The current flavor and poster-boy of Tamizh cinema, and the apple-of-the-eye of the family audiences, Sivakarthikeyan is on a hot-streak after back to back successes. This time he is in his comfort zone of comedy, with a rural backdrop and an equally comical Soori as his aide. Directed by Ponram, a former under-study of youth-centric humor genre master M.Rajesh, 'Varuthapadatha Vaalibar Sangam' has been making noise with the right kind of noises, thanks to D.Imman's chartbusting songs, pre-release. Will this be a clean hat-trick for Sivakarthikeyan in 2013 ?
Sivakarthikeyan delivers what best comes to him with finesse and the rural character suits him to a T. His timing is terrific and his dialogue delivery is near flawless. His expressive facial expressions and body language is a major asset to his role, as well. Bringing the best out of him is Soori, who plays the perfect foil for Sivakarthikeyan. With funny counter-dialogues and measured counter-reactions, Soori and Sivakarthikeyan are complementary to each others' characters. The film is basically built upon their gags and antics, and they have understood the demands, perfectly. Job well done, boys ! Sri Divya makes her debut in Tamizh cinema, and this sweet-looking, docile-natured element, fits her image very well. Not to forget, this girl has the right capabilities to actually do decent acting. Has very good potential to deliver better performances in the future, subject to proper scripts. Sathyaraj is a marvel in his role as the heroine's father, especially with the majestic mustache of his. The veteran's look and make-up was well designed, giving more believability to his role. Performance wise, the man just simply rocks with his impeccable comic timing and dialogue deliveries. Bindhu Madhavi plays a short but cute role and the rest of the cast such as Rajendran, 'Kathal' Thandapani, Raja, Gopal, Sri Ranjani, Vinodhini, Swaminathan, Kumaravael, and etc were very apt for their roles.
The film has some good technical outputs, thanks to its young crew. Vasugi Bhaskar's costume designing was on the dot, especially for the lead pair, which looked very natural. She should be commended for her part in Sathyaraj's costumes as well. 'Super' Subbarayan handles some simple action sequences, especially the midnight fighting sequence, shot in a plantation. G.Durairaj's, production design was neat, especially with the props for the village sequences, covering various different backdrops such as wedding, festivals and etc. The design blended well with the actual, natural surroundings of the rural setting. Vivek Harshan's editing was neat and he delivered what was expected from him, though more trimming could have made the film look sleek. Balasubramaniem's cinematography is an asset to the film, as his work blends well with the rural setting. The colorful, yet earthy tone the film carries throughout is a pleasant sight for the eyes. His lighting for the songs, especially gives the frames a rich yet earthy tone.
D.Imman is on fire and he delivers another winning album with 'Varuthapadatha Vaalibar Sangam'. The title track, "Varuthapdatha Vaalibar Sangam" which introduced the 'singer' Sivakarthikeyan to us, was shot with good framing and had good village settings as backdrops. "Yennada Yennada" is a cute montage song, shot on Sivakarthikeyan, Sri Divya and Bindhu Madhavi, with a love triangle on the anvil. The best song of the album, "Oodha Color Ribbon" is a foot-tapping song shot on Sivakarthikeyan and Sri Divya, with some song-purpose, conceptualized montages and also in village festival setting. "Kannaale" which is absent from the audio list, is a pleasant bit-song, played during a wedding scene. "Paarkaathe" is a montage song shot on Sivakarthikeyan and Sri Divya, who have finally professed love to each other. "Indha Ponnungale", another chart-buster, was shot on Sivakarthikeyan and Soori and serves as the typical drunkard song, shot in minimal but good lighting by Balasubramaniem. D.Imman also scores well in the background score department, with thumping scores and pleasant tunes. Way to go, D.Imman !
Debutante Ponram, follows his guru's safe template of a humor structure for a whole script, and infuse it with good dialogues. The dialogues, have been taken care of by M.Rajesh himself, and as usual he does not fail to deliver, though they were not the best of punches from him. The storyline is a wafer-thin one, and only the entertainment quotient, keeps the audiences engaged with the film. The screenplay wobbles a little in the end, after an unexpected, but pleasant twist in the climax. Kudos to Ponram for making use of Sivakarthikeyan's image and talents properly, to suit the mood and feel of the script. The gags arrive one-after-the-other and only in the late second half, the mood goes sombre for few moments. There is no any pretext of a great film with this and that. The makers promised a decent, laugh-riot and that is what has been delivered.
