Vayaai Moodi Paseavum - Either way this film doesn't work!

NAME –VAAYAI MOODI PESAVUM – Either way this film doesn’t work!

Cast :-Dulquer Salman as Arvind, Nazriya Nazim as Anjana, Madhoo as Vidhya, Arjunan as Sathish, Kali Venkat as Palani, John Vijay as Ravi, Ramesh Thilak as Ganesh & Vinu Chakravarthy as Adhikesavan among others.

& Crew:- S/S/Direction – Balaji Mohan, Produced By – S.Sashikanth/Varun Manian, D.O.P.- Soundarrajan, Music – Sean Roldan, Edit – Abhinav Sunder Nayak, Studio – Y NOT Studios/Radiance Media

Direction, story & Screenplay: -

Track list: - 1) shut up! Vaaya Moodai Pesadhei – Singers – Sean Rolden, Lyrics-Balaji Mohan 2) Kadhal Ara Onnu Vizundhuchu – Singers-Sean Rolden, Shakthisree Gopaln, Lyrics – Muthamil, 3) Mr.Fix-it Theme – Instumental – Singers – Chennai Stringers 4) Poddhum Nee Ini Varundhadhe – Singers – Haricharan, Chennai Strings, Muthamil 5) Udaigiren Udaigiran – Singers – Alap Raju, The Madras Quartet, Lyrics –Madhan Karky 6) Beedhiya Kelappa – Jazz Theme-Instrumental-Singers- Maarten Visser,Parveen Sparsh 7) The Sound of Silence – Dubstep Symphony, Singers – Chennai Strings 8) Maatraparvai – The Song Bird of Change , Singers – Praveen Kalyani, The Madras Quartet, Lyrics- Madhan Karky

Total duration of songs: - mins.

The story, backdrop and setting (Screen play), this film can at best be termed as an experimental film to be shown to media students but at the end of it they may quit the course! It is a film which will test the intelligent quotient of all cinema viewers and more particularly the entertainment factor which is omnipresent in the majority of Tamil movie population. On the flip side no violence, no fights, no item numbers, duets etc but probably that was what was needed to pep up this silent story.Come on I am allowed to crack a joke from time to time especially after watching a film like this one. The film is made up of 2 parts. The first half showcases the importance of speech aka talking. The second half is the silent part which highlights the improper use of our talking ability and its aftermath. Unfortunately owing to such amateurish and in dept handling of the movie by its director it ends up silencing all your senses of appreciation.

The 1^st half opens up with our radio jockey Balaji ( this actor is the permanent RJ of Tamil cinema)  on a visit to “Pani Malai” (all our directors these days love such fantasy name calling) to do a radio show  ends up losing his voice due to a mysterious viral infection called “Dumb Flu”! You think this is funny! Wait till you hear the rest of the story the director has in store for you! The director then jumps to the hero (Dulquar) who is a fix-it ( an adhesive not Dr.Fixit) salesman running all around the hill station and by using his “honest to god” gift of the gab selling large boxes of these adhesives. I wonder what people in hill stations end up doing with large quantities of adhesive tubes! It is now the turn of our director to jump cut to the heroine (Najriya) a doctor by profession who lives in a classy wooden bungalow (Camp David style) owned by her affluent dad (Profession unknown probably the owner of the adhesive company? If you get to find out pl let me know.) Najriya also resents her step mom (Madhoo) and puts up with her biological son who is anyway just a dumb kid! I am sorry that’s a bit too harsh more like the dyslexic kid? (Tare Zameen Par). Look I really don’t know so I will term him as a slow learner! Then we cut to Prime time news anchored by none other than the director Balaji Mohan in flesh and blood. Supposed to be a satire on Arnav Goswami! Every 10 mins or so the director shows his mug and gives you a boring and not so funny update on what’s happening “Pani Malai!” He talks about the mysterious Dumb Flu, the ongoing battle between the TASMAC gang (My fantasy name calling) and a film hero John Vijay whose screen name is “nuclear star” (Power Star). Why? Simple! The film happens to offend the sentiments of a few drunkards (Satire on Viswaroopam/Inam incidents) plus we have the usual corrupt dumb ass politician who makes a fool of himself in front of a TV audience. Next the director jumps to the romantic involvement of the heroine with a jerk who has nothing better to do than to dictate the way she should dress and what “colour” of contact lens she should wear etc. Off course you don’t need an analytical brain to guess the obvious but if you are as dumb as all that please wait till the climax! From time to time we come back to the hero who continues his aimless wandering all over Pani Malai selling adhesives but wait he also visits an orphanage (Yup! for once you've guessed right) and helps all the affected orphans by giving monetary donations though the god mother of the orphanage very mildly chides him for spending his meager earnings in this manner. One more character who is the comic in this film is the hero’s fat lovesick friend (a straight lift from the director’s previous film K.S.Y). Finally all the talking comes to an end when the dumb flu spreads like a wild fire all over Pani Malai and the “director” is unable to find an antidote decides that in the second half no one in Pani Mali should talk!

