The creator of the now cult-classic, path-breaking, trend-setting 'Subramaniapuram' M.Sasikumar plays "the creator" in Bramman, in a metaphorical sense. M.Sasikumar, who is on a stroll of acting and producing, has done a film for an outside production, this time under the baton of debutante Socrates, a former associate of Kamal Haasan. The trailer and promotions very evidently showcased this film as on out-and-out commercial entertainer. How entertaining was this 'Bramman' ?
Sasikumar, who is synonymous with rural-based films, goes for a changeover here with a city-based lead character. He has tried to adapt himself into the quintessential Tamizh cinema male leads, by wearing designer clothes, executing over-the-top action sequences and of course romancing his heroine in beautiful foreign locations. Basically, there's nothing to talk about in regards to his performance. The same can be applied to Lavanya Tripathi, a former Miss Uttarakhand who has done two Telugu films and making her bow in Tamizh. She's comfortable in her role, but she's not convincing with her acting performance and basically appears for the sake of having a heroine for songs and romance portions. Santhanam provides the laughter in the first half, and though his one-liners are good, they do not invoke much laughter. Soori takes the helm in the second half, and as usual delivers what is expected. Naveen Chandra has an important role, but lacks the screen presence to solidify his position in the film. The rest of the cast such as Malavika Menon, Lateef Omar, Jayaprakash, Vanitha Krishnachandran, Chams, Prof.Gnanasambandhan, Surekha, Ajay Rathnam and etc sufficed the needs of the script, whereas there were cameo roles done by Jai, Vaibhav and Madhu Shalini.
Sathya N.J's costume work was spot on, especially for M.Sasikumar, who goes for a changeover here. The modern outfits looks apt for him and so does the Lavanya Tripathi, who looked chic. Silva's action choreography was average and a little over-the-top, though the intention of choreographing it in such a manner, can only be known to him and the director. R.K Umesh has handle the art direction and his works sufficed the needs of the script. The props used for the old, dilapidated theaters and the celebratory-like atmosphere all had believability factors. Nice work ! Raja Mohammed's editing was neat and crisp, though the first half could have been better-handled, especially when it is loaded with plenty of unwanted scenes. Cinematography has been handled by Jomon T.John and Faizal Ali, with additional photography by Satish Kurup. The framing, lighting and angles, all had an average-stamp throughout the film. A pedestrian outcome, in short.
Devi Sri Prasad's tunes has his mark all over, and its pretty average, this time too. "Voda Voda" is a situational song, used as a background score during the opening first few scenes. It had a small cycle chase and some light action choreography work done by Silva. "Vaanathil" has M.Sasikumar doing the dance number, aided by back-up dancers, after experiencing love for the very first time. The song had plenty of props, resembling a typical city street-setup, which had realistic work done by R.K Umesh. "Un Kannai Penne" is the first shot on the lead pair, in foreign locations. The Swiss Alps, becomes the backdrop yet again, with greeny pastures and snowy mountains as the main landscapes. The best tune from the lot is, "En Uyirin Uyiraaga" which was shot in Venice, Italy on the lead pair. The song mostly covered the city landscape, with the backing of a couple of dancers. "Vaada Vaada" had Padmapriya doing an item number, and though its a welcome to see her doing glamorous dance sequences, the song was poorly shot, with dull picturization. Background score by Devi Sri Prasad, is passable.
The most alarming aspect of Socrates' handling of the screenplay, is the non-present element of any serious issue or focal point, in bringing forward the story. Each issue which we encounter seems to peter out in the following scenes, and we had to wait till the entry of Naveen Chandra, to actually have any sort of attention on the story. The first half is just aimless and clueless, with comedy and romance sequences being belted out, alongside unnecessary speed-breakers, in the form of songs. The second half has a decent output, especially when Socrates highlights the lesser-talked about issues in Tamizh cinema and its film productions. The characterizations are weak, very weak in fact and no one has any sort of strong impact with their screen presence, except for Jayaprakash. What's very obvious with film is that, the commercial elements are simply thrust into the film, for the sake of having them, instead of incorporating them into the script, organically. End of the day, we can realize that Socrates had an interesting idea, which could have been developed into a nice commercial film, but the screenplay goes haywire and the direction is equally poor.
