G.V Prakash Kumar, experiencing a high-point in his career, has ventured into production and its a film for newcomers ! Directed by debutante Vikram Sugumaran, a former assistant of Balu Mahendra and the fellow dialogue writer for Vetrimaaran in 'Aadukalam', 'Madha Yaanai Koottam' has its roots in Theni and is based on the "Seimurai" rituals and proceedings. Will Vikram live it up to his guru's expectations ?
Debutante hero Kathir, handled his role quite effectively. His dialogue delivery is quite measured and composed. His ability to handle action sequences are not bad, though he can deliver better performances. Definitely a good and raw prospect, who can be sculpted into a fine actor. Just watch out from being stereotyped ! Oviya, pretty much has nothing to do, to be frank. Her character is inconsequential to the script and narration and is there in the film for purely commercial reasons, alone. She sticks out like a sore-thumb, due to her odd character placement. The antagonist Vela Ramamoorthy looks menacing and majestic with his body language and dialogue delivery. Veteran Viji Chandrasekhar, delivers a very intense and nuanced performance, and she pulled it off effervescently, thanks to her talent and experience. The supporting cast such as Murugan, Ammu, P.Gopalakrishnan, Virumaandi, Anju, Theni Mahalakshmi and etc were good and befitting of the characters they enacted.
Gopi Prasanna, has handled the designing aspect quite well, and presented the rustic and gritty look, needed for the script. Kishore T.E's editing is crisp and neat and his editing style, fits the mood and presentation manner of the director's script. The action sequences, especially were slickly edited. 'Rock' Prabhu's action choreography is fantastic, and pumping with emotions and raw nature to it. The stunts have been realistically choreographed and any cinematic artificiality has been avoided at all cost. The final output is brilliant and he deserves applauds for his choreography. Well done, Prabhu ! Ragul Dharuman's cinematography is impressive, especially with his framing and camera angles. The color tone, gives the film a very raw, rustic and gritty look, which really resembled the nature of the script. And he must be congratulated for the maximum usage of natural lights, which gives a beautiful, natural look & feel for the script.
N.R Raghunanthan's soundtracks fits the need of the script, very well. "Unnai Vanangaathu" is a situational song, featuring local street artistes delivering a sketch-like narration of the characters of the script. Ragul's natural lighting is a highlight of the song and the funeral scenario had fantastic detailing ! "Kana Kondakaari" is shot on the lead pair and had plenty of montages of the hero falling for the heroine, with plenty of indoor-shots. "Kombu Oothi" is another situational track, projecting a glitzy and grand rural wedding, with plenty of good detailing and camera angles. "Mukkaluthu" is used as a background song, capturing the funeral procession of a main character of the film, which also had very good detailing. "Enga Pore" is a pathos song, shot on the protagonist, who is on the run. The song had plenty of good landscape as backdrops and Ragul has captured the rustic beauty of Kerala, very well. "Yaro Yaro" was shot on the lead pair and had plenty of montages as well, shot against the backwaters of Kerala. N.R Raghunanthan's background score is even better than the songs and the score is pretty much complementary and is in-tune with the mood of the script.
Vikram Sugumaran has done a great job with his detailing of the rituals and occasions of the rural folks of Theni. He manages to transport us into their world, very effectively and that is something which many directors, be it new or even the experienced, fail to do so ! He should be applauded for getting good output from his cast and technical crew as well and has a good understanding of his exact wants and needs. But the plot is quite straightforward and has not much twists and turns, except for the climax, which is a little dampener. This is due to the proliferation of such rural-based, violently action-oriented dramas in Tamizh cinema, in recent times. The intensity of the action and drama is quite high at times, which does not give much space for the characters to register well with the audience, in terms of emotional connectedness. Dialogues were very well written, and resonated the plot milieu and characterizations of the artistes. Vikram is certainly a good prospect, and with better script and screenplay writing, this talent is bound to go higher in Tamizh cinema.
'Madha Yaanai Koottam' - A very well made first-attempt from the makers. More improvement and a bigger success, is definitely on the way !
Ratings: 2.75/5 STARS
BY:TAMIL
'Etho Seithai Ennai' came out without any fanfare or publicity at all, which makes us to brush of this film outright, just before noticing the cast of the film ! It has some veteran artistes who are making their odd return to the film industry and also the hero Shakkthi, son of veteran director P.Vasu. Does this film deserves any sort of publicity ? Definitely not at all !
Shakkthi makes his comeback after a small guest role in 'Yuvan Yuvathi'. He has established himself as a proper actor, who can emote and deliver dialogues confidently, with some little bit of charm in his previous films. What's not watchable here, is the ridiculously etched out sequences in which he has to perform the acts of heroes done in the 80's and early 90's. He has just performed what the director wanted, and there's nothing special here, which is worthy enough for a comeback. Liya, who did a role in 'Peraanmai' makes her comeback as well, which is not worthy off. She struggles in her role and there's no chemistry at all between her character and that of Shakkthi's which makes their love portion sequences like a sore thumb ! Anand Babu and Anandh makes their comebacks too, through this film and together with John Vijay, all three of them look like the cinematic, and over-the-top villains whom we are used to seeing, time immemorial. Bhanuchander, Ilavarasan, Sai Prashanth, Devi Priya makes their presence in small roles and Srinath makes us chuckle a bit in his sequences, with his funny dialogues and body language.
On the technical front, this film has nothing to offer us. 'Rock' Prabhu's stunts were okay, though some portions look overtly-done. K.R Shree, has very less budget to afford, I guess, so his art work is very minimal, with some props here and there. Muthulakshmi Varadhan's editing was poor with the continuity of the story getting hit badly. Ezhil Arasan's lighting was poor which makes his cinematography of the film look like the work of an amateur, befitting for a short film. Ganesh B.Kumar's tunes are not hummable at all. "Muzhu Nilavu" was shot within a bus setting with the lead pair, with some narrow angles. "Pogamal Oru Naal" was shot within a campus setting, shot at night mostly, with some few background dancers thrown into the frame. "Kadhil Mattum" was shot in foreign locales, Venice to be precise, which gives the film a different look but the song composition was bad, with poor angles, which does not bring out the beauty of the place being focused upon. 'Falling in Love" is a montage-filled song, showing the flashbacks of the lead pair and their encounters with each other.
J.Elvin Bosser, the director tries to weave a story of rivalries, love and back-stabbing in the story, but the events stands out mutually exclusive of each other and though the director tries to weave all the subplots together, it did not gel well, making us to wonder, why so and so proceedings are taking place in the script. The rivalry portion was poorly executed, leaving us not hooked to it and worse, not able to comprehend, why the rivalry is there in the first place and what makes the characters to bay out for each other's blood. The love sequences too did not look thoroughly convincing nor interesting.
'Etho Seithaai Ennai' - No idea, what the director wanted to convey as a film !
Ratings: 1/5 STARS
BY:TAMIL
