Finally, one of the most anticipated and expected project has been released and the Rajini-mania was blaring sky-high ! Holding the distinction of being India's first photo-realistic, performance & motion capture, 3D computer-animated film, 'Kochadaiiyaan: The Legend' features non other than 'Super Star' Rajinikanth as the titular character and though it may not feature the legend in live action, this must truly be a great relief for his 'devotees'. A lot is riding on Soundarya Rajinikanth Ashwin's debut as a director but can she pull it off successfully ?
The film works mainly thanks to the electric and charismatic presence of 'Super Star' Rajinikanth. He carries the entire film on his shoulder and his magnetic voice adds great amount of zing to the film. Among the roles he did, it was certainly the titular character which was the scene-stealer, especially with the powerful portrayal. 'Ranadhiran' has the usual swag and style associated with 'Super Star' Rajinikanth and its a pure treat for his fans. The powerful dialogues can only be mouthed as superbly as it was, by him alone and once again, he proves that no can can match his screen presence, tenacious personality and the magnetic charm, as he does. Hail the one and only 'Super Star' ! Nassar and Shanmugaraja holds more screen timing, next to the 'Super Star' and being talented artistes, they did their part quite well. Aadhi and Jackie Shroff looks convincing as in their roles of royal king and prince. R.Sarathkumar impresses with his Tamizh diction in his cameo appearance. The ladies, especially Shobana and Rukmini were unfortunately bowled out with very few screen timing apart from Deepika Padukone, who plays the heroine. Though her digital version looks pretty and statusque, the lip-sync was terribly out of place, which could be due to Deepika's inability to speak or pronounce chaste Tamizh. The surprise package of all, is the resurrection of the legendary comedian Nagesh, who was brought out well by 'Nagesh' Shankar and Ramesh Khanna. The body language was apt and the dubbing was way too perfect, and the dubbing artiste definitely deserves recognition for his talent !
Art direction by Velu was impressive, especially with the depiction of the huge palaces presented in the film. Also, the sail ships featured in an extensive action sequence, was very well designed. Kudos to Velu ! The action choreography was handled by leading choreographer Peter Hein, along with Micheal. The extravagant, elaborate, stylish, acrobatic action sequences were befitting of the film's genre and story setting. Both of them did an excellent work and their work complemented the style of 'Super Star' Rajinikanth, which further enhances the effects to another level. Neeta Lulla takes care of the costume designing, and her efforts delivered wonders, especially for 'Super Star' Rajinikanth's digital version. The 'Super Star' was looking a million bucks and the credits should definitely go to Neeta. Coming close was Nassar and Deepika Padukone's costumes as well, which had good detailing. Academy Award winner, Resul Pookutty is in charge of sound designing, alongside Amrit Pritam. Their work took the film's effects to another level up, especially with the sound design. Forgoing the usual sound samples, the designers original recording and minute details they gave attention to, from sounds made by the movements of clothes, to the battlefield scenes upped the ante and enhanced the nuances of the script. Editor Anthony's cuts were sharp and rapid, especially for the action sequences which kept the excitement alive and also for a tight duration.
Academy Award winner and India's most wanted film composer, A.R Rahman delivered a very detailed and intrinsic score for the film and has consciously avoided from having a signature 'mass' theme music or songs as well. The film starts off with "Karma Veeran" which was picturized on the younger version of Rana, making his journey to the kingdom of Kalingapuri. The water element was abundant in the forms of river and waterfall. The song also features during the end-credits, where the film shooting footage were shown. The all-important introductory song, "Enge Pogudho" sung by S.P Balasubrahmanyam was next and features as Ranadhiran's opening song. The flamboyant and rousing anthemic element, typical of 'Super Star' Rajinikanth's opening song was there, and the castle scenes, as well as the cute dance were the highlights of the song. "Medhuvaagathaan" is the duet song featuring 'Super Star' Rajinikanth and Deepika Padukone. The dance movements of Deepika's was very graceful and the imaginary natural landscape featured in the song, alongside the white peacock, were well designed. "Manamaganin Sathiyam" & "Manappenin Sathiyam" were jointly used for a wedding sequence of the characters of R.Sarathkumar and Rukmini. The detailing of the durbar and the color palette could have been better, though the Tamizh wedding depiction, was nicely done. "Idhayam" has elaborate and grandeur in nature, change-overs with the scene setting and the editing by Anthony was seamless. Velu's art designing for the song complemented the dark and moody element of the song. The pick of the lot among the song picturizations has to be the "Engal Kochadaiiyaan" number which served as the introductory song of the 'Super Star' Rajinikanth titular character. The gloomy and haunting Maha Shivarathiri atmosphere, on a rocky and hilly mountain brought out the fantasy element very well, and the 'Rudhra Thaandavam' choreographed for the character was amazing, considering you have 'Super Star' Rajinikanth's screen presence along with it ! "Maatraam Ondruthaan" features 'Super Star' Rajinikanth and Shobana's character and the picturization, complemented the song's theme. A.R Rahman's background score, recorded with the German Film Orchestra Babelsberg, fits the nature and historical period drama genre, though some will miss the usual mass numbers expected in a 'Super Star' Rajinikanth film.
