VALLINAM

VALLINAM – Basketball?  Cricket?  Both? Or None?

Cast :- Nakul, Mrudhula Basker, Atul Kulkarni, Jagan, Anupama Kumar, Siddharth Jonnalagadda, Amzath Khan, Chandru, Mathivanan Rajendran,Krishna Kulasekaran, RL Balaji (Cameo)

& Crew:- Story/Direction/S.P – Arivazhagan Venkatachalam, Music – S.Thaman, D.O.P.- Bhaskaran, Edit – Sabu Joseph VJ, Studio – Aascar Films

Language:- Tamil – Genre:- Sports

Track List:- “Maaman Machaan”- Sung by- Silambarasan, S.Thaman & Mukesh, “Uyiril Yyiril” – Sung by-Haricharan, “Nakula” – Sung by-Nakul & Andrea Jeremiah, “Uyiril Uyril” (Reprise)- S.Thaman, -“V.allinam” – Sriram Parthasarathi, Rahul Nambiar, Naveen Madhav & KG Ranjith

The story, backdrop and setting (Screen play): A fatal accident kills his friend in a basketball court forcing Nakul a college basketball star () to emotionally distance himself from the game he loved most dearly. He leaves Trichy and moves over to Chennai and enrolls himself in another college to continue to pursue his education. He is befriended by another student and a basketball player (Siva). He falls in love with a rich businessman’s (J.P.) daughter (Meera) who is engaged to the student union chairman and cricket star (Vamsi). Nakul and Vamsi clash over the girl they love. Nakul also disapproves of the undue importance being given to cricket over basketball.  Finally to end this conflict Nakul and Vamsi decide to settle this unending conflict once and for all on the wager set by Vamsi being that if Nakul and his basketball friends should win the ensuing basketball tournament he (Vamsi) would stop playing cricket.

& finally the climax after a series of hurdles set by the director in the form of threats, arm twisting, bribing, political pressure, Adiyals, match fixing etc the climax culminates into the final basketball game devoid of spectators and possibly viewers too!

Acting: - Nakul’s sincere effort to perform (Krishna) somehow fails to inspire this films rather un-inspirational narration and screen play. The director’s repeated efforts to disguise this actor’s slanted eyes by calling him Jet Li etc actually does more damage than help! Nakul sports a soulful and sad face throughout the film. He also sadly lacks the height and physique to qualify for a basketball player!

Mrudhula as Meera, looks like a school girl studying in the 9^th grade cast in an adult film. Her acting talent has to be necessarily tested in her next!

Vamsi as the rich spoilt kid doubles as a cricket star cum villain and is just adequate and has really no great role to play in this film

Jagan as the comedy quotient is the only actor who has managed to create a few laughs once in a while with his one liner’s and quips. If not for him the film would have been even less inspiring.

JaiPrakash as the Meera’s dad has performed his role to its requirement and with ease.

Adhi & Atul Kulkarni, the basketball has played a bigger role in the film!

& the rest were a necessity as a basketball team needs 5 players and a cricket team, 11!

Camera:- The cameraman’s efforts contained and reduced the lag in the story and screen play to a great extent. It definitely made a few scenes watchable.

Edit: - The editor’s contribution further reduced slack and boredom.

Choreo: - Standard fare.

Stunts: - Archaic.

Music: - Standard fare and the songs and premise don’t match!

The one’s that went into the ‘BASKET’: - 1) The premise to highlight the value of other games other than cricket (though not a new thought)  2) The comedy lines were so far apart that they failed to add any real energy to the film

The one’s that spilled out of the ‘BASKET’ :- 1) the characterization of the 5 protagonists’ very weak. Their background and struggles in real life and channelizing their energy through the stannous game of basketball would have helped the film and reduced the monotony and lag to a great extent. The marginalization of the 5 by society would have further helped the viewer to empathize with them 2) Unwanted and protracted comparison with cricket and the resulting fights between college mates a drag 3) Atul Kulkarni totally wasted. Aadhi could have been brought back 4) The rules and nuances could have been explained by the radio jockey Shiva or by judicious use of blurbs 5) The coach was a mere security guard and a P.T.master. 6) The bomb scare totally unnecessary, instead the family and friends of the 5 could have been used to create drama and emotion with telling effect 7) The songs failed to add inspiration to the sports drama instead served as a time pass. 8) The director failure to extract inspired performances from the actors 9) Lack of inspirational scenes to create some interest in the game of basketball. 10) The heroine looks like a school girl cast in an adult film 11) The hero has a perpetual look of sadness and his occasional smile made me sad 12) And finally the necessity of bringing in an afro American team to inspire heroism among the locals pulled the air completely out of the ball!

Finally to sum it all up, a quote: “The length of a film should be directly related to the endurance of the human bladder.”

Left right & Centre: -

HE: - “This is a film about cricket and basketball, nothing more than that!”

She: - “I liked the parts about life in a campus”.

On my right (an ardent ascar fan and a friend):- Kept clapping and cheering all the jokes and certain scenes just to inspire me but somehow his efforts failed to lift my spirits but prevented me from dozing off in a few places.

On my left my businessman friend:- “ Idhu enna padam sir?” I smiled at him and he continued “Oh! Basketball, cricket pathi etho padam, illai”, I nodded and continued smiling, he turned away in disgust!

Bottom Line: - “Probably inspire you to play cricket with a basketball!”

Until next time,    

Director Haricharan

Chennai

 01/03/2014