'Thirumanam Enum Nikkah' has been lying in the cans for quite sometime and finally, Aascar V.Ravichandran's production has released. Directed by debutante Anis, this was suppose to be the debut venture of Nazriya Nazim, though her other ventures managed to release earlier. A film touted to be on the lines of 'Monsoon Wedding', did Anis come up with a decent product ?
Jai was in his usual elements and he fits such lightweight roles. If you are a Tamizh cinema film-buff, you would have by now guessed the level of performance from Jai. Meanwhile, Nazriya Nazim looks charming and has her moments, but the characterization was poor, hence the lesser scope for performance, for this lass. Heebah Patel looks good, but her role has no purpose and leaves no mark. The rest of the cast such as Jamal (voiced by Nassar), Dinesh, R.Pandiarajan, Mayilsamt, Deekshitha Manikkam, Badri Narayanan and etc were okay with their performances.
Vanitha Srinivasan's costume designing was good, especially for the lead pair, and her homework on two distinct cultures of Hindus and Muslims, was evident on screen. The costumes, especially for Heeba were gorgeous ! Action choreography was handled by Kanal Kannan and there was only one action block in the film. The initial chase and fight sequence was well executed and was not so over-the-top. Mu.Kasi Vishwanathan's editing was very functional and there were no gimmicks from the editor's table. Art direction is handled by Crawford and Dharmendra and both of them have done a good job with their respective tasks. The detailing for the Shia Muslim household, as well as Tamil Brahmin community's homes is notable, especially with the set properties. Loganathan Srinivasan's cinematography sufficed the needs of the script. His work in capturing the rich culture of Shia Muslim and Tamil Brahmin, is commendable.
The silver lining of the film is the brilliant musical score from M.Ghibran ! The songs are fantastic and it complements the mood and feel of the script. "Yaaro Ival" is a situational song, which was used initially as Nazriya's introductory song. The song appears sporadically throughout the film, in bits and pieces. "Rayile Raa" has Jai trying to impress the heroine and was shot on a railway platform and a medical camp-like set was put up for the song. Loganathan's rain shot, with the rays of sun, deserves mention. One of the pick of the lot, "Kannukkul Pothivaipen" is a cute and lovely song, shot on both Jai and Nazriya, in a Tamil Brahmin household environment, with the Golu Festival as the backdrop. The rooftop shots, with different rangolis looked lovely, especially with Loganathan's lighting for the particular portions. "Khwaja Ji" is picturized on Jai attending a Shia Muslim ritual, and is an eye-opener (literally !) for those who are unaware of the traditions of that particular Muslim denomination. "Chillendra" was shot on Jai and Heebah and is another celebration song, and this time it's the Ramzan festival. Jai's costume designing in this song, deserves mention. "Enthaara Enthaara" is the other chart-buster song and it was shot on Jai and Nazriya, developing their feelings for each other, which had plenty of montages. M.Ghibran's background score elevates the boring and half-baked sequences and its a pity that his brilliant scores are simply wasted !
Did Anis come up with a decent product, as asked earlier ? The answer is a resounding NO ! The script has a very wafer-thin plot and there's no connectivity at all between the sequences and the proceedings of the screenplay. There's no proper explanation of the dilemma faced by the lead pair and Anis did not convincingly portray the actual feelings of the lead pair. Were the pair in love with each other ? Or did they actually fall in love with the other's religion and not the individual ? Did they feel unconnected with their own community's trappings ? On an even serious note, was Anis trying to 'promote' Shia Muslim teachings and practices and not bother about story-telling and character development ?Only Anis has the answer ! To make it even worse, Anis falls for the commercial compromises, such as songs, an unwanted action sequence, half-baked romance portions and woefully portrayed serious/emotional scenes. There is no effort in detailing, in terms of writing & execution and Madhan Karky's dialogues too were abruptly cut short, which leaves the characters with unfinished dialogue portions !
'Thirumanam Enum Nikkah' - A blunder of an attempt in making a good film, which unfortunately had excellent musical score and interesting plot ideas !
Ratings: 2.25/5 STARS
BY:TAMIL
Its the season of Thai Pongal and what better way is there to unwind the festival day, other than watching the brand new film releases ? And kick-starting 2014 with a bang is Ajith Kumar, in the elegant shirt-dhoti combo, living up to the spirits of Pongal ! After a string of urbane roles, Ajith Kumar has reverted to the traditional, rural look (remember 'Attagasam' ?) and teamed up with Siva of 'Siruthai' fame. Can "Thala" start the year with a bang and a back-to-back hit-ratio ?