Now coming to the all important USP of the film, the performance & motion capture, done by Centroid {U.K} Ltd, under the supervision of Phil Stilgoe. The animation, project execution and techniques used are definitely path-breaking, for Indian cinema. This could definitely lead more and better projects to come in the future. But in 'Kochadaiiyaan: The Legend', the final result will receive mixed reaction from the audiences. Some will appreciate the effort, but some will definitely point out the obvious flaws. The animated characters did not capture the emotions of the artistes and this is evident through the non-rolling of the eyeballs, expressionless faces and rigid and stiff movements of the character's body language. It can be a hindrance to some audiences, but if you choose to overlook these factors, it might not bother you further. Speaking of detailing, it looks like Soundarya Rajinikanth Ashwin has heavily invested her time in bringing out 'Super Star' Rajinikanth's character to alive so much so, that the other characters suffered big time. Shobana and Rukmini's character depictions were particularly very poor. Despite all these flaws, one should commend Soundarya Rajinikanth Ashwin for her project management and her ability to pull off such an attempt with the barest of budgets.
As for the script, the story, screenplay and dialogues have been taken care off by the veteran K.S Ravikumar. The story is as old as the hills and all the elements found in an historic drama is present in the film, from love to betrayal, from heroism to sadness and etc. What keeps the film together is the super-fast screenplay, starting with a voice-over of A.R Rahman, which leaves no time for unnecessary sequences, apart from the songs, which were too many for a 2 hour film, and were badly-placed. K.S Ravikumar's dialogues are a treat to the fans of 'Super Star' Rajinikanth and the matinee idol, delivered them fabulously. But still, the script suffers due to the animation factor. Yes, such animation helps one to do things which are impossible to execute with live artistes and animals, but it robs the excitement out of the story. Steven Spielberg pulled it off with 'The Adventures of Tintin', but this is where Soundarya Rajinikanth Ashwin's flounders and her weakness is made noticeable. Directing a film involving fantasy elements based on a real life Pandya Dynasty king is no joke. One needs to be a master in story-telling and apparently Soundarya lacks this particular skill. Its not her fault to be ineptitude, but such mastery can only be accrued through better understanding of the nuances of story-telling and from experiences of doing films, unless you are an auteur on the lines of Steven Spielberg, Akira Kurosawa or even Mani Ratnam. Many sequences in the first half fell flat, only for 'Super Star' Rajinikanth to rescue it in the second half with the episodes of Kochadaiiyaan. It could even be K.S Ravikumar's script writing, but unless he directed it on his own, its not fair to be judgmental of his directorial skills with such a story-line. Nevertheless, the film is worth checking out for the attempt of Soundarya and for 'Super Star' Rajinikanth.
'Kochadaiiyaan: The Legend' - Quintessential, yet a path-breaking 'Super Star' Rajinikanth film ! Can we expect a sequel, especially for the way the film was ended ?
Ratings: 3.5/5 STARS
BY:TAMIL
Director Arivazhagan, who made name with the well-made thriller 'Eeram', is back after a hiatus with 'Vallinam'. Being in the making for about 3 years, this sports based flick has Nakulan aka Nakul making a comeback of sort. Produced by Aascar V.Ravichandran, can Arivazhagan deliver another well-packaged film and make a firm mark in Tamizh cinema ?
