Kalaippuli S.Thanu, known for his lavish expenses for his productions, is back after the huge success of 'Thuppaki'. This time, its the protege of his 'Thuppaki' director A.R Murugadoss, called Anand Shankar. The youngster has assembled a good team and has cast the fast emerging Vikram Prabhu and the current favorite of youth, Priya Anand. With a good production unit and a good technical crew behind him, can Anand Shankar replicate the success of his mentor for the same producer ?
Vikram Prabhu is getting good with each film of his and in 'Arima Nambi', he pulls of the action hero image, quite comfortably. His lanky physique, with a good screen presence helps him to nail the character quite well. The actor has been working on his looks and dance movements as well, and it seems to be paying off well ! Priya Anand has a very fashionable and upscale look to her character. She fits the bill and is the pivot around which the script revolves. She gets it right in the performance department as well, with an acute and mature acting. J.D Chakravarthy makes a deadly entry as the surprise antagonist of the film, and though the intense actor keeps our attention, the character somehow fizzes out to be an average villain we get to see in most Tamizh films. Arjunan, Yog Japee, Aruldass and etc have taken up some important character roles and there are cameo appearances from Lekha Washington and M.S Bhaskar, with the latter coming up with a terrific performance !
Costume designing is handled by Chaitanya Rao, Komal Shahani and Perumal Selvam, and their work was very good, complementing the look and design of the film. Since the film projected an upmarket feel, the lead artistes' costumes were trendy and stylish. One of the film's biggest asset is the action choreographer Dhilip Subbarayan. His action sequences were superbly staged and executed, especially the one before the climax. Though the action sequences were brilliantly executed, its quite obvious that the choreography is an imitation and has been inspired from the Bourne series, starring Matt Damon and directed by Paul Greengrass. Even the henchmen depicted, has the same hairstyle and body language ! T.Muthuraj's art direction was superb, especially with the detailing he has given to the posh apartment, hotel room, and office premises shown in the film. The properties bear a chic and stylish look throughout and adds more glossiness to the film. Editor Bhuvan Srinivasan's cuts are worth mentioning, especially for the action sequences, but he could have definitely trimmed the film's duration, especially for the lagging second half. Ace cinematographer R.D Rajasekhar proves once again, why he is known as a specialist cameraman for action scripts ! The visuals are superb and he has rightly captured the upmarket ambiance very well, especially for the song picturizations. His lighting for the night shots are fantastic as well and his work definitely helped the film achieve its intended look and feel.
Popular percussionist 'Drums' Sivamani makes his debut as a music director in this film. His music blends well with the script, though they are not chart-busters. "Yaaro Yaaraval" was shot in a Hard Rock Cafe ambiance, with excellent lighting and camera movements, within a limited space. The song has a MTV-music video like feel to it, and Vikram Prabhu shows his comfortableness in handling dance and song, as well. "Naanum Unnil" is a belly dance number, featuring svelte dancers in glamorous costumes. It was intended to look like a music-video shoot and R.D Rajasekhar's lighting comes handy, in giving the song the right mood. "Idhayam Un Idhayam" is a romantic duet, and was shot in the exotic and heavenly location of Erawan Falls, situated in the Erawan National Park of Kanchanaburi province, Thailand. The beautiful blue waterfall is a visual treat for the eyes, and R.D Rajasekhar has tried his best in delivering the scenic location from all sorts of interesting angles. Background score by Sivamani gelled well with the scenes and complemented the feel of the script. A decent debut for Sivamani !
Anand Shankar, a protege of A.R Murugadoss, has diligently followed in the footsteps of his mentor. His clever scripting for the first half keeps us glued to our seats, due to the onslaught of action sequences and the guessing game going on. Anand Shankar, keeps it simple with no irritating comedy portions, unwanted romance sequences nor heavy build ups for his protagonist. He maintains the tense mood for most of the film, and has inserted the action sequences at the right moment. His detailing work is excellent, especially with the clues, suspense element and also for his research homework on gadgetry and current world scenarios. There are one or two surprises thrown in the script, which keeps us enthralled. The first half was very well crafted and executed. But the second half takes a little beating, where Anand Shankar has taken the quintessential Tamizh cinema liberties, by infusing some 'masala' elements into the film. The second half drags unnecessarily and all logic took backseat, especially in the climax, where J.D Chakravarthy's antagonist role turns the whole police department into his private henchmen and our protagonist is as good as a trained secret service officer ! There are plenty of small loopholes and loose ends in the script and the director gives away the all-important crucial story of the script quite early and it also lacks some finesse in its writing. But Anand Shankar can be appreciated for his directorial skills and his handling of scenes, as well as good characterization works.
'Arima Nambi' - A trustworthy commercial film !
