Raavanan-Manirathanam not at his best

Manirathnam Not at his best!!!





The most anticipated movie of this year with one of the iconic directors of india wielding the megaphone, with an ensemble star cast , more than talented technicians to support had finally hit the screens today.the first thing that disappoints you being a manirathnam film is its storyline which has nothing path-breaking, which was understandable with this being the modern version of Ramayana. the actual plot has undergone some changes which actually changes the polarity of the two leads from the original story line. this change actually further con-volutes and complicates the movie . okay, with this being a kind of movie which has nothing to offer in terms of story but we least expect the screenplay to do the magic but , sadly very few scenes manages to pull this off.





Another major disappointment in the movie is that none of the characters are convincingly crafted exceot the one of vikram. the character played by prithviraj, dev prathap was never convincing in his actions, even till the end we cannot conclude what kind of person he is!!!!

there are also very few scenes to justify the development of soft corner for raagini(Aishwarya) on Veera(vikram).Priyamani in an unhelping role as vikram's sister manages to achieve nothing, she just continues off from where she left in paruthiveeran. Prabhu has a dignified presence.

Another confusing character is the one played by Karthik,touted to be the modern day hanuman helping dev in his mission, was again a poorly written character,like dev he was never convincing in his actions.

One important thing to be noted here, the flaws lies only in the characterisation, not in the performances of the cast.Most of them registers a neat performance with Vikram and Aishwarya leading the list.

I personally had a feeling that this one being an modern day adaptation of a great epic which almost everyone is familiar of, manirathnam could've probably decided not to spend more time on elaborating his characters leaving the most hardest part in script writing for the audience's intelligence to perceive, but this decision actually exposes him out in the screen , making this 2.15 hours movie hell long and complex.

Technically the movie was outstanding and even pathbreaking. cinematography by santhosh sivan has just raised the bar of the standard of cinematography in india. he makes you feel the chilness of those exotic locales in every frame through his camera. Rahman with already having chartbusting music t his credit did not disappoint with the background score. editing was neatly done giving a clear view at the proceedings.Art direction was another thing to look out for, those mini villages in dense forests looked neorealistic.

apart from these the movie also suffers some serious lack of continuation in terms of location.and also i don't understand the need for artificial rain in most of the scenes where you can see sunlight visibly in every frame!!!

though for the most part the movie was saved by the performance of the cast , breathtaking tachnical aspects, the ending sinks the movie futher. the technique dev adopts to trace out veera was farfetched and we have seen those even in some B grade tamil movies.

Apart from some heartening performances and scintillating visuals the movie has nothing to offer.

Go for it only if youre a die hard fan of any of the cast or crew members .


A disappointing attempt by one of the finest film makers of our time....

The Karate Kid - Review

When is the last time you forgot all about yourself and laughed your heart out, clapped in full enthusiasm for a movie?

When is the last time the victory of a protagonist made you feel like as if it is your victory?

When is the last time you are ready to overlook all the loopholes in the movie just for the appeal it makes to your heart?

This one may make you do all these...



This is a light hearted coming of age movie of a twelve year boy who struggles to cope with the change in his living environment due the change in working location of his mother.its a simple story told in a simple way without much complications of subplots.

The story revolve around dre parker played exceedingly well by jaden smith, who along with his mother moves to china from detroit due to her work commitments. there he got attracted towards a young violinist, Mei Ying, which puts him under the wrath of a kung fu prodigy named cheng. humiliated by him,dre was again shattered and pleased at the same time to know that both cheng and mei ying were on the same school as he is.

The torment for dre continues in the hands of cheng,during a particular point where the beating gets more brutal,Mr.han ,played by jackie chan comes to the rescue. then the rest of the story deals with the metamorphosis of dre in the hands of mr.han in to a kung fu expert, and how he manages to keep his head out of the harassment caused by cheng group.

