a Punjabi boy is apt with right dosage of underplay. His chemistry with Aliya is evident throughout the film. In the making out scenes he proves his mettle. After all at his age who wouldn't! The scenes with his mom especially those where he is torn between the mother and Aliya are effective. His respect/hate/love relationship with his dad essayed well. On the whole this movie a big plus for Arjun.

Aliya Bhat as Ananya, a fairly entertaining portrayal. She knows which part of her anatomy looks good and makes effective use of those. She scores with her intensity in the more intimate scenes with Arjun and rather poorly in the emotive scenes with her family. She carries herself well in both the Indian as well as western attire. Her smile and dimple a plus. She is far from convincing as a Tamil speaking girl. I feel someone like Trisha would have served this film better. 

Amrita Singh as Kavita Malhotra In one line - A great job. She fits the role to a tee. A very good all-round performance indeed.

Revathy as Radha Swaminathan What can one say about this wonderful actor. To simply put it "An ageless wonder"! Very few actors in Indian cinema could have underplayed this role better than Revathy. Let's leave it at that.

Ronit Roy as Vikram Malhotra a subdued performance laced with dignity and weakness in character. 

Shivkumar Subramaniam as Shiv Swaminatahan He is the surprise packet in this film. He has lived the character and the director should be applauded for letting him do so or extracting such a performance.

The rest:-The aunt and the rest stood up to be counted.

Camera:- Binod Pradhan Good work. Most shots are a visual treat and very effective. Camera angles and lighting add flavor to the story telling. On the whole very promising work.

Music: - Shankar Mahadevan/Loy Mendonsa/Ehsaan Noorani, B.G Score - Parik/Tubby, Costumes- Natascha Charak/Manish Malhotra/Nikita Raheja/Shiraj Siddique - B.G work subtle and melts into the background as required. Couple of tracks are fairly good especially the vibrant Punjabi ones and the soft Tamil/Hindi track sung by Revathy.

Art: - Kshamata Sachin/Gaurav deserves to be complimented. The IIM back drop/Arjun's apartment and more particularly his room needs a mention. Some of the locations like the library/canteen/the psychiatric consult room etc aptly worked on.

Choreo: - Remo standard fare. Fits the billing though the Bharthanatyam steps of Aliya were out of place.

Edit: - Namrata Rao on the whole effective cuts but at least 5 mins in the first half and 10 in the 2nd half would have helped the film move faster.

Costumes- Natascha Charak/Manish Malhotra/Nikita Raheja/Shiraj Siddique On the whole a great job but the South Indian costumes looked straight out of an advertisement.

Finally to sum it all up, a quote: “It's the kind of movie home video was invented for: slam it into the DVD player and you get your rental's worth.”

Left right & Centre: - My south Indian friend sitting next to me - " On the whole enjoyable but do they really do such things in IIM's (he meant the sex!)" I looked at him and smiled and decided to remain  non committal lest I end up becoming an impediment to his daughter's entry into IIM in the near future!

Bottom Line: - The Punjabi & the Western culture come to the fore but the Tamilian culture is somehow lost in translation!
My Rating :- 1.50/Director/Cast & 1/Crew Total - 2.5/5

Until next time,

Director Haricharan 

Chennai

09/05/2014

The Amazing Spider-Man -2 – Swing it! Stick it! Yeh! Yeh! Stick it! Swing it! Yeh! Yeh! ….. .

Cast :- Andrew Garfield – Spider-Man/Peter Parker, Emma Stone – Gwen Stacy, Jamie Foxx – Electro/Max Dillon & Don DeHann – Green Goblin/Harry Osborn among many others …….. .

