O Kadhal Kanmani - It's all about living together!

O Kadhal Kanmani - So, So! Mani Ratnam

Cast - Dulquer Salmaan as Aadi, Nithya Menon as Tara aka Kanmani, Prakash Raj as Ganapathy, Leela Samson as Bhavani and Balakrishna

& Crew - Story/SP/Dir - Mani Ratnam, D.O.P - P.C.Sreeram, Music - A.R.Rahman, Edit - Sreekar Prasad

Produced by - Mani Ratnam

Duration - 138 mins

The Indian cinema industry more particularly 'Kollywood' is agog with the talk of, wow! 'Mani is back'! Is Mani really back with a bang or a mild ripple is the real question! My take is that Mani is back in his favourite comfort zone - the genre - a soft love story, with all his good old bag of tricks; but not with a bang but manages to create a semblance of a mild tremor. 

After two successive fiasco's in the recent past he finally and thankfully decided to herald all his resources in putting together a film relating to the new age concept of todays young and old - 'living together'. 

No thali or thamasha, no festivities or celebrations, no wedding or hullabaloo but to live together , have sex, have fun, have a great time till the relationship becomes stale and its time to move on probably the relationship may last a day, a month , a year, ten, or forever! As long as it lasts lets make the most of it! Didn't our ancestors the apes and the cave men do it! Nothing new yaar! 

In his story Mani Ratnam talks about a boy (an animation gaming professional)  and a girl ( an interior designer/architect) who by chance meet at a church wedding, later fall in love and decide to live together. They are aided greatly by Prakash Raj and Leela Samson a once upon a time renowned carnatic singer (who suffers from Alzheimer's) who have a sprawling old bungalow in Mumbai (The IT dept surely missed checking Prakash's source of income; especially being a retiree from a bank, probably his wife's hard earned income?) Mani is Mani; he can do anything and do no wrong! In fact the house is even furnished like a Mahindra guest house! Well Mani is Mani! Anyways there are some poignant and lovable moments as Mani establishes the couple's most intimate moments; and so are some real boring and long drawn sequences; the dialogues are so juvenile and such a drag that at times it makes you yawn with boredom; but here again Mani is Mani! Why complain! a director who has to necessarily make a come back for the good of Indian cinema and who am I to grudge him that! if as in cricket Tendulkar decides to make a come back even now a place will be readily made available in the Indian cricket team in whichever format he wants to play in! After all he is a legend; and will always be so until kingdom come! Anyways after a some unforgettable and a few forgettable scenes the couple finally decide to get into bed together and have great sex and all; After all the feel good moments the hero's brother, sis in law and kid land up and their entry triggers a few lighter moments which is funny and makes you chuckle and here Mani of old showcases his skill as a filmmaker with authority . Leela Samson plays her part to add to the humour quotient along with hubby Prakash Raj. The entry of the heroine's mother ( a rich widow and an industrialist) adds a bit of intrigue and expectation at the interval point. In fact the choreography and picturization of the song inside the lodge is very new and ups the story quotient which up and till this point appears to be a rehash of Manni's earlier film 'Alaipayuthey! Two songs sung by young and fresh voices are very refreshing indeed. During the entire first half the visuals by P.C.Sriram are a rare treat indeed. Background score by A.R.Rahman and editing by Sreekar Prasad are the other two major contributors and this trend continues unabated during the second half. 

The second half is mostly how the hero succeeds as a gaming animator, as the company he works for decides to send him to the U.S of A and the girl bags a trip to Paris too! How does this happen? Well! Mani is Mani! At this point now and and then Leela disappears, gets lost owing to her advancing Alzheimer's and aids Mani's efforts to advance the story too! While helping Prakash Raj find his wandering wife the young couple become closer and discover their true love for each other by watching the intimacy between the old couple. At this point is the couple also have to decide whether to end their living together or not ! A few mushy moments and a couple of songs later we end up at the point of ....

Climax - to know if they continue living together or decide to part as friends, or do they commit.... or.....etc etc etc.. 

No spoilers please!

What I liked - The intimacy and chemistry between the hero Aadi (Dulqaiur) and the heroine Tara (Nithya Menon), Nithya Menon's performance definitely stands out. The scene at the Gynecologist's great! The choreography of the song in the lodge different! ( though such a lodge may never exist in Mumbai! Well! but as you know Mani is Mani!), P.C.Sriram's Visuals great! A.R.R'S background score and Sreekar Prasads' editing stand out!.