'Bramman' - What happened to the creator of 'Subramaniapuram' ?
Ratings: 2/5 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
Sequels are a pretty pain-in-the-ass for most director, as there will be the omnipresent expectations and heavy pressure, due to the success of the first installment. What more when it has one of the most important artiste of the film industry as its protagonist. Director Hari has taken the daring plunge in coming up with a sequel to his 2010 blockbuster, 'Singam' starring the smashing Suriya in the titular role. The first installment did end up with a promise of a sequel, and finally Hari has indeed delivered one. Will this be a springboard for Suriya to regain his place in the blockbuster arena after two under-performed films in '7am Arivu' and 'Maattrraan' ?
With the majestic and awe-inspiring larger-than-life persona and screen presence, Suriya shoulders the weight of the entire script on his well-built shoulders. His passion and dedication in living the role of Duraisingam, is evident with his strong and powerful emotions, dialogue delivery and expressions, especially with his eyes ! The actor handled the pressure with relative ease and he performs even meaner and power-packed. His cinematic role as a police officer, brings great stature and respect to the khaki uniform he donned. A raw and powerful, inspiration perhaps ! Suriya has proved big time, that he is capable of handling commercial, 'masala' protagonist roles with conviction and the necessary oomph factor. Way to go, Suriya ! There is a long, long list of ensemble cast, atypical of Hari's films. International artiste, Danny Sapani plays the main antagonist role and aided by veteran Rahman and Mukesh Rishi. Danny's role was projected off well initially, but peters out towards the end. Rahman and Mukesh, play the quintessential commercial cinema villains, to 'perfection' ! Anushka and Hansika Motwani charms in their respective sequences, though the latter has a more meatier role here. Vivek, who rocked as 'Erimalai' in the preceding film, has a limited screen timing, but still delivers the goods. The current 'Comedy Superstar' Santhanam, never fails to rock and he continues his fine form here as well with some side-splitting comedy portions, especially when he does a Suriya and Kamal Haasan in the film ! Radha Ravi, Nassar, Rajendran, Mansoor Ali Khan, Manorama, Vijayakumar and etc, etc, etc, performed their roles to a T, in limited and inconsequential roles.
Sai and Perumal Selvam's costume designing was apt for a commercial pot-boiler like this, especially for the lead pair in the songs, and for the rest of the character artistes, as well. 'Rocky' Rajesh and Anal Arasu's stunt choreography was well suited for such loud and larger-than-life films, which is a little low in terms of logic and common sense. Suriya performs with great energy and vigor, which actually helps us to overlook the flaws of the choreography. Editing by V.T Vijayan and T.S Jay, was efficient and neat, though the second half was a little prolonged, except for the abrupt ending ! K.Kathir has done a brilliant work with his production design. Most the sets looked perfect, especially the small town jails and lock-ups, interiors of the character's homes or the colorful but simple sets for the song sequences. Job, well done ! Priyan has tried some roving camera tricks here and his camera doesn't seem to rest at all ! However,there are no fantastic or outstanding visuals from him and his works were mostly functional, except for some action sequences.
Devi Sri Prasad, who has been retained for the sequel, has performed badly with his scores and almost all the songs are below average, for current standards. "Vaale Vaale" is the opening song, shot in a boat and around the port of Tuticorin, with a special appearance from a rather flabby-looking Anjali. The song also has some minor shots, featuring the vigilante work of the protagonist. "Puriyavillai" is a montage song for Hansika Motwani, who develops a crush for the masculine protagonist. "Singam Dance" is a peppy club song, shot on Suriya and Anushka and has colorful blue-themed sets by Kathir and good lighting from the cinematographer. "Kannukkulle" also follows the same style, with a more simpler sets. "Achamillai" and "Vidhai Pole" are situational songs, praising the histrionics of the protagonist, shot in montages. The background score is unimpressive, with loud and familiar sounds most of the time !