Nakulan takes it serious this time and has delivered an earnest performance. His enthusiasm and physical atheleticism fits the role of an amateur basketball player. The vigor and energy he posessed helped him to adapt quite naturally as a sportsman and its very much commendable of his effort to undertake basketball training as a preparation for the film. He has experimented with his dialogue delivery, which is more subtle and mellow compared to his earlier films, but its not convincing overall, especially in the climax. Nevertheless, its a very decent performance and hoping he delivers more. Debutante Mrudhula Basker carries herself comfortably as the heroine, though she has not much scope as a character in the film's overall plot. A standard performance, standardly dubbed by Savitha. Siddharth Jonnalagadda plays the antagonist and his body language and facial expressions fits the character well, and aptly voiced by Aravind Krishna but his character loses steam as the film progresses. Jagan provided the comic relief and his satirical comments and one-liners are fun to listen to. Jayaprakash scores in his brief but important character role with a gray shade but Atul Kulkarni's true potential was not utilized at all though his character carries some weight in importance to the story. The rest such as Amzad Khan, Anumapa Kumar, Chandru, Mathivanan Rajendran, Santhana Bharathi were adequate with good cameos from Krishna and Aadhi, as well as RJ Balaji.
Shanmugha Priya handles the costume designing and her works sufficed the need of the script, since its a college based script, which has not much of an extensive research and execution. Sibu Joseph J.V's editing pattern fits the style and story presentation of Arivazhagan's script, though many a few sequences could have been edited out to make it a little racier. Silva's action choreography was good, especially in the pre-climax fight scene as well as the much spoken about train sequence in the very early stages of the film. T.Suresh's production design must be commended, especially for the climax basketball court set, which really imbibed a basketball tournament feel to it. Also, the props used for interiors such as the swanky and posh heroine's home, or the boys hostel rooms were very apt and realistic. Bhaskaran K.M's cinematography is a real asset to the film. The basketball game theme provided a good platform for him to showcase his expertise in coming up with creative shots and angles. The credits should be shared with Arivazhagan who handled each basketball matches' game and action set pieces, alongside with specialist game choreographer, Mime Gopi. Besides the games', Bhaskaran K.M's color tone and the light hue approach for some scenes, are eye-pleasing. But he could have avoided the overusage of shadows, particularly in the beginning sequences.
S.S Thaman's previous collaboration with Arivazhagan in 'Eeram' was splendid and it looks like Thaman has found a partner who extracts the best from him. 'Vallinam' has very good scores and background music as well, which fits the mood and nature of the script and proves to be very effective in conveying the director's vision. "Maaman Macha" is a typical college-buddy song, with plenty of montages and dance scenes interspersed in betweem. Bhaskaran K.M's cinematography in this particular song was good, especially with the light tone. The pick of the lot "Uyiril Uyir" is a letdown, in terms of picturization. The song had montages of the hero finding himself falling for the heroine, as well as dance sequences against a cowboy and hip-hop theme bacgrounds. "Nakula" is a romantic number shot on the lead pair, on the beaches, during the high-tide moments. "Vallinam" is a situational song, highlighting the progress of the hero's basketball team in the tournament, which had good lighting for the basketball matches. "Uyiril (Reprise)" is a bit-song showing the separation of the lead pair and had good framing from the director and cinematographer. Thaman's background score works very well for the film, especially with a special 'Vallinam' theme track which plays during the opening credits scene.
Arivazhagan has chosen basketball as a tool to highlight the actual theme of his script, which is the discrimination and marginalization of sports in the society and the over-trumpeting of cricket. Its interesting to note that the director has chosen cricket as an 'antagonist' for his film. Arivazhagan's subtle story presentation and sharp dialogues, goes hand in hand, pretty well and proves to be his forte and USP. But the film has its own shares of flaws. There's no depth in the writing, where more intensity could have really revved up the proceedings of the screenplay. The romance and friendship portions are shallow in terms of writing, and the dramas fail to make a serious mark. The detailing in narration is missing, which is essential for these sort of story presentation, which has a slow and steady pace screenplay. A more organic development could have helped the film to achieve better output and its annoying to notice Arivazhagan's attempt in adhering to standard Tamizh cinema "masala" commercialization. But Arivazhagan should be appreciated for showing the basketball game as a proper game and his artistes as proper basketball players. The authenticity and detailing in those aspects are applaudable. Also, one can note that Arivazhagan has a a good sense of setting up frames, which shows his distinct touch of quality. In conclusion, Arivazhagan deserves kudos for choosing a sports-based theme for his script and highlighting the plight and discrimination of other sports in the state, but its definitely not on par with his 'Eeram'.
'Vallinam' - A not-so hard consonant ! Expected more.
Ratings: 2.75/5 STARS
BY:TAMIL
'Maranthen Mannithean', is touted to be based on real life events which occurred in Andhra Pradesh during the 1986 floods. With a captivating idea as the backbone, debutante director, Kumar Nagendra, has assembled a cast, which is acceptable for both, Tamizh and Telugu audiences. With 'Isaignai' Ilaiyaraaja on board, what does this film hold for us ?