'Varuthapadatha Vaalibar Sangam' - Clean hat-rick of success for Sivakarthikeyan, indeed !
Ratings: 2.75/5 STARS
BY:TAMIL
After 'Udhayam NH4', the main technicians of that team has regrouped again for another of Vetrimaaran's assistant, Prithvi Rajkumar's debut film. 'Naan Rajavaaga Pogiren' has Nakul making a comeback after a 4-year hiatus, accompanied by some new and old faces of Tamizh cinema, filling up the character artistes quotient. Aided by Vetrimaaran, did Prithvi Rajkumar live up to his mentor's name ?
Starting off with the cast, Nakul shows some improvement in his performance. He shows more ease and comfort in the action sequences and his dialogue delivery. But as Jeeva, his diminutive-in-heroism act was on the poorer side of the acting scale. The acting was not convincing and natural, and the 'forced' attempt to act was visible. Poor extraction from the director, perhaps ? Chandini, has the more substantial role of the heroines. She has been accorded more screen space and the heavier performance-enhancing scenes. Avani Modi, is too static and conscious of the presence of the camera. Savitha dubs for the former, while Chinmayee takes care of the latter's. But Avani Modi's performance suffers, due to the mismatch in dubbing sync. Directors Gaurav and A.Venkatesh carry the antagonist roles, and they look apt for the characters they portrayed, though there's nothing particular to praise about. The film has a glut of character artistes such as Nishanth, Manivannan, Kasthuri, Suresh, Vanitha Vijayakumar, Chetan, Muthuraman, Simhaa, Vasu Vikram, 'Delhi' Ganesh, Thiyagu, Mayilsamy, Aarthi and etc and all of them were functional.
Dhilip Subbarayan has choreographed solid action sequences, with the element of kick-boxing, fitting the style of Nakul's. The cricket ground and mall fight sequences, were very professionally done. G.Durairaj's art direction was decent. His art work for the posh apartment sequences, the half-built construction sites, and minute details such as posters and props, were decent works, indeed. Mabbu Jyothiprakash's editing work is functional, but he could have chopped of plenty of scenes, so that the film could have been more racier, with better continuity. R.Velraj proves his class again, with very good framing and camera movements, which creates and aura of suspense and thrill. His night shots are very well shot, and his best works of the film is evident in the mentioned action sequences !
G.V Prakash Kumar, who has been on a role, with a string of decent hits, takes a dip in form in , 'Naan Rajavaaga Pogiren'. The songs were dull and none of the number's were catchy enough ! "College Paadam" is a customary college-intro song, with plenty of good looking female dancers and shot mostly in and around the college campus. Plenty of cut-shots and good camera movements are incorporated into the song. Vetrimaaran, R.Velraj and G.V Prakash make cameo appearances in the song. "Raja Raja" is a montage song, showing the moments shared by the characters played by Nakul and Avani Modi, with dialogue sequences interspersed. "Kalaaipom" is a party song sung by Silambarasan, with all dancers appearing in particular dress codes. The song was shot on all three lead artistes and with different lights used in the backdrop to create a party atmosphere. "Yaar Ivano" was shot on Nakul and Chandini, romancing along the picturesque Goan beaches and landmarks. "Malgova" is a typical item song and Zarine Khan does the jig this time around. The song was poor in quality and the choice of totally-out-of-shape Zarine as an item girl, is a bewildering one by the director. The song was set in a shooting-like scenario. The background score was better than the songs, to be frank. Especially for the tensed moments.
Prithvi Rajkumar has an interesting knot to his story and a clever title. But what's totally missing is an acute and engrossing screenplay ! It is obvious that, Prithvi's style of film-making has a heavy sense of Vetrimaaran's touch, but the screenplay and direction was poorer in quality. The film moves in a very slow pace with a barrage of social messages, thrust into the film, unnecessarily. The usage of monologues was excessive, which gets boring after a certain period. The direction was hurried and there's no proper execution in canning important sequences. Characters were very not properly developed nor the artistes were properly utilized. Surprisingly, Vetrimaaran's dialogues were just handy enough and nothing impressive, in particular.The only plus point one could think of is the cleverly used red herring element in the screenplay, and the rest of the film is just a cover-up for it, which unfortunately plays spoilsport.
'Naan Rajavaaga Pogiren' - Good idea, below average execution.
