Thirrupathi Brothers's N.Lingusamy and N.Subash Chandra Bose have joined hands with actor/director Manobala in producing and releasing debutante H.Vinoth's 'Sathuranka Vettai'. Thirrupathi Brothers are on the roll with back-to-back hits with their distribution and by taking up this project, it has raised the eyebrows of many. What does this intriguing project holds for us and can H.Vinoth make a name for himself ?
Casting for this film is just perfect and the choice of ace Bollywood hot-shot cinematographer Natrajan Subramaniam alias Natty, was a brilliant stroke. He is just so apt and terrific with his screen presence and dialogue delivery and though he is not the conventional hero material, he keeps us glued to the film, with a very good performance. His body language was perfect, he could still improvise on his facial expressions but still, it was a great performance from him. The rest of the cast such as heroine Ishaara Nair, Ilavarasu, Ponvannan, Piraisoodan, Valavan, Dharani, Ramachandran Durairaj, Senthi, Vetri, Sathya, Veedu Sureshkumar and etc were perfect choices for their role and each of them made their marks in their given screen timing. Kudos to the director for the apt casting !
Rangasaamy takes care of the costume designing, and he has done a really good job with the limited budget and has taken care of the detailing for each episodes present in the film and the characters involved in each respective episodes. Jayagar Viswanathan's action choreography was functional and there were no elaborate stunt seqeunces in the film. Art direction is by K.Kathir and his work is commendable as well, especially for the multi-level marketing scheme sequence, which has some elaborate designing and set work and also for his detailing in set properties for each episodes. S.P Raja Sethupathy's editing was good in portions and his slick editing for the intense scenes were good, but he could have worked better in the transitioning from one episode to another, in which there was a sense of rush in the cuts. Cinematography is by K.G Venkatesh and his camera work was top-notch, especially for his top-angle & long trolley shots. Do check out the after court scene of Natty before the interval !
Sean Roldan's music is a big plus to the movie and the musical score brings the story forward in many moments. "Porape Nadape" is the only choreographed song, which was fully shot in a bar cum pub like atmosphere, which had a colorful set work by K.Kathir and lighting by K.G Venkatesh. "Kadhala Kadhala" is a bit song which was shot based on the heroine's moment of falling in love, and was a situational song. "Munne Yen" is a montage song, shot on the lead pair and showcased a new chapter in the lead pair's lives and their hardships in a rustic village. Sean Roldan's background score was unique as well and he shows his quirkiness with different and creative sounds for each episodes and shows his prowess in melancholic scores, as well.
A former associate of Vijay Milton, H.Vinoth's 'Sathuranka Vettai' is an interesting Indianized con-movie, with a touch of black humor. The film is interestingly structured in six different episodes and each of them are funnily titled. Each episodes are apparently based on real life scams, which took place in Tamil Nadu and H.Vinoth deserves applause for his homework done, in coming up with a neat plan and how each cons were staged. But, only the last con really stood out for its outrageous audacity taken by the protagonist and the panache in execution of the con. The rest were quite simple and was too easy too fall for, though some were brilliant schemes ! H.Vinoth's taut screenplay doesn't waste any time, apart from the songs and some melodramatic, sentimental moments but the intensity and seriousness involved in such con movies are missing here. Nevertheless, H.Vinoth's dialogues are fantastic and seeps in sarcasm and wittiness and reminds us of the Manivannan of 'Amaithi Padai' days. H.Vinoth, is definitely a talent to watch out for and with more maturity in script handling, he could reap great rewards in Tamizh cinema !
'Sathuranka Vettai' - A pretty cool movie, which could have been much deadlier !
Ratings: 2.75/5 STARS
BY:TAMIL
Silambarasan is back once again this year with the much talked about Osthe. The movie was much awaited by fans of commercial cinema since it is the remake of Salman Khan's huge hit "Dabangg" and also the return of director Dharani who has given smashing hits before with "Dhill", "Dhool" and "Gilli". Added to that, the songs of the film is a big hit and Richa Gangopadhyay is having her second release in Tamizh cinema within two weeks. Besides that, there is Santhanam who always keeps some of his best work for his 'mentor' Silambarasan. So did "Osthe" live up to "Dabangg"?