What irked me - The hero's coimbatore visit left hanging.Too many copy cat sequences and visuals from Mani's old films, the steps, the train, the pigeons, the rain, etc, the clipped and dreary dialogues which only Mani's characters can and will ever deliver; but there again Mani is Mani! Far too many repetitive shots from Mani's memory archives, nothing fresh to take home!

Bottom line - Camera, Music, and the Editing have contributed more than the Director! But then once again Mani is Mani; Tamil cinema and all his die hard fans want him to make a comeback and succeed after all he is  such a nice guy! 

P.S. Even unqualified critics!

Finally a quote - A good  Director will succeed if he can effectively translate imagination into visuals!

My Rating - 2.5 plus .5 for Mani's sake Total 3/5

Until Next Time,

Director Haricharan

18/4/2015

Nanbenda - Only 3 people can watch this film!

Nanbenda - Strictly for 3!
You might have guessed it right! Yes! Only Nayantara, Udhayanidhi & Jagadesh the director can watch this apology of a film!

Cast: Udhayanidhi Stalin, Nayantara, Santhanam & the others don't really matter!

& Crew: Story/SP/ Direction - Jegadesh A, 
D.O.P - Balasubramaniam, Music - Harris Jayaraj, Edit - Vivek Harshan

Producer: Udhayanidhi Stalin

Honestly, I don't want to waste my time writing a review for this wasted film and neither do I want you to waste your time reading it; lest out of some strange & misplaced notion you might decide to watch this colossal waste of time, money and manpower spent in making this crap!  

Premise: A nothing story of love!

Screenplay: Even the concept of SP is missing!

Performance: Even amateurs can act better!

Technical quotient: Totally absent!

Comedy quotient: Will make you yawn with laughter!

Need I say more! Such films should never be screened in public; In future producers who have plenty of money to throw around or have some hidden agenda or fetish to make crap films such as this one should watch it themselves and say no more! For it shames the very concept of film making!

Rating: Zero/5

Until next time,
Director Haricharan
3/4/2015

Komban - A 'bloody' bore;filled with gore!

Komban - A 'bloody' bore;filled with gore!

Cast: Karthi as Kobaya Pandian, Laksmi,Menon as Pazhani, Raj Kiran as Muthaiya, Kovai Sarala, Thambi Ramaiah, Karunas, Super Subbarayan and many more

& Crew: Director: Muthaiah, D.O.P - Velraj, 
Music - G.V.Prakash Kumar, Edit- Praveen K.L

Producer: Gnanavel Raja K E

A novel 'promo'te - The person who filed the PIL to stay the screening of this film - Dr.K, has not watched the film; the producer of the film Gnanavel Raja - has not watched the film; the 2 member judges' panel appointed by the court to watch the film - hardly watched (3mins) of the film (owing to untoward incident at the preview theatre???); Who benefited out of this farcical court proceedings & who is behind all this???  The judges walked away with 2 lakhs a piece; Gnanavel Raja walks away with the weekend collection after the drama; Dr.K mighty pleased with the publicity and media attention if nothing else; finally those who watched the film amidst all the hype - the 'appavi' viewers more out of curiosity; came out with nothing but disappointment. So please remember that the 'Curiosity killed the cat' so next time be more prudent and avoid such films in your own interest.

Premise: The same old hard core and raw village subject. This film is a 'bloody' bore! Why? It is the same 'aracha maavu'! A poor rehash of films like 'Virumaandi', 'Paruthiveeran' etc. Full of violence and bloody gore with hardly any content to write home about. Karthi the hero sporting a virumandi moustache with his 'dhothi' folded up & trouser exposed underneath with a hidden weapon this time a miniature sickle goes up beating the crap out of everyone who is a cheat or for that matter even if anyone dares to whisper the word swear word 'cheat'. According to the director/producer combo 'Komban' is the reincarnate of MGR; A modern day avataar of the erstwhile legendary actor and crusader of the common man; but unfortunately a very poor substitute and probably a character bordering on bringing shame to the original! He has the usual sidekick the ever irritating Thambi Ramaiah - the so so insipid and bland comedy quotient. Karthi is a village butcher (culls goats) who somehow manages to amass wealth far beyond his means. (IT dept should have a closer look at all goat culling butchers residing in villages); that he can redecorate his home in the village spending lakhs just to please his lady love, freely goes about feeding everyone around, donates liberally when someone is in debt etc etc. But most of the time all he does is to unravel a few bucks from his rolled up sleeve! So how does he get this bankroll for his lavish spending? WOW! I think i should consider taking up to culling of goats to make a living! 