Ratings: 2.25/5 STARS
BY:TAMIL
'Udhayam NH4', was an ambitious project of Vetrimaaran with his buddy Dhanush, which unfortunately did not materialize into a full-fledged film. Now, the script has been handed down to an associate of Vetri and has a different cast, than what was initially drawn. With the big contribution of Vetrimaaran, who is known for his fantastic writing, in the scripting stage, this film promises a good and neat thriller. So, did Manimaran live up to Vetri's standard ?
Siddharth, is once again back after his last success, 'Kadhalil Sodhapuvadhu Eppadi'. He pulls in a very restrained and nonchalant performance. There is a no non-sense approach to his character, which is kind of laid-back and casual, but smart and witty. His dialogue delivery was very measured. But, somehow his role looks too obviously written with Dhanush in mind, and there are plenty of sequences, where you can imagine Dhanush and see how fitting he is for the character. No discredits to Siddharth, but the 'presence' of Dhanush in the script was inevitable, in the end. Debutant Ashrita Shetty (Devapriya has dubbed for her), fits the role of an under-aged girl, but more emotions and expressions are warranted, if she aspires to survive in the industry. Veteran Hindi artiste, Kay Kay Menon was terrific in his role as the cop. His timing and cool persona, added with the rough and arrogant nature of his job, helps him to pull off a brilliant performance. Welcome to Tamizh cinema, Kay Kay ! The rest of the cast such as Naren, Avinash, Surekha Vaani, Karthik Sabesh, Deepak, Ajay, Rohit Balaiah and etc, especially the friends characters of Siddharth were adequate.
The film carries very good technical works from the technical department. Anu and Priya's costume was adequate for each artistes' roles. Dhilip Subbarayan's stunt choreography was raw and gritty, especially the ones' done in the climax and in the clubbing arena. G.Durairaj's art work was good, especially when one is has to deal with lower budgets. The interiors of the Bengaluru apartments, as well as clubbing houses, were well detailed and convincing, but the tight spaces do show off. Kishore T.E's editing was razor sharp. There are no spaces in between dialogues, and the cuts comes in a rapid manner ! S.Saravanan handles the editing for two of the songs, which were neatly handled. R.Velraj once again proves that he is one of the best cinematographers in Tamizh cinema. The gripping, stylish and roving cinematography complements the thrill element of the script. And he is certainly one of the best, in filming darkly-lit sequences. Check out his cameo appearance in the film, as well !
G.V Prakash Kumar, who is on a roll with big films in his kitty, continues his decent form in 'Udhayam NH4' as well. "Vaa Iravugalil", is the opening number, picturized on the gang of Siddharth and his buddies, getting used to the colorful and lively night life of Bengaluru, especially in clubs and discotheques. The fast-cut editing by S.Saravanan, keeps the racy element intact and the creative statutory warning infused in between the song, was interesting. "Ore Kannaale" is a situational song and has the singer Gaana Bala, making an appearance as well. The song was picturized on a street-stage performance model, and has quirky dance moves. "Yaaro Ivan" is the melodious number, with plenty of montage sequences, shot on the lead pair, romancing in and around Bengaluru, along the beaches, streets, mall, college campus and etc. "Indrodu Thadaigal" is another fast-paced song, with neat editing by S.Saravanan and colorful lighting by R.Velraj, and G.Durairaj's set work was adequate. The background score was a little loud, and could have been more racier.
Vetrimaaran, once again proves that he is very good with his writing skills. He takes credit for the story and dialogues, and also pens the screenplay along with the director Manimaran. There's nothing new in the story, but the racy screenplay and clean narration, makes the film to click. The intelligent and unexpected twists and turns adds to the fun quotient. The comedy portions were very well handled, and Vetrimaaran's organic dialogues played a big part. The director has handled the script well, by infusing sensible, small detailing in the film, which adds more authenticity to the film (including the voice dubbing by Deepa Venkat). But Manimaran could have given more attention to the hero's role, in order to erase the 'presence' of Dhanush's personality into Siddharth's role. Besides that, disappointingly, there are some small loopholes and loose-ends in the script, which should have been rectified. The films moves in a fast pace in the first half, but looses the tautness in the second half, after key moments have gone through.
'Udhayam NH4' is a clean-cut film, which delivered what it promised. Nothing less, nothing more. A simple and clean commercial thriller, with good performances and technical outputs.
Ratings: 3/5 STARS
BY:TAMIL