Ratings: 2.75/5 STARS
BY:TAMIL
Vishal is back with another action film, which is directed by Thiru, who has collaborated with him in the dampener, 'Theeradha Vilaiyaattu Pillai'. For Vishal, this is a very critical film, because he has been treading the wrong path where a slew of his previous releases, all were failures. In order to survive, this must click for him. With an interesting star cast, and picturized in Thailand for most duration of the film, 'Samar' intrigued viewers with its slick trailer, which did not give out any particular hints. So how did the movie fare ?
For Vishal, this movie is a throwback to his 'Sandaikozhi' and 'Thimiru' days were he underplayed his role, with controlled performance. He has put his strong and built physique to good use in the action scenes. The no-nonsense and introvert characterization was carried out well by Vishal and it is enjoyable for us to watch him perform in this manner. Well done, Vishal ! Trisha, does her part well and was confident in her dialogue delivery and for dubbing in her own voice. She looks good and was at ease throughout the film. Sunaina barely had anything to do other than to act in a couple of scenes and to dance for a song, though her character was needed. Critically acclaimed performers Manoj Bajpai and J.D Chakravarthy fall way short of in delivering strong and outstanding performances, though they are very much capable of delivering it. Blame the director, for the poorly sketched characters of Manoj and J.D. The rest of the cast such as Jayaprakash, Sampath, Sriman, Azhagam Perumal, John Vijay, Uma Padhmanabhan and others are adequate.
Vasugi Bhaskar's costume designing was very apt for each characters, where the costumes reflected the personality of each characters. Sound designing by Renganaath Ravee was good, especially in the stunt sequences. Jacki's art work was adequate, considering that the majority of the film was captured in real life locations and his work blends in well with the surroundings. Ruben's editing is just nice, especially for the stunt scenes, which is the trump card of the film. Stunt choreography is the highlight of the film. Each stunt scenes were solidly choreographed and most importantly, was very natural and realistic. It is a delight to watch such pumping action scenes, neatly executed in Tamizh cinema. Kudos to the stunt choreographers, Kanal Kannan, Rajashekar, Jimmy from Singapore and also to Nang of the Baan Rig team from Thailand. Great work by them ! Complementing the stunt sequences, is Richard M.Nathan's stunning cinematography (who also makes a small cameo appearance in the film). He has used plenty of aerial shots in and around Bangkok. His color tone and lighting aptly follows the changes of locations in the film, as the story progresses. Another good job well in his portfolio !
Yuvan Shankar Raja's music is a letdown for this film. His score is average considering the fact, he can deliver chart-busting songs. "Oru Kannil Vegam" is the introductory song of the protagonist and depicts his life as a forest ranger. There are plenty of pleasing aerial shots by Richard in this song and captures the beauty of the forest in different lights. "Azhago Azhagu" is the pick of the lot from the album. It was picturized on the three characters of Vishal, Trisha and Sunaina and was shot entirely in and around Putrajaya city of Malaysia with some iconic buildings and landmark being the backdrop. "Poikaal Kudhirai" is an interesting number, which was well placed in the film. There are plenty of cut-shots, which are mostly picturized at night and features many facets of Bangkok and its surroundings. "Vellai Mayil" is a romantic number shot on Vishal and Trisha, with aerial shots along the sea shore and besides that, shot mostly within posh hotel premises. The final song "Raajavin Thottathil" is a hot, club number shot on sexily-clad item girls and features the two antagonists of the film, enjoying themselves. The lighting and camera movements by Richard M.Nathan complements the mood and feel of the song. Background score was handled by Dharan Kumar and he shows is prowess in good sound mixing with apt background music, be it for suspense scenes or for romantic scenes.
Director Thiru has delivered an interesting plot and theme, laced with the right amount of commercial aspects for this film. He has handled the majority of the screenplay quite well, maintaining the suspense, gripping twists and turns and some surprises towards the last 15 minutes of the film. The film keeps us guessing until the last 15 minutes, on what is happening in the film, until the secret is revealed. But once the suspense is unraveled, the film looses its fizz and ends on a rather tepid manner, which makes us to feel that the overall end product could have been better. The director rightfully avoided inserting any comedy scenes into the screenplay. Dialogues by Thiru and S.Ramakrishnan was very much suitable for the script, being straight-forward and not overtly dramatic, except for those uttered by the antagonists. The idea of the script definitely has an inspiration from some Hollywood and Korean films, but Thiru has cleverly adapted the idea to suit the taste and sensibilities of Tamizh audience.
After a long time, we get to see a good movie from Vishal and though it could have been presented in a better manner, it still delivers a decent action thriller, with enough thrills and chases in keeping our attention. Not so great, but not bad, either.
Ratings: 2.75/5 STARS
BY:TAMIL