Karthi goes about the village like a violent 'lokpal' thrashing all and sundry to set right the wrongs in his village. There is so much of throwing around that he handles the bad guys like 'frisbees' and 'footballs'. The bloodthirsty villains make up the numbers by slicing humans and animals alike with sickles etc. In fact there is far less blood flowing in modern day vampire and werewolf flicks. 

So what follows next is yes you're right! 'Komban' the barbarian makes an enemy out of the 'villain' blah! blah! and falls for Lakshmi menon blah! blah! blah! and predictably makes a bitter enemy out of a doting and unusually good father in law Raj kiran because of his gross stupidity blah! blah! blah! blah! and so finally his mother the screeching and loud mouthed Kovai Sarla, Lakshmi menon now his wife and Raj kiran his father in law all stage a walkout dharna after Raj Kiran is bad mouthed and bashed up badly by his son in law Komban; in fact even the villagers who until then had considered Karthi their own prodigal son etc and literally a demi god now desert him.(typical village sentiment which is supposed to make the women young and the aged wet and teary eyed). The second half is all about the now partially reformed Karthi who sort of mends his ways to please his lady love and to make up for all the violence he meted out on all and sundry including his father in law, wife, mother etc. But all of a sudden how can he totally become a peace loving guy; he still has to play out the vigilante role to weed & wipe out all the by now burnt out village rats the runts who are still barely living, though by now they are ranting, raving and bad mouthing each other most of the time in this unlawful village in Ramanathapuram. 

Who is the motivator of holy change in Karthi in this half; Raj kiran the father in law, his mother Kovai Sarala and the love of his life Lakshmi menon who not only keeps wasting all the available oil by lighting lamps but is also our Komban's kombi!. To save us further torture Raj kiran is finally sent to jail on a foisted case. What follows is on wholly predictable lines; there is a conspiracy to 'pottu thallu' Raj Kiran (kill) him in jail; but of course! how can this happen with 'komban' karthi around? Karthi & his cronie Thambi Ramaiah decide to move into jail! Both of them saunter and swagger around the jail as if it is a walk in 'panagal' park! From hereon Karthi even starts using his guile, intelligence and super powers which was hitherto absent and simply puts paid to the villain's intentions....

& the climax - Raj kiran invokes the "Sami" (deity) in him at the annual village religious mela and as the 'sami' gets into Raj Kiran's body and he runs into the forest in the middle of the night  not only screaming & gesticulating but also swirls around a burning torch with a spear in one hand ! He is now followed by the racing villains and they are followed by the speedy Karthi hurling petrol filled sachets ..... I now leave it to your fertile imagination to finish this comical and bizarre  climax by using your imagination alone; probably you will do a better job than this director!

Performance: Karthi's menacing stares along with the Yuvraj Singh swagger simply failed to enthuse me one bit! Lakshmi menon performance was probably the only point of merit in this torturous film. Raj Kiran has essayed this kind of role so many times; that it beats me as to why this actor keeps donning this role again and again! Is this some kind of brand build up??? Kovai Sarala and Thambi Ramaiah are at their annoying best! I shall refrain any mention of the crew; as I had mentioned before in so many of my reviews that if the captain of the film (the director) fails the entire film sinks into an abyss! 

The only thing that partly worked were a few emotional scenes with Raj Kiran, Lakshmi menon, Karthi & Kovai Sarala; even these were a tad preachy, melodramatic and looked like scenes from past films!  

Bottomline: The censors should be censored for awarding a U/A certificate for this film. It definitely cannot be watched with or without parental guidance. The amount of unnecessary violence depicted in this film is next only to the film 'Django'!

Finally a quote: "The only thing the Tamil heros have not used so far is to open their mouths and blow the villains away!" 

P.S The producer Gnanavel Raja might have shed many a 'tear' in making & releasing  this film, but both he & the director, have totally failed to promote Karthi as a mass hero (MGR/Rajini Style) and even the protests should fail to promote this film and make it a mass hit! This film is a disaster and a 'bloody' waste of gallons of blood and a lot of money!

My Rating: 1/5

Until next time,

Director Haricharan

2/4/2015