Director Hari's successful films, have one thing in common. A racy screenplay. From the word go, Hari did not stop for a single moment, and has scripted a screenplay which is full of power-packed action sequences, which were very convincingly played out by Suriya. What differs between 'Singam' and this sequel, is the lower importance given to the other commercial elements of a 'masala' film. Sentiments, romance, and comedy portions were evenly proportioned in the first half, but the sequel highlighted more and more of the brain and brawn of Duraisingam, rather than the other elements in/surrounding him. The antagonists roles, especially of Danny's was ill-written and lacks the necessary counter-effect to the heroics of the hero. Though the duration of the film, especially the second half is a little draggy, Hari keeps his scenes, tight and short, which gives us the impression of a speedy story telling. Some continuity factors were not properly ironed out, and raises a few questions pertaining to logic. The ending was handled in a very abrupt and rushed manner, it spoils the good-ride one was enjoying all the while !
'Singam II' - A near-perfect 'masala' concoction. A thoroughly enjoyable film, but strictly for commercial enthusiasts. A powerful and kingly show from Suriya !
Ratings: 3.25/5 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
Venghai, a product of Hari and Dhanush, both fresh from the successes of their own. A blockbuster for the former and a National Award for the latter, so the expectations tend to swing to the higher degree. Those who are familiar with Tamizh cinema knows what to expect from a Hari film, which has all the necessary ingredients of a pucca commercial Tamizh mass masala movie. Some of his films did very well but there are few which sank without any trace, and this proves that a taut and fast screenplay is very important for a commercial masala film. So, did Hari manage to nail it down this time as well? The answer is............ Not really.
As with any Hari films, this movie too has plenty of character artistes playing small roles from Prakash Raj, Raj Kiran, Charlie, Oorvashi, Paravai Muniamma, Sudha Chandran and etc. Dhanush has not much of scope to perform in this film though he did well with his eye contact and body language and it must have been a cakewalk for him. If Dhanush's role was a cakewalk for him, Prakash Raj's is a step ahead and it's obvious that he's doing these sort of films just for the sake of finances. Can't blame him for that, though. It applies to all other artistes as well, be it Raj Kiran, Oorvashi and etc. In the name of comedy, Ganja Karuppu was a total disgrace and nuisance on the screen and some of his antics was just gross and disgusting. Tamannah has a more serious kind of heroine role this time, with a number of emotional scenes and she has once again proved that she has no inhibitions in flaunting her curves for song sequences (no wonder she's hot on the Telugu market now for her glamshow in few recent films).
On the technical front, this movie has nothing noteworthy. All the departments dished out a average work be it cinematography by Vetri, editing by V.T Vijayan, art direction by Kadhir, choreography by Brindha and Baba Bhaskar and etc. Stunts by Silva and Ganesh was a bit over the top considering the fact that Dhanush has no heavy built physique and songs by Devi Sri Prasad too was very average with the "Kaalangathale" and "Enna Solla Pore" numbers which were the hummable one's but picturization wise, nothing was worthy of talking point and background score was totally unnoticable.
Usually, there's nothing great in Hari's stories but what made some of his films to click was the racy narration and interesting twists and turns in the proceedings of the plot. Venghai too has some of these qualities but then the screenplay was slow and draggy in the first half and as things get heated up in the second half, songs and few sentimental scenes comes in as the speed breaker. Besides that, many scenes evoke a sense of déjà vu to the audiences, thanks to previous films of Hari.
Venghai would have worked big time if it had came out 10 years ago, but it's a decent, average film for those who wants to watch a typical commercial Tamizh movie with all the usual masala ingredients thrown into.
Ratings: 2/5 STARS
BY:TAMIL