& Crew: - Direction – Marc Webb, Screenplay/Screen story - Alex Kurtzmann, Roberto Orci, Jeff Pinker & James Vanderbilt – Marvel comic book – Stan Lee & Steve Ditko

The story, backdrop and setting (Screen play) Two important “pleasure” factors to note as I would like to term it when you watch super hero flicks especially the ones like Spider-Man 1.Watch it only to enjoy the action scenes, the animation and C.G work and put performance etc in the backburner 2. If you are an avid follower or reader of Spider-Man comics and are aware of the settings and backdrop of the premise etc you will enjoy it even more. After my preliminary words of super wisdom we will move on to the actual action. We've always known that Spider-Man's most important conflict has been within himself: Here again this is highlighted - the promise he had given to Gwen's dad simply pulls our next door neighbor super "Spidey" away from Gwen (Emma Stone) every time she tries to get close to him and wants a firm commitment from Peter aka Spidey! Then the conflict between saving his friend Harry Osborn (Dane DeHaan) or to refrain from doing so! Then there is this conflict between the ordinary obligations of Peter Parker and the extraordinary responsibilities of Spider-Man. In this film The Amazing Spider-Man 2, Peter is faced two villains Electro (Jamie Fox) a villain not out of choice and his friend Harry a villain forced into battle to save himself. It’s great to be Spider-Man rather than the mere human Peter Parker after all there's no feeling quite like swinging between skyscrapers and spending time with Gwen. But being Spider-Man does come at a price: Spider-Man alone can protect his fellow New Yorkers from the two formidable villains who unleash their powers and threaten to destroy the city. With the emergence of Electro, Peter must confront a foe far more powerful than he has in the past. His boyhood friend Harry Osborn returns to torment him too! Super Spidey finally comes to realize that all of his enemies have one thing in common: “Oscorp” the company that wants to rule the world. Beyond this I choose not to reveal anything more not because they will act as spoilers or unless people reading my reviews are super dumb!

& the Climax P.S. Super Tip: - Don’t except a fairy tale ending! Ha! Ha! Did I spoil all the fun! What do you except from yours truly – after watching Electro in action!

Acting: - Andrew Garfield as Spider Man/Peter Parker I recently watched him on an IPL cricket show and the guy has an impish air about him. He looks like a fun loving guy but doubly serious on the inside. He has once again performed his role well and his comic timing this time around really worked. His swinging acrobatic moves in the action scenes really a treat to watch. On the downside his performance in the climax was not that good.

Emma Stone as Gwen Stacy has again essayed a decent performance. Her exit in a hurry from the lab while searching for Max Dillon on the web. Waiting with worry and anticipating for Peter at the restaurant. Insisting she follow Spidey at the very end. These scenes stood out.

Jamie Foxx as Electro/Max Dillon the contrasting characters effectively portrayed.

Don DeHann as Green Goblin/Harry Osborn played what was accepted of him. Never for once exceeded the brief set by the director.

The rest: - Also Ran!

Director: - Mark Webb this guy must be an ardent and fanatical fan of Spider Man comics. His first film was (500) Days of Summer followed by The Amazing Spider – Man and now Part 2. He knows exactly what the fans of super heroes want and presents it once again in a platter. The swinging action scenes/the car crashes/the transformers & the “power-full” action scenes laced with emotion and right doses of humour* to keep you from dozing off!

*Peter Parker: I'm so sorry I'm late, I had a traffic thing.

Gwen Stacy: Did your "traffic jam" have anything to do with, I don't know, being shot at   by machine guns?

Peter Parker: Yeah, I was implying that.

For the average American audience a kid is thrown in as a bonus to kindle and tweak patriotism! Wow! Way to go!

Camera: - Daniel Mindel has really wielded the camera craftily. It shows that he is an experienced D .O.P especially after working in films like Star Trek and Mission: Impossible and Enemy of the state etc. Lighting was of a high standard though expected of such films. Actions sequences that keep you engaged most of the time.

Director Marc Webb chose to shoot on 35mm film instead of the digital Red Epic cameras the original was shot with. While it is relatively common for franchise films to shoot on film and transition to digital for sequels as digital cinematography and 3D has become more commonplace (e.g. Resident Evil: Afterlife (2010), Skyfall (2012), Iron Man 3(2013), Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides (2011)) this is a rare example of a franchise switching to film after being shot on digital.

Music: - Johnny Marr/Pharrell Williams/Hans Zimmer -Johnny Marr made a name for himself as lead guitarist for the British rock band The Smiths. Pharrell Williams is known for the films Despicable Me/Mean Girls etc & Hans Zimmer has done exceptional work in films like Pirates of the Caribbean/Lion King/The Dark Knight/Inception etc. Need I tell more! Once again the re-recording has to be appreciated

Art: - Kim Jennings/Richard L.Johnson - Very good work indeed.