As the main lead, Ajith Kumar helms the entire film on his shoulder and the film would not have sustained even a single bit, without his sheer presence. The man is majestic and charming, suave yet rural and as always it has been, performs all the action sequences by himself ! His mild changeover in the second half, in terms of facial hair, suits him still and he carried the role with aplomb. "Thala" had a field-day with this project and he has flexed his acting and fighting muscles, in every sense. And the train fight sequence ? Bravo to this gutsy hero ! Tamannaah, is there and that's about it. DOT ! The next person to take the cake is definitely Santhanam, with his wacky one-liners in the first half, who is in sizzling form whereas Thambi Ramaiah takes up the second half, and makes a buffoon out of himself. A National Award and still willing to take up such ludicrous roles ? Time for assessment ! Bala and Vidharth has the meatier roles among the band of younger brothers and they did what they are allowed to do by the character. Suhail Chandok and Munish are the remaining ones. As for the protagonist, Atul Kulkarni did what he was told and Pradeep Rawat was made to look like a fool, in the end. So much so for being a villain ! There is a huge group of peripheral character artistes in the film such as Nassar, Ramesh Khanna, Avinash, Appukutty, Abinaya, Suza Kumar, Mayilsamy, Vidyullekha Raman, Devadarshini, Ilavarasu, 'Crane' Manohar, Sujatha, R.N.R Manohar, Kalairani, Manochitra, Pawan and etc, who were simply there in the frame for no reasons. Waste of budget !
T.Rajan's costumes were okay, the characters looked their parts, just like what a commercial film, would demand. Milan has done a very detailed and labouring work in the production design department. The were just plenty of set work and numerous set properties, which gave the film a resplendently, rural look. Most of the film was done on artificial sets, and Milan and his team must have been on-the-run, all the time. A very well designed production, indeed ! Mu.Kasi Vishwanathan, could have done more trimming because the second half was just simply lagging in pace, but the stunt sequences were very well presented. Silva, K.Ganesh, Pammal Ravi and Vicky have handled the action choreography, and they sure did have a gallery of time, composing the shots ! Silva handled the train fight sequence, which had very dangerous moves, especially with Ajith hanging in the balance from the train, with 300 feet of depth below him. K.Ganesh handled the climax fight sequence, which was a little over-the-top. And the same applies to the works of the other two. Demands from director ? Perhaps, so. Vetri must have studied Ajith Kumar's body language a lot, and its pretty obvious that he has projected "Thala" in a very manly manner ! The rain shots are the best shot sequences of the film !
Devi Sri Prasad aka DSP, or whatsoever has tuned way, below-average compositions for the film ! None of the songs were really catchy nor did they linger in our minds. "Nallavanu Solvaanga" is the introductory song of Ajith and his band of brothers. There are plenty of montages in the song, with some action sequences as well. The set work by Milan, was of top-notch quality, though. The market set-up had all the little, intricate details needed to bring out the authentic look. "Thangame" and "Ival Dhana" were shot in the picturesque Switzerland (where else can they go !). The former had the usual foreign back-up dancers, and was shot in the city landscape. Whereas the latter had the best shots, with beautiful images of snowy mountains, lush & green landscape and etc. "Jingu Chikkan" is the customary temple festival song, with most of the character artistes, being involved. Once again, neat work Milan ! The pick of the lot among the songs, will definitely be the "Ratha Gaja" theme track, which was played out during the high-octane action sequences. Suits "Thala" to a T ! The background score was passable. Complement's the script.
The story was developed by Siva and Bhupathi Raja, and its pretty obvious that their reference were the corny village movies of the late 80's and 90's. A very, very, very old wine in a not-so-new, bottle ! Siva has teamed up with Bharathan for the dialogues, and some of them packs some punches, especially when delivered flawlessly by "Thala" himself. Tailor-made dialogues, aren't they ? Siva has single-handedly managed the screenplay and direction department. The first element was just a mess, second half, especially. Direction ? He nailed it. How difficult can it be to simply direct a film, which can be easily slotted into the films belonging to previous decades ? Its pretty obvious that some elements of the script has been simply thrust, just for the sake of a grandiose effect, and to extract the "larger-than-life" star power of Ajith Kumar. One must switch of their brains and leave the logical thinking at work, if you are to watch flicks, such as these. Siva should be appreciated for smartly incorporating Santhanam into nearly all the scenes of the first half, because if it wasn't for him, the screenplay would have been absurdness played for the entire duration ! Siva has certainly brought Tamizh cinema backwards by a few steps with 'Veeram'.
'Veeram' - The rating below is purely for the "Thala" Ajith Kumar factor, alone. Santhanam can take some credits, too.
Ratings: 2.75/5 STARS
BY:TAMIL