Aadhi, back after his 'Aravaan', looks good and fit for the role of a fisherman. He has worked out well on his physique and is at ease during stunt and dance sequences, but he has to have more clarity, in terms of emoting, as he goes too contemporary. Lakshmi Manchu, who has also produced the film, plays the role of the heroine. She tries her best to emote and act, but she looks too 'polished' and matured for the role of a young village belle, and her appearance doesn't help either, as she looks much more matured and older than her male pairs ! Chinmayee's dubbing for her, further accentuated the 'polished' element of hers. Sundeep was not bad in his role. Taapsee Pannu, plays an irrelevant and insignificant role in the film. Her character is highly sexual in behavior, who seems to always lust for the hero, just because he accidentally touched her, once ! Her slim and trim figure has been exploited by the camera, purely for titilation factor ! The rest of the cast such as Ravi Babu, Bala Singh, Ramesh, Jeeva, Annapurna, Suja Varunee and etc sufficed the need of the director's script.
The work of the technical department, leaves a lot to be desired, considering the scale of the script. Murali Kondetti's art direction plays a vital part in the film. The village and after-flood scenario of the village has to be created convincingly enough, in order to have the authentic look. Blame it on lack of funds, the art director had to resort to using miniatures to create the village, and to cover it up with VFX. Unfortunately, the result was very tacky, added with the below par VFX work by ECS and EVA Motion Studios. The usage of green screen and miniature was very much evident in the film. M.R Varmaa's editing was not bad, though better works could have been carried out, especially for the flood scenes. M.R Palani Kumaar's cinematography, is the only highlight of the film. He tries to cover-up the below-par patch works, in the art department and also canned some beautiful shots of the magnificent Godavari river. Ganesh's stunt choreography was well handled, especially the night fight sequence, shot on the riverbed.
'Isaignai' Ilaiyaraaja's music was sadly, bland and boring. "Kuthikudhamma" is the introductory song for Aadhi and has plenty of shots of the Godavari river. The song was picturization on Aadhi and his gang, dancing around lakes and riverbeds, interspersed with some montages. "Chikki Mukki" was shot on Aadhi and Taapsee, also shot on riverbeds and barren lands, coupled with some shots taken on simple and decently erected sets. "Raathiri Nerathu" is a rehash of 'Isaignani's' classic "Aasaiye Kaathule" from 'Johnny'. The song was shot in a very crass manner, focusing on the ample assets of Mumaith Khan, and also with shots of Aadhi and Taapsee, having an illicit tryst of one-night-stand. "Alaiyodu" is a montage song shot on Sundeep and Lakshmi, picturizing their growth from kids to young adults. The song was mostly shot in and around the village areas. "Engu Irukku" is a song, again shot on Sundeep and Lakshmi, who are on a mission of spotting and buying the 'perfect' rooster for cockfight. "En Ooru" is another crass song, this time shot on Suja Varunee, gyrating and prancing with the villagers and Sundeep, in a simple stage backdrop. Raja sir's background score is impressive in certain places, but sounds too contemporaneous.
Apart from the shoddy VFX, the biggest drawback of the film, was the horrendous dubbing. What was the intention of the director and producer ? To do a bilingual film or a straight Telugu film, which can be dubbed into Tamizh ? End of the day, it is indeed a straight Telugu film, which has been dubbed for the Tamizh market, sparing a few scenes. What's the need for a couple of original scenes, when all that you're going to do is to simply dub ? The directorial work was poor, with bad continuity issues, unimpressive story telling and unemotionally-charged sequences. Though the story is based on P.V.S Rama Rao's novel, the flood element, was only used as an initial attention-grabber, rather than being the main backdrop of the film. There's no cohesion in the screenplay, and the script is just plainly insipid, in terms of writing.
Tamizh cinema audiences are known to forgive and forget. 'Maranthen Mannithean' - No pun intended, Kumar Nagendra ?
Ratings: 1.5/5 STARS
BY:TAMIL
Vasanthabalan, a film-maker who makes films which revolves about deep human emotions and harsh realities of the unforgiving world, comes up with a period film this time. Vasanthabalan's handling of his script is a well-known fact and there i no doubts in his capabilities of offering a good film. His past records speaks for him with "Angaadi Theru" nearly missing the National Award and "Veyil" managed to get itself showcased in Cannes Film Festival. This time he has chosen to make a film based on India's National Academy of Letters/ Sahitya Akademi-winning novel "Kaaval Kottam" by Su.Venkatesan. Vasanthabalan has only taken a small subplot of the novel comprising 10-20 pages out of the 1000 pages and made it into a film. A film long in the making, it was much waited as Vasanthabalan has promised a racy and fast-paced entertainer. Did he deliver on his promise?