Makeup: - Exceptional work especially on *Green Goblin.

*The final battle between the Green Goblin (Dane DeHaan) and Spiderman (Andrew Garfield) was filmed in an actual clock tower where temperatures would reach 115 degrees. DeHaan had to wear 3 1/2 hours worth of prosthetics and make up, as well as his goblin costume, which weighed 50 lbs and couldn't be opened without power tools. After DeHaan lost 7 lbs in a single day, the film's medic was so concerned that DeHaan would get heat stroke that crew members were told to pour buckets of ice on DeHaan's head and down his suit between takes. Unfortunately, this didn't work because his body temperature was so high that the ice would melt and turn into steam before he could feel the effects of the ice. Eventually, a tubing system that would pump cold water was installed in the goblin suit so that the cooler temperatures could reach DeHaan's body

Edit: - Pietro Scalia – His record speaks for itself- Gladiator/ Kick Ass/ Prometheus/ Good Will Hunting

& finally the Graphics and animation work excellent indeed. This is the essential strength of the very premise of this film!

The one’s that worked: - 1. The action sequences 2. The animation and C.G work 3. B.G/rerecording score worked wonders for the film

The one’s that bombed: - 1. Frequent appearances of Gwen’s dad sort of acted as a spoiler to the climax.  2. I love you web sign on the bridge rather clichéd

Finally to sum it all up, a quote: “The primary effect of this movie to keep conjuring up better movies.”

Left, Right & Centre:- My question:- Can our own much hyped film   “KOCHADAIYAAN” match up to the high animation/CG standards set by Hollywood movies?

My dear friend Senthil an animator and CG expert simply put it in layman terminology “We simply cannot spend money on 500/1000 prints as against probably ten and thousands of prints of Hollywood films. But as a rider to this we can still do quality animation and CG work if our filmmakers adapt the premise and screen play to suit the kind of budget we can afford. We should necessarily cut costs on unnecessary production expenses mainly due to high salaries etc and use the generated surplus to enhance the CG and animation content in such films.” Wishful thinking! Let’s hope not!

Bottom Line: - A film for all SUPER HERO fans & even for the not so fans of SPIDEY’S!

Until next time, 

Director Haricharan

Chennai

07/05/2014

ENGE EN ANBE - a 'Nayan Centric" Kahani!

ENGE EN ANBE – a “NAYAN" Centric Kahani!

Cast:-  Nayantara as Anaaamika, Vaibhav Reddy as Parthasarathi, Pasupathy, Harshavardhan Rane & Sri Rajani

& Crew:- Director – Sekhar Kammula, Music- M.M.Keeravai, D.O.P.- Vijay .C. Kumar, Edit – Marthand K.Venkatesh

Studio – Endemol India/Logline Productions/Select Media Holdings

Language – Telugu/Tamil

I have not seen very many movies with an original idea in quite a while. Every idea seems to be playing off of other ideas. It's quite possible that we have simply run out of completely original new movie ideas. Even the producers, actors, technicians and directors think tanks seems to be fast depleting or worn out. Let’s hope I am proved wrong sooner than later!

The story, backdrop and setting (Screen play), Premise Kahani versus Enge En Anbe:- E.E.A opens with a time triggered explosive device placed inside a Kite thread reel. Kahani opens with a poison-gas attack. In E.E.A Hapless kite flying kids & adults alike are killed. In Kahani passengers on a Kolkata Metro Rail compartment are killed in a blast. In E.E.A 8 months later (Nayantara), a pregnant (Kollywood’s Barbie doll refused to compromise and why not! when her fans simply adore her and think she is a goddess! ). In Kahani two years later a pregnant Vidya Bagchi (Vidya Balan) comes to Kolkatta in an effort to trace her husband. In E.E.A Nayan arrives in Hyderabad from the U.S of A. In Kahani Vidya arrives in Kolkatta from London. In E.E.A a police officer (Vaibhav) offers to help. In Kahani an officer by name Satyoki "Rana" Sinha helps Vidya.

