Tha. Prabhu Raja Cholan, a former associate of Shankar makes his debut as a director in the uniquely titled, 'Karuppampatti'. Started three years ago, 'Karuppampatti' finally sees the day, and luckily the hero Ajmal, has a better market, thanks to the big success of 'Ko'. With interesting locations such as Paris and the extreme opposite of it, in rural Tamil Nadu villages, 'Karuppampatti' promises a good and family-friendly time for the viewers. But is it really good as a film ?
This is Ajmal's first film as an out-and-out hero or as the protagonist. It is quite evident that he has performed sincerely, though his reactions do tend to go overboard at times. Probably, more experience could have helped him to be more composed. But kudos to him for attempting to play two diametrically different roles and has worked well, in displaying the difference between both the roles, which are set in different eras. Ajmal shows some promise and with more films, he can scale the heights of stardom. Aparna Bajpai would have probably bagged this role, thanks to her role in 'Eesan' which she did long time back. She too has the opportunity to perform in two roles but sadly, her roles were not sketched out properly, nor do they have any significant importance to the film. Her sweet smile and pleasant appearance, is a plus for her, though. M.S Bhaskar handles the comedy portions of the first half, and he was good with his dialogue delivery and modulation. Meanwhile, its Jagan and Srinath, who takes care of the humor quotient in the second half. Jagan, was pretty good, particularly with his dialogue delivery and expressions, whereas Srinath was too loud and irritating. A big troupe of supporting artistes are there, such as Devadarshini, Chetan, Ganesh, Alex, Mahadevan, R.S.G Chelladurai, Balasubramaniam, Prem and etc, and many of them have left their mark, wherever they could.
The technical output of the film was not bad, surprisingly. Vasugi Bhaskar has done a good job, on a low budget, especially when it comes to the fashion styles of the 70's and the current generation. But more work could have done to make the characters of the village folks of the 70's to look more authentic and believable. Abdul Razak's make-up sufficed the needs of the artistes. 'Rock' Prabhu's stunt was simple and cleanly executed by Ajmal. Production designers, Vengal Ravi and Veeramani should be lauded for their simple, yet efficient art direction. The props and background were convincingly done to represent the specific eras portrayed in the film. The interiors and props for the 70's era, was the highlight, together with the sets for the songs. B.Lenin's editing was just perfect for the film, without making it too draggy. Santhosh Sriram and Sanjeevi Sathyaseelan, handled the cinematography department very well. The camera movements and framing were perfect, as well as the clarity in their works, especially for the village portions.
Kannan's tunes for the film was average and not really hum-worthy. "Kannamma" is the first song, which is a bit song, picturized on village girls, celebrating the festival, by playfully pouring turmeric-contained water on men. It has good camera movements and nice black-and-white tone to it. "Oh Indira" has Telugu actress Archana doing a dance jig with Ajmal, in a simple, yet flashy club set. The lighting was particularly bright, which captured the essence and mood of the song quite well. "Naughty Raja" had very bright and colorful lighting in the set work, which resembled the 70's hippie disco backdrop. The editing for the song was neatly done, so that it resembles similar type of songs, picturized in those days. "Karuppampatti" is a typical village song, with the Pongal celebration as the backdrop. It had plenty of dancers and the colorful festivity mood, in the air, especially with the big number of sugar canes used for the song. "Adaleru Kaalai" is another celebratory village song, this time glorifying the victorious state of the protagonist in a bull-fight. It too has similar colorful ambiance and plenty of dancers, with plantation fields, serving as the backdrop. The background score was just normal, and there's nothing much to discuss about it.
Tha. Prabhu Raja Cholan, must be credited for earnestly trying to be as original as he could, wherever the script necessitates. For example, the liberal use of French during the Paris portions, the non-stereotyping of villagers as the supreme good human and the usage of black-and-white tone for the flashback sequences. The detailing is evident, but it is not enough, in terms of his script writing. We are not given enough justification or rationale explanations on why the senior Ajmal was averse to his fellow villagers, though he is one among them. Some characters just vanish without leaving any mark on the screenplay and the the junior Ajmal's comfortable assimilation into the supposedly, "alien" village, is too good to be true. And the integration of all the characters into the village once again, was just too simple. All these only showcase the lazy writing of the director. Its puzzling to note how the director can leave out a simply detail in the dialogues portion, especially for the younger Ajmal, who seems to be uttering more English, instead of French ! He grew up in Paris, didn't he ? The director has set his sight in capturing the family audience's attention, but the script lacks the zing and the intensity of the emotional quotient, needed for such family dramas. Perhaps, Tha. Prabhu Raja Cholan would have intended for a light-hearted, simple film yet, it fails to fully engage us.
