Vishal is back in action for Deepavali once again and he has joined hands with director Hari, who is fresh from the blockbuster success of 'Singam II'. After a lengthy 7-year gap with 'Thaamirabarani', this duo is back in action with a typical, commercial "masala" film, full of sentiments, action, glamour, song-and-dance and comedy and produced under Vishal's own Vishal Film Factory banner. With the usual huge supporting cast and his trusted technicians, can Hari and Vishal score back to back hits in their respective careers with 'Poojai' ?
This is a perfect platform for Vishal to flex his muscles and showcase the machismo side of his. This is a very apt and comfortable setup for Vishal and he has come out clean, with an energetic yet subtle performance. He has matured more as an actor and manages to stamp his mark with his screen presence. Job, well done ! Shruti Haasan is only making her third appearance in Tamizh, after a two year absence from '3'. She replicates her Telugu cinema act, with a simple modern-day, girl-next-door performance and ups the ante in the glamour department, for the songs. Mukesh Tiwari as the main antagonist was passable, though a better actor would have created an heavier impact. Soori, 'Black' Paandi and Immanuel Annachi takes care of the comedy portions, and though one or two scenes are funny, thanks to the quirky dialogues, their tracks were redundant, on an overall basis. The huge supporting cast, consisted of some of the best character artistes such as Sathyaraj, Raadhika Sarathkumar, Jayaprakash, 'Thalaivasal' Vijay, Prathap Pothen, and also other artistes such as Manobala, R.Sundarrajan, Abhinaya, Kausalya, Renuka, Sithara, Aishwarya, Janaki Sabesh, Awadesh Mishra, Vinay Bihari, Mathumila Mano, Sanjay Singh, Sounthara Raja, Barath Raj and etc. Most of them do fill up the spaces but their relevance and importance to the film, is another question entirely.
Costume designing by Vasuki Bhaskar and Chaitanya Rao fits the bill, and the lead pair looked natural and realistic. Shruti Haasan was particularly, glamorous in the sons sequences. Some of the character artistes, costumes could have been better and not over-done. Action choreography is by the once-in-demand-once-upon-a-time, Kanal Kannan. As it has mostly been with Kanal, the action sequences were over-the-top, repetitive and unwarranted. The opportunities were there in the screenplay for an pulsating action choreography, alas it was wasted for good ! K.Kadhirr's art direction was splendid, especially with the elaborate market set-work, which looked realistic and also with the grand & posh mansion, apartment and office settings, which had all the necessary props to enhance the setting. Veteran V.T Vijayan and T.S Jay duo takes care of the editing department, and their quick-cuts helped overcome the obvious flaws of the action sequences. The film moves at a good and steady pace, but there are many redundant scenes, which could have been edited out, to make it racier. Hari's right-hand man and regular, Priyan is the cinematographer here as well, and his work suffices the need of the script and complements, Hari's presentation style, very well. Especially with the top-angle and chopper shots.
Yuvan Shankar Raja's musical score is below average for his standards and only a couple of the songs are really hummable numbers. "Soda Bottle" is the opening item-number song, shot on Vishal and has a cameo appearance from Andrea Jeremiah, who had a glamorous make-over for this song. K.Kadhirr's market set was well shot by Priyan for this song and most of the detailing of the art work was visible on screen. "Devathai" is the pick of the lot and was shot on Vishal and Shruti Haasan, dancing in scenic urbane and hill stations of Switzerland. Shruti Haasan was at her glam-best, for the first time in Tamizh cinema. Some montage sequences were interspersed along the choreographed portions. "Ippadiye" is a folk dancer number, with elements of trance music from Yuvan Shankar Raja. Its an atypical Hari song, shot on the lead pair, in a simple yet colorful set, accompanied by colorfully-attired group dancers. "Uyire" is a situational pathos song, also shot on the lead pair and comes at two different places. "Odi Odi" is the final situational song and was had plenty of chases and sentimental scenes, and serves as the prelude for the climax portion. Yuvan Shankar Raja's background score was functional enough but for his standards, it could and should have been way much better.
As with all Hari films, 'Poojai' too has the commercial, mass "masala" template with its script. Hari has repeated the same formula for the umpteenth time and arranges the screenplay in an sequence of comedy, action, song, sentiment and this sequence repeats throughout the whole screenplay. There are no twists and turns in the script and the story has a very linear and straightforward timeline. The story only picks up pace just before the interval and stutters occasionally after that, with some redundant songs and comedy portions. There's no cohesion nor coherence in the screenplay and many scenes do not gel well and sticks out like sore thumbs. There's not enough of emotional depth, be it in the hero/villain episode nor the hero/heroine portions, as well. The action sequences tire you after a point of time and it doesn't really fire up the emotion in us. Though all of Hari's films has the same template, he gets it right with some scripts, which has the right proposition and proportions of the "masala" quotients. But with 'Poojai' there seems to be miscalculation and obvious flaws, in the execution of the script and even in the directorial department as well.