As the whole film depends on his character, Silambarasan has lived up to the role of 'Osthe' Velan and he oozes arrogance and style to give color to that character. As expected from a commercial cinema hero, he displays all emotions well and does comedy, utter punch dialogues, shows good flexibility in stunt sequences and not to forget, his whacky dance movements in song sequences. Besides that, he scores in scenes which needs heavy emotions and he played it very well with subtle body language and facial expressions. Silambarasan is making improvements from film-to-film. Some fans might not be able to accept Silambarasan in a larger-than-life role but he has enjoyed doing this role and it is evident in the film. Sonu Sood is an ample villain and he is dashing and brooding and gives good competition to Silambarasan, though he is far more taller and heavily built compared to the protagonist. Richa Gangopadhyay, who made a terrific debut in "Mayakkam Enna", is reduced to just songs and some glamorous shots which is normally expected of in a 'masala' movie, though Chinmayee's voice was suitable for her. "Jithan" Ramesh has found his proper second innings in Tamizh cinema with a neat portrayal. The rest of the supporting cast such as Revathy, Nasser, "Nizhalgal" Ravi, Saranya Mohan, "VTV" Ganesh, Azhagam Perumal, Vijayakumar and the "Osthe Velan" Force, comprising Mayilsamy, Vaiyapuri, Thambi Ramaiah were perfect and did their portions very well. One man who kept the audiences attention all the time was Santhanam. He was absolutely funny and humorous with his one-liners and great timing. The act he does in the "Neduvaali" song is the, pinnacle! Santhanam is on a high!!
The film has a decent technical department. Vidhyaa B.Reddy and S.Rajendran's costumes were apt for the roles and Richa's was particularly glamorous. Stunts were done decently in some portions, whereas in certain others, they were over the top. Since there are three directors associated with stunts, Kanal Kannan, Ram Laxman and Silva it is hard to distinguish who, did which. Kalyan and Robert delivered the necessary must-have's of Silambarasan's whacky and zany moves in song sequences. Maniraj's sets are very naturally built except for some sets which looks like 'newly' erected, especially with the heroine's house set. Though the artwork was neat, it is quite debatable to see how close the sets came in portraying the Thirunelveli district. S.Gopinath is class above the rest when it comes to commercial mass masala and his work elevates the mood of the film, especially the confrontation scenes and in the railway track sequences. Not to forget the pre-climax scenes. He is a big asset to Dharani. Veteran V.T Vijayan's work is clean and neat. The biggest strength of the film is the music by Thaman. All the songs are foot-tapping and entertaining, which is the ultimate need of mass movies. "Osthe Mamey" was typical of hero's introductory song and it was cool to see Dharani making a cameo as well. "Unnale Unnale" was done in a montage style with dance and sequences thrown in as well and the scenes in the temple were well shot. "Neduvaali" was done in a spacious set and was a complete entertainer with the dance sequences. "Pondatti" song was decent and cute and was mostly shot in Dubai and the opening few seconds in the early morning dew was pleasant to see in screen with the light purple tinge in the backdrop. The much talked about "Kalasala" was a letdown though. It had 2 big advantage in the form of rocking music with superb rendition by Vijaya.T.Rajender and LR.Eshwari and also the hot Mallika Sherawat as the item girl. Yet the song failed to live up to expectations, video clip wise and is not a match to the original "Munni Badnam" number in "Dabangg".
The strength of mass masala commercials is the screenplay and Dharani has a solid track record before this. "Osthe" too was well written and had fast screenplay, keeping the audiences attention and even when we were expecting a slight slump in the screenplay, either a song or Santhanam comes in handy to keep the audiences entertained. Dharani has very cleverly made the necessary changes to make the script apt and suitable for Tamizh audiences and having his assistant Bharathan as a the dialogue writer, he has added more plus points to the film. Bharathan's dialogues especially the one mouthed by Azhagam Perumal about politics/politicians were very well written.The film is strictly for those who like and do not mind watching mass masala commercial films and in addition, do not mind seeing Silambarasan in a larger-than-life type of role which usually fits the Fab 4 (Vijay, Vikram, Ajith & Suriya) of Tamizh cinema. If it wasn't for some over-the-top scenes, this film is a near-perfect mass masala commercial film.
Ratings: 3/5 STARS
BY:TAMIL