Performance wise the movie is excellent, jackie chan has a scorching screen presence which was well made use of, and the surprise factoe here is actually jaden who simply excels in his role. actually i was personally surprised to see such a performance from him after annoying us in ,'the pursuit of happiness' and 'the day the earth stood still'. apart from the lead,
Taraji P.Henson , who plays sherry parker, dre's single mother and Wenwen Han, aho plays dre's crush attracts some attention.apart from them none of the cast attracts attention, that can be attributed to their limited time on screen.

Technically the movie is more than adequate for a kid movie.having said all these this is not a perfect movie.the romance between dre and mei ying was very poorly conceived.i dont know what sort of logic exists between snogging of two kids who havent even hit puberty with respect to their age!!!another ridiculous thing about the movie is its title, not even a single word of karate was used in the movie by any of the characters also given the fact that the movie is basically about kung fu, why calling it 'The karate kid', instead of 'The kung fu kid'?????

But as i mentioned above all these things can be overlooked for some hearty performances by the lead cast and for its simple and a heartfelt story.

Go for it to find out why Jackie chan is said have no substitute, and also let out the kid inside your heart.

Note:don't judge this movie by its IMDB rating,as this movie is said to be a 1984 movie of the same name. people who watched the original version naturally won't like this one,being a remake.

Then he proposed her

Then he proposed her.....









He asked her whether she can live without him , with some masked words to cover up his real intentions.

she replied ,"NO".

She also added she can't even imagine it.

Then he proposed her.........

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He was desperately searching for them, the answers for all those questions.

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Things were never the same after that , a period of metamorphosis occurred in him without his knowledge. he developed a strange feeling for her, you can even call it as fear.

fear???? yes!!!!

Fear of losing her.but he is not sure not about her, what is she thinking??? is the the same way he feels for her?is she thinking that he is as important as he thinks about her for his life?

One day he decided , he cannot take it anymore... he decided to ask her and he did.

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On the way back she uttered a nine word sentence, that changed the entire perspective of the relation completely. something happened at that time. they were no more friends from that point , that beautiful friendship they shared till that point was completely lost.


they were not foes either!

sorry i forgot, she said this,"I have never been so close with a boy". though this sentence is nothing new , it is one of the most cliched type of one liners exchanged universally between couples all over the world, it sounded very special for him on that day.

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None of the questions seemed familiar to him!! it was some run of the mill so called' fun competition'. he asked for help from every known face he knew.
*************************************************

They sat in opposite seats in the transportation vehicle, had a few giggles at some jokes.reached their destination, she wetted her feet in that sodium chloride rich water from that giant water body. he was observing her motionless,

lucky water???

his answer at that time,"funny question, why should it be?"
.
.
.
.

"well, may be yes!!!!"

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Can mere texts and words exchanged at a regular basis can help exchange ones soul???he didn't think so, "ain't that phenomenon grand???"he asked himself. but the real answer is , yes it is grand but it is not in the definition of what we call grand!

something happened in him, but he never knew it.


suddenly one day she asked her out, as friends, just as friends....

**********************************************

the sun was beating down very hard,he couldn't help it.none seemed to get him out of this mess he got himself to.

***********************************************

He use to watch lots of movies and read lots of books. those included many stories with plots where a the whole life of a the protagonist is changed completely with small things some times even 'words'.

But he never expected a single 'hi' would change his world completely.

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That gift made him active in the world of online chatting . online chatting are nothing new, they originated in the late 90s and attained their peak of popularity in the early 2000s.he has received so many hi's and bye's and that one was nothing different, it read like this,

her:hi

with a 'blimp' notification sound it popped out in his PC.

***********************************************

One day he received a virtual gift from her, he opened it, only to discover that it is a cheap work by some website to popularize their content.

Next day she thanked him for the gift he sent!!!

??????????????????????????????????????

*******************************************

He was walking this time , alone as usual. their paths in which they travel with equal magnitude and different directions when viewed in a two dimensional coordinate met near the building where a special kind of worms reside.after having a brief chat he asked her for those 'unimportant things' which she has to deliver to him by the virtue of her position. she told that she'll send all those things through the electronic media and got his e-mail ID.

the next day he had a glimpse of her e-mail ID.