'Poojai' - An average 'darshan' with some working bits and pieces !
Ratings: 2.5/5 STARS
BY:TAMIL
As it was in 2011, Karthi starts off 2013 with another "masala" oriented action-comedy which borrows its title from one of Rajinikanth's epic characters list, 'Alex Pandian'. The name reminds us of the class, style, fury and charismatic performance of the one and only 'Superstar'. Suraaj who has been borrowing titles inspired by Rajinikanth lately, has teamed up with Karthi and Santhanam for the first time. A lavish budget from Studio Green, 'Alex Pandian' made no bones about the expectations audience should have on this film, through the teasers and posters. So, is 'Alex Pandian' worth all the budget ?
Karthi, who is armed with a charming and instantly likeable personality, sleep walks through the film. There is nothing much to do in the performance and this film only acts as another medium for him to improve his dancing and stunts performances. Karthi has been showing his inclinations in becoming an all out mass hero, but without a power-packed performance, will he succeed in his mission ? Definitely, no and he has been failing to realize it. The other 'hero' of the film Santhanam, carries the entire first half on his shoulders with his wise-cracking dialogues and funny antics. We have seen him do this plenty of times, and he does it with complete ease. The only difference here, is that he takes the opposing camp of Karthi, instead of playing the usual sidekick buddy. His dialogue delivery and timing are near perfect as usual, but he should control the level of double entendre jokes, since he is such a popular comedian now and kids are taking a liking for him. Anushka, pitiably has nothing much to do other then being the usual damsel-in-distress and dancing for song sequences. The film has a big star cast in Milind Soman, Suman, Prathap Pothen, Visu, Nikita Thukral, Akanksha, Sanusha, Manobala, Renuka, Saravanan, Vaiyapuri, Santhana Bharathi, Rajkapoor and Mahadevan, but sadly all of them have been wasted and appears as mere caricatures and laughable characters. Wonder what made all of them to choose to do this film, apart from the remunerations.
The film carries quite a big budget, but the works of the technical crew has been average. Costumes by Perumal Selvam makes the characters look lively and appealing, especially of Karthi's and Anushka's. The stunt choreography by K. Ganesh Kumar was too bad to be true. Laws of physics and practicality issue takes a severe beating. The opening action block was outrageously choreographed and if it wasn't for the editors, the opening scenes would have been a total mess. M.Prabakaran's art work was just nice. The interiors of Santhanam's town house, Karthi's jungle hideout, the sets for songs, all were neatly done. Praveen K.L and Srikanth N.B's editing work was crisp but sadly the film lacked maturity, which makes it hard to appreciate their work. S.Saravanan's cinematography was not bad and good enough for the script.
Devi Sri Prasad's songs are just below average, with some mass appeal. The first song, "Onnam Class" is a typical mass item song with Karthi dancing along with the three other girls of the film, Nikita, Akanshka and Sanusha. The setwork was good, with colorful blue, read and black themed sets and elaborate lighting. "Thakka Thaiya" was shot in a small town house set, with a joyous ceremony as its backdrop. The typical props such as serial lights, stage, flowers and back up dancers in traditional attires, are all there, with some comedic elements thrown into. "Naalu Pakkam" was well shot with very detailed set work. The tribal, wild western and pirates themed set works were very well done, especially the pirate set. "Rayya Rayya" is a typical "kuthu" song with simple sets erected in a studio, and the lead pair and dancers dressed in colorful costumes. "Bad Boy", which was used as the promotional song and appears during the end credits, was the best shot among all the songs. It has a little touch of class in its editing and the sets erected in the popular Binny Mills. DSP's background score is not worth discussing about, other than being sufficient enough for the film.
Coming back to the earlier asked question, Suraaj's script is not worth the budget spent at all, and it baffles why waste a big amount of money on a poorly written, half-baked script. The film has no cohesive screenplay, justified story telling, unnecessary comedy bits, and low-in-taste action scenes. Also, The plot wanders into no-man's territory in the second half. As mentioned earlier, Suraaj wasted the talents and capabilities of his acting cast. He tries to push the burden of the film on Santhanam for the first half and then shift the second half to Karthi. Suraaj's previous films such as 'Thalainagaram' and 'Marudhamalai' had humorous comedy scenes in them with less action, but here the action quotient is on par with the comedy quotient, and both elements were poorly written and executed.
'Alex Pandian' is an unabashedly, pretentious "masala commercial" which is poor in taste but high on budget. Karthi and Suraaj, what's wrong with you guys ?
Ratings: 1.75/5 STARS
BY:TAMIL