Characterization is very important for a period film because the artistes involved in such projects need to be as convincing as possible to portray the character that they play, or else it will fail to register in the minds of the viewers. The problem in "Aravaan" is that, all the characters were not properly etched out. The body language and dialogue delivery of most of the artistes was very contemporary in nature and did not reflect the 18-th century Madurai, which was portrayed in the film. Aadhi who was dishing out back-to-back failures in "Ayyanar" and "Aadu Puli" has done a good job, especially in scenes involving heavy physical movements such as the "Jallikattu" and racing sequences. His buff body is the result of extreme hard-work and he deserves a pat for it. A spirited performance from him and he was accompanied by another good performer, Pasupathy. It's been 3 years since the last we saw him and he too has not failed to deliver good performances. His hard-work is evident in the opening burglary sequence. Both Aadhi and Pasupathy has literally carried the film on their shoulders. Dhansikha and Archana Kavi dished out what was needed for their characters with Archana Kavi coming out as a better performer, though the former had more scenes. International performer Kabir Bedi was given a loose character with not much scope to perform. Singampuli's dialogue delivery do tickle the funny bones but its not in-tune with the timeline of the film. Bharath, Anjali, Swetha Menon and Sruthi Prakash makes cameo appearances to fill out the roles needed to push the story further. All the other extras should be credited and applauded as well for toiling in harsh conditions portrayed in the film.
S.Rajendran's costume department did a decent job with appropriate costume and detailings such as tattoos, jewelries and other accessories. Rocky Rajesh's stunts looked fake at certain sequences, especially when the "flying" effect comes into the fray. RK Vijaimurugan has done a wonderful job in the art department. His work on the village area brings to life the Madurai of the 18th-century and that too the life of thieves not kings and queens, only. Praveen KL and Srikanth NB's editing work was fine especially in the first robbery sequence and flashes of the good work comes sporadically throughout the film, though they could have shortened the length of the film, which was unnecessarily slow. Siddharth was brilliant with his cinematography. The opening robbery scene was the highlight with tight angles and interesting rotation shots, in the picturization of the houses. Also the running and chasing scenes in the forest as well as the "Jallikattu" scenes which were shot on normal photography camera's were very well made. Job very well done. Singer Karthik has made a decent debut in "Aravaan" as the music director. His songs vere simple and "Oore Oore" and "Nila Nila" being the pick of the lots. The former was the best shot song in the film with good camera movements and choreography, which kept the energy level of the song sustained throughout, and the latter with some postcard-worthy frames. "Naagamalai" and "Unnai Kollaporen" were done with montages and some good choreography evident in "Naagamalai" and also Vijaimurugan's good set-work of the local deity temple.
The script of "Aravaan" has its good and its weakness. On the positive aspects, this film manages to capture the attention of the audience due to its different periodic portrayal which revolves around an interesting group of ethnic tribes. Their culture, practices, lifestyle, custom are well portrayed and the "Oore Oore" song is the testimony of this statement. The minute details of the burglary methods of the tribal thieves, piqued the interest of the viewers. The hard-work of the entire crew is applaudable as its is no joke to film in barren lands with no basic necessities and its even more difficult to shoot action scenes in dense forests. Also, Su.Venkatesan's dialogues are a big help for the film. The flip side of the script is its length and screenplay. Vasanthabalan fails to sustain the excitement of the audience and the engrossing factor goes missing. The second half of the screenplay was not properly written with the movement in the timeline going back and forth which confuses audience, plus some sentimental and song sequences acted as speed-breakers to the pace of the script. A good suspense factor was kept secret until the climax of the film, but it was not put to use to its maximum effect, which pulls down the excitement level. Vasanthabalan could have avoided including additional stories and should have taken a better look at certain aspects of the screenplay, regarding the time-frame and appearance of the people. In the end, Vasanthabalan did come up with a message regarding the abolishment of capital punishment, but it doesn't really settle into the script well, and it baffles audiences on why he came up with that idea in the first place.
Vasanthabalan failed to keep his promise of producing an engrossing film but nevertheless, "Aravaan" is a good attempt at different cinema. A decent rating for the efforts of crew.
Ratings: 2.5/5 STARS
BY:TAMIL