*****************************************


At that time he had the first glimpse of her and like any other person he asked her help involuntarily, it is a bit strange because they had only a couple of eye-eye contacts before to their credit.

*****************************************

In another hot summer day they exchanged a smile from a distance, both should have felt a bit special about each other. he then gained some knowledge about her, from the people around.......

-Rajarajan


(the narration style i have adopted in this story is highly inspired by the movie 'Memento' christopher Nolan)

Aayirathil Oruvan-Movie Review

Well....
I don't know how to to begin!!! My mind still refuses to accept the fact that minutes ago i watched a thamil movie....
to be precise , this movie is a 'cinematic event' in thamil cinema history....
Never before seen thrills , action , adventure, brutality, violence,nudity , visuals ,story ,narration style,editing, and....
OMG i'm running out of adjectives!!!!

okay... let me get to the point... this latest selvaraghavan flick is set to rock the thamil film industry for a while...

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*******SPOILER ALERT*******

the plot itself is ground breaking...

The story begins with a worried chola king looking at his burning country under the hands of the pandyas.He decides to protect his descendants and his wealth, so he sends his son and a part his soldiers along with his wealth through a secret way to as long last land.Meanwhile the Pandyas crush the cholas and completely wipes them away.but still they couldnt get what they desired for, the idol of their favourite god , which was once coveted from them by the cholas. even centuries later the fate of the group which escaped that war night was left in darkness.


The Clocks rolls back to the present...

A group of archeologists set out on a journey in search of a lost treasure which is lost in the centuries before in the power tussle between the cholas and the pandyas.the first half was spot on and the adventure begins right from the word go. government officials sends in an group of archeologists under a main head Anita(Reema), which was left unfinished by their predecessors.who was accompanied by another archeologist Lawanya(Andrea) who is also the daughter of one of those who went on this same search and got lost their way in the interim.A group of coolies to help them in their way lead by Muthu(Karthi) also forms the part of this adventure. With the Military support of a Forest guard(Alagam Perumal) the troop sets off the
journey. later Andrea unravels the fact that they are on the search of the fate of the chola group that escaped on that war night.

their journey was forms the rest of the story.....


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Wait a minute... did i say this forms the rest of the story????
nope... i was wrong... this covers only half the plot....







the rest?????
its filled with the darker side of our glorified kings and queens who ruled our past... it show cases their madness and thirst for power and glory, and also the sufferings of the innocent civilians in their hands.

i'll give an example for the sufferings of the people under this reign,

A woman with her starving infant goes straight to her king and squeezes her breast, where blood oozes instead of her maternal gland...(This brave attempt by selva will come under lots of criticisms in the near future!!!)


A war sequence which comes at the end of this movie will be an visual extravaganza and an absolute treat for all those action buffs.

when it comes it to the cilmax ppl may be feel it a bit abrupt but the message was there to be understood,'History repeats itself'.

Regarding the performances of the lead cast... its karthi who dominates the proceedings as a foul mouthed , happy go lucky, youth. the second place is dominated by some power packed performances by reema and parthiban. well to say about Andrea, she was an disappointment in a role which itself seems to be of very low importance to the plot of the movie. the character of alagam perumal though has an important role to play in the story has very less scope for acting.

The cinematography deserves a very special mention here as for an fantasy adventure like this it ios the life line..... Ramji, the cinematographer has put his heart and soul for this one to make it Extraordinary.Music was also highly impressive,especially the background score, which takes you to the next level.

But on the flip side selva should understand his limitations... he is not an tarantino or guy ritchie to put fun and humour into violence and brutality. nor a zack snyder to be an expert in slow motion sequences and make the audience spell bound.


On the whole with given resources , selva has made an loyal and heartful attempt to make a movie which has set the bars so high for thamil cinema to recreate a similar magic again.

This is not an average commercial potboiler that releases for every festival....go with an open mind and enjoy the dark world to which selva transform you from the first frame...

Enjoy the ride!!!!!!