ARIMA NAMBI - Too many TWISTS; Fails to THRILL!

ARIMA NAMBI – Too many TWISTS; Fails to THRILL!

Cast :- Vikram Prabhu, Priya Anand
& Crew:- S/S/Direction: Anand Shankar, D.O.P.- R. D. Rajasekhar,  Music - Sivamani, Editing - Bhuvan Srinivasan, Art  - Muthuraj, Stunts - Dhilip Subbarayan, Choreo - Shobi
Producer: Kalaipuli Thanu

The story, backdrop and setting (Screen play),  I have split the premise of this film into episodes deliberately not to confuse the reader but to bring more clarity of how I felt after watching this so called thriller. If I have overdone it, it is deliberate and I do not feel any kind of remorse in doing so!

Episode 1 – Boy (Vikram Prabhu/V.P) meets girl (Priya Anand/P.A) at a bar – Instant love – “Kannum Kannum Nokia”! – V.P breaks into song, lead guitar in hand strumming hotel California style, Shivamani freaks out with a percussion based song etc. One thing leads to another, boy and girl exchange name, number etc – Girl calls boy the very next day. Boy and girl meet for dinner that very night. After a few minutes of “Mokkai” conversation both get high on red wine. At the girl’s insistence they both decide to go to her apartment (You guessed it. The girl is a rich but nice kid as she travels in an auto-rick) and both resume their drinking session with Vodka this time around. V.P & P.A in their drunken state decide to take their relationship to the next level (Don’t get ideas just smooching for starters) but boy at the wrong moment gets nervous and rushes to the wash room to fantasize. I leave the rest to your imagination. TWIST 1 - As V.P paces up and down all excited, outside poor P.A is screaming her head off as she is on the verge of being kidnapped by 2 “adiyals”! V.P becomes the hero from here on (by the way the guy is a supervisor in a BMW showroom) he tries to fight. After a few fighting minutes and smashing a few tables, breaking a few things, he decides to run. After the typical run – chase – run – chase routine V.P gives them the slip. Adiyals disappear with their captive P.A!

Episode 2 – V.P goes to the Besant Nagar cop station to lodge a complaint about the missing girl. The inspector initially mocks at V.P’s drunken state but finally decides to assign his assistant Inspector (good cop) to go with V.P to P.A’s apartment. TWIST 2 – Surprise! Surprise! All the evidence of the fight, breaking glass, falling flower pot etc has simply vanished without a trace and so has the CCTV footage. V.P is shocked, frustrated and disappointed. For a change the good cop is very understanding and all. He simply sympathizes with our poor boy and with a few kind words of wisdom drops him off at his house with a promise of great improvement the next day. Wow! What a cop! The hero that V.P is, he simply cannot be stopped. He decides to investigate and solve the P.A mystery on his own. Picks up his bike and without waking his roommate and buddy up, he drives to P.A’ s dad’s sprawling house. Her dad happens to be the head of a TV channel. As he is creeping in, a car comes in and V.P is shocked to see the “adiyals” and who else? - TWIST 3 - the inspector (remember Besant Nagar police station) and as V.P is speechless. Twist 4 - The inspector merely looks at his mobile and announces that V.P is right there somewhere in the compound!  How does he find out – G.P.R.S technology at its very best! Adiyals locate and after a mild skirmish (By the way V.P is a trained boxer too/watch for the close up shot of his 6 pack) captures V.P and is about to shoot him! TWIST 5 – Its not V.P but the “adiyal” who is shot dead! By whom? The good cop! who had cleverly suspected that something was amiss and followed them all! Wow! What a COP! TWIST 6 - V.P & good cop now enter the building and find out that P.A’s dad is being black mailed – SUB PLOT - daughter P.A in exchange for memory card! TWIST 7 Memory card has CCTV footage of central minister killing an actress in a fit of rage! Suddenly the inspector finds out that V.P is in the same room (GPRS again. Kudos to unbelievable technology) all hell breaks out bullets fly all over and TWIST 8 – P.A.s dad is shot and killed!

EPISODE 3 – Car chase – shooting – more car chase – more shooting and finally V.P’ car along with good cop as co passenger overturns! V.P somehow crawls out and gets into a boxing stance – shoots and boxes at the same time, brings down the inspector and the “adiyals”! Twist 9 - Poor good cop is shot and with a little melodrama and some last words of advice for V.P asking him not to run away but to stand and fight another day. This episode comes to an end. Don’t you think this episode really moved fast? Well! That’s what thriller’s are all about! Isn’t it! Especially the Kollywood’s version!