The second half is the torturous silent part. Here the film reminds you of the film “Silent Movie” with the Background score from the film “Artiste”! The director literally freaks out in making it the dumb charade half probably a first of its kind in Tamil cinema. Here the director in an attempt to make the viewers speechless ends up making them dumb! He answers all the questions he posed in the first half. ANSWERS:- 1) The Hero discovers his true love 2) The heroine discovers that she is in love with a jerk 3) Madhoo re discovers the writer in her 4) Abishek (Madhoo’s hubby) re discovers Madhoo 5) Madhoo’s biological son discovers a new talent which will help him surpass his dumbness 6) John Vijay and the TASMAC group reconcile and become “boozom” pals and how they do it you should see to believe as the screenplay will finally seal all your openings once and for all! 7) Godmother gets back her orphanage 8) Vinu Chakravarthy the  uncompromising owner of the orphanage  gets back his long last son owing to the heroic efforts of the hero and his fat friend! 9) The fat friend discovers true love. All this and many more happens in this half as the director makes an ass out of the viewer and reveals the dumbest of dumb climax seen in recent times. I truly apologize for using the term fat I did it because I hate it when a film maker makes fun of size/colour and/or disability of any sort to create unnecessary humour.

& the Climax, Come on! It is so predictable! No one can be that dumb!

Acting: - Dulquer Salman as Arvind, I really don’t understand why all our first time hero’s pick such scripts to debut. Especially with a dad like “Mammootty” behind you who is such a talented actor and a legend by his own right. Is it because they lack the ability to visualize a narration or is it only because the director has a previous hit under his belt. Whatever the reason may be this young actor will have to wait for his next to exhibit his talent.

Nazriya Nazim as Anjana, She hardly has any space to perform in this film. The spectacles to contact switch and the kameez to sari switch and hugging the mother were the only emotional parts she played in this film

Madhoo as Vidhya, What a come down for this very pretty and talented actor from the days of Roja! I simply can’t believe that she even chose this script. By the way why has she lost so much weight? She looks anorexic.

The rest Arjunan as Sathish, Kali Venkat as Planai, John Vijay as Ravi, Ramesh Thilak as Ganesh,Vinu Chakravarthy as Adhikesavan,

Camera: - Soundar Rajan his work was the best part of this film. His lighting/visuals ands camera angles showed great promise.

Music: - Sean Roldan has used a western theme throughout the film. I wonder why? Is there some logic or premise behind this! I would love to know. In fact in the second half the silence was marred by the BG score in most places. The tracks are a bore!

Art: - Was fairly good especially the interiors.

Choreo: - Who?

Stunts: - Who?

Edit: - Abhinav Sundar Nayak his editing was adequate but once again a half hour cut may have helped but on second thought I really don’t think it would have mattered when the screenplay is such a letdown.

A word about the producers: - This is a classic example of a producer/s trying to experiment too much in an effort to make a different film by cramming all in one go and finally ending up losing the basic simplicity of the premise, straightforward narration and screenplay.

Finally to sum it all up, a quote: “Silence is of great value. Some things are better left unsaid – like about this FILM!”

Left right & Centre: - I have started dreading Friday releases!

Bottom Line: - It was truly deathly silence as the viewers left the theater!

Until next time,    

Director Haricharan

Chennai

25 /04/2014