Some of the common factors: - 1. During the Durga Puja festivities both are in search of their missing husband(s). 2. Both claim that their respective husbands went to on an assignment for their company. 3. Initial investigations suggest that no such person was employed by the companies.4. The red Sari is worn by both before the climax.

Other than the above the director has really strived hard to make a few changes though in my opinion one can only term it as merely cosmetic in parts and totally insipid and predictable in a few others.

& the  Climax After many a slow and lethargic twist and turns the director decides to zero in on the climax. He tries adding a bit of his own “masala” of explosions and dramatic killing etc which fails to strengthen the premise or enthuse the viewer leaving E. E. A at best a poor paperback copy of the original collector’s edition Kahani!

Nayan in all probability agreed to do a “La Vidya Balan” to break her Kollywood’s Barbie tag. Sadly she is unable to de-glam herself (in spite of shunning her make up most of the time). She has an in built arrogant, nonchalant look about her so much so that your mind refuses to accept her as a middle class girl! To her credit she does strive hard to excel in the melodramatic scenes  to bring out the pained, tensed and aggrieved look and even the added occasional “stammer” element fails to erase the “Nayan” look. It simply gets in the way and blurs one’s vision. It will take many more E.E.A’s to accept Nayan as the girl next door.

Vaibhav He starts of well as an honest, polite and dignified cop but as the film progresses ends up looking like a dumb love sick “puppy cop” doing chauffer duty for “Nayan” who true to her nature and attitude takes charge of the whole search and eliminate operation from under his very nose. In fact when the assassin enters the house and Nayan & Vaibhav hide Nayan looks the cop and Vaibhav the victim. The Tamil accent while speaking Telugu/Hindi a minus.

Pasupathi  as the investigation officer looks like a “locallu” version of Clint Eastwood in Dirty Harry! He even has a pistol shoved casually (Hollywood style) stuck behind his back and waves it around at the click of a button! Pasupathi in fact talks in local Tamil lingo often used by Auto Shankar/Grease Pandi and Powder Ponnuraj etc. He plays the role of an investigation officer who starts off as a street smart officer and ends up being a local bully or dada. He makes more noise and runs around in circles achieving next to nothing. The usual  proverbial Indian cop always turning up late and at the wrong time and place. Finally left holding the “Laal Bathi” !(Red Beacon). The “locallu” lingo used a big minus.

Home Minister the first half characterization is effective but the change in character in the second half revealed early and abruptly turns to be a spoiler. The Telugu accent is a plus here. The home minister acts as if he is the chief of Scotland Yard but finally is turned by the director into a raving lunatic and a drunkard!

The one man assassin makes a mark. The bee hive sting scene is “seriously” hilarious! The bees refuse to bother “Nayan” After all she is the beauty! Nayan and her police boy friend  catch up with the assassin by running behind him (on empty streets of Hyderabad) puffing and panting and finally even start pleading with him to stop running so that they can catch up. In the end the assassin is a far cry from the original “Jackal” that one feels like howling with laughter!..

The police station resembles an ashram in Hyderabad manned by uniformed Ramdev Baba’s Sevaks”!

The rest also ran.

Camera: - Has managed to Capture Hyderabad at its bustling best. Narrow streets and the hustle and bustle visually captured without much fuss. A Plus – The deliberate delayed entry of curious onlookers in the middle of the night.  A minus - their attire & appearance. The action scenes were somewhat overdone. The melodramatic (Nayan) scenes seemed cliched.

Music: - Good B.G though at times a bit loud. Soft music would have served better.

Art : - Fair though based on “Kahani” template.

Choreo:- Very little to do in this film.

Edit: - The first half definitely needs some trimming.

Left Right & Centre: - Jai Ho! Nayantara!

Finally to sum it all up, a quote: “It amazes me that filmmakers will still film, and audiences will still watch, relationships so bankrupt of human feeling that the characters could be reading dialogue written by a computer.”

Bottom Line: - At best a mundane and messed up copy of the original!

Until next time,       

Director Haricharan

Chennai

02/05/2014