EPISODE 4 – V.P traces the beaten up “adiyals” by somehow getting into their car and hiding behind the back seat. Can I call this a twist? No it can best be termed as absolutely idiotic, illogical and absurd! Adiyals now decide to park the car and go into the bank to check if the payment due to them for kidnapping P.A has been credited to their ac (Easy NEFT transfer! No problem with income tax etc) and TWIST 10 while leaving the car and slamming the door the dashboard door somehow opens and reveals a gun! This gun is spotted through the glass by a cop as the car is about to be towed away for being parked in a no parking area! And V.P is still hidden behind the back seat unnoticed by anyone. Then Twist 11 To save the "adiyals" from being caught V.P quietly sneaks out of the car (cops and everyone around are dumb idiots of the first order) he gets into the bank and believe it or not stages a bank robbery of sorts, He then takes the two "adiyals" as hostages, escapes with ease and even manages to shoot the police car tyre to prevent them from following them. He then stops the car allows them to escape follows them in a stolen bike and tracks them down and finds P.A at a lodge cum brothel.WOW! WOW! WOW AND WOW! What a HERO!

Episode 5 - Twist 12 - Here the "adiyal" (a bit of erotica) who also runs a “STAR” brothel suddenly craves for rape! He decides that he should rape the unconscious P.A before handing her over to the boss man. He even removes his belt drops his pants but the damn mobile spoils all his fun as he is forced to take an imp call!  But V.P seizes the chance and simply in a jiffy wakes up P.A! P.A realizes that her heartthrob cum hero is standing right in front of her and she has to aid him to help her escape. V.P escapes with P.A and the MEMORY CARD! Twist 13 – Memory card! How?  Look I am not going to reveal all the twists and spoil all the fun! They then break into dad’s TV channel office which by the way is filled with police and TV reporters. V.P quite simply manages to open P.A’S dad’s safe and get the secret code for the memory card.  Finally V.P & P.A book themselves in a room in a star hotel (free wifi) with a brilliantly conceived plan to upload the content on the memory card to all social networking web sites. P.A even administers first aid to our scratched hero while Shivamani conjures up a song in an exotic location.  Hero calls his buddy for help asks him to bring his passport so that he and P.A can flee the country! (Obviously boxing and shooting is no match to the central minister and his new set of “adiyals” whose boss is from Delhi under whom some local henchmen work. TWIST 14 - V.P is shocked to find that his buddy has sold out of him for a mere 2 crores! Frankly who wouldn't especially for rich dumb kid who keeps nose crying half the time and for the rest of her trivial presence you simply cannot understand her dialogues. Enter New Delhi mini boss and henchmen – more shooting – TWIST 15 -Buddy shot dead and V.P and P.A escape once again so that they can play out the climax!

Episode 6 – V.P and P.A decide to get to a mall to upload video through an internet centre. But the central minister who is part Obama, part FBI, part CIA, Part PM, part CBI, as he wields such enormous power that he controls the television network, all the cell phones functioning in India, the entire worlds social networking sites and for all practical purposes he simply controls all communication throughout the country! WOOOOOOOW! He is still unable to stop V.P who uses the world’s greatest disguise A” BLUE CAP” Yes! As simple as that! What a DIRECTOR!  With which he thwarts all the efforts of the minister while P.A is whining away inside the mall!  and TWIST 16 – The memory card gets damaged! How! Watch the film you will love this!

And the Climax: - Straight out of 1999 HOLLYWOOD SOAPS! Please watch the film for one FINAL TWIST! This one will leave you totally twisted and out of your mind for quite some time if not forever!

Acting: -

MY TAKE ON AFTER IVM Vikram Prabhu has improved a lot and has played his part adequately except at the climax where he in my opinion faltered. His dancing prowess leaves one wondering as to where his father Prabhu’s dancing genes are hiding. His action scenes are quite intense except the melodrama portions where he tends to overdo it. Probably his eagerness to prove his mettle as an actor!

IN THIS FILM: - He does underplay his character as always. There is no place for any kind of melodrama in the film. His romantic overtures leave a lot to be desired. His dancing skills have not shown any kind of noticeable improvement. On the whole my acting meter will allow me to mark a 5% improvement owing to an improvement in his fighting skills! 

Priya Anand - Nothing much of note. Absent in most of the 1^st half. Nose crying, whining and a terrible accent in the 2^nd half.

M.S.Bhaskar:- as the good cop has essayed his part well.

The rest:- Not much to talk about!

Camera: - Great work! The visuals thrill you more than the story line!

Music: - Let’s give the guy a break! It’s his first film. Maybe he will do a better job next time! After all he is very talented drummer!

Art: - A pat for a job well done!

Choreo: - Eh! What?

Stunts: - Nothing new. Typical Kollywood stuff. It’s high time we stop aping Hollywood and develop our own brand of fighting skills!

Finally to sum it all up, a quote: My motto: 'No good movie is depressing. All bad movies are depressing.' - Roger Ebert

Left right & Centre: - 6 students on my left – “The director blew it after the first 20 mins of the film”. Another comment “Wasted 120 bucks”

Bottom Line: - “Desi” version of a Hollywood soap – More for the “Lion” hearted viewer!

My Ranking: - 2/5

Until next time,    

Director Haricharan

Chennai

 06/07/2014