'Karuppampatti' is watchable in bits and pieces. A more deft, script-writing could have helped the film, to achieve its actual intention.
Ratings: 2/5 STARS
BY:TAMIL
Vaanam, kicked off the actual multi-starers spree in Tamizh cinema. Expectations were big since it involved talented artistes coming together in one film and also for the script as this film is the remake of the critically acclaimed Telugu film Vedam, directed by the same director Krish. Besides that this movie has another added expectations thanks to the controversy of Simbhu walking out of Ko and proceeded to do this film and everyone wanted to know whether Simbhu made the right choice or not. This film follows the multi-story narration where 5 separate tracks converge into one situation in the climax. This sort of narration mode is very popular in the international scene where successful films like Babel and Crash has proved it. In Indian cinema Mani Ratnam used it in Aayitha Ezhuthu/Yuva and even in a recent Malayalam film Traffic.
Each track has it's own story, characters and issues involved. First up is Bharath as the aspiring rock star. It's refreshing to see Bharath in a good role but as per storyline we don't get to see him really living the role of a rock song artist. His stunt scenes in the highway and the risks he has taken to execute it such as running down from the hill and breaking the glass panel of an oncoming car should be applauded. He was presented in a clean and youthful look but his costumes could have been better to be in tune of a rock-song artiste. Vega complemented him well as his partner and her looks and costumes were near perfect.
Prakash Raj as a devout Muslim was too good. The veteran has once again proved why he is a sought after character artiste. His expressions and voice modulation when showing his anger and getting hit by the shocking reality was really brilliant especially in the scene where he gets slapped by Ravi Prakash. Sonia Aggarwal had a neat performance although her role had very less scope in the film. Ravi Prakash as a racist policeman who in the end realises his mistakes, delivered a good performance as well. Jayaprakash had a very small but powerful role and he was in his best elements.
Saranya Ponvannan as the helpless mother who has to rescue her son from the clutches of loan-shark, was brilliant as usual. Her expressions, voice modulation, body language, everything was very natural and she has proved once again that she's an actress of substance. The old actor who played her father-in-law character was also very natural and simple.
Anushka did a role which finally justified her glamour. As Saroja, the commercial sex worker she has excelled in a once in lifetime role and her body language was very apt for that role. As a girl with big aspirations, her best scene was her encounters with Radha Ravi in the police station and it was good to see her role not being depicted in a vulgar manner. Veteran Radha Ravi appeared for one scene but yet stamped his mark with his voice modulations being the highlight. The eunuch character was very well portrayed and Brahmanandam's cameo was an added attraction to the movie.
Silambarasan, has delivered a knock out performance as Cable Raja and it's good to see him following up a fantastic performance after Vinnaithaandi Varuvaayaa. If analyzed throughout the movie, the last 45 minutes was his best and Silambarasan was simply superb by handling the emotional scenes very sensitively and with high level of maturity. It takes a big effort for anyone to act out those scenes and he has done it really well. The only complaints one would say is the unnecessary heroic build up given to him, be it in the title credits or even in his introduction scene. Santhanam and Ganesh were perfect complements to Silambarasan and the trio rocked in the comic department with fantastic timing and it was a relief Santhanam had his own usual punches but sans any vulgarity, this time and Ganesh was at his best as well. Jasmine, the newcomer was apt for the rich girl role and it's good to hear her dub in her own voice.
Neerav Shah and Gnanasekharan did a fine job with the cinematography department and the angles of the camera was good but the best part of it is the lighting and mood/tone selected for each separate story tracks which really brought out the feel of the film. Some of the best shots are the salt field in Tuticorin and the rain scenes involving Prakash Raj. Rembon, the art director created apt sets for the film be it the whorehouse or the streets created for the final dance sequence. Yuvan Shankar Raja's music was a little disappointing as Vaanam cant be said as one of his best tracks although the Yevandi Unnai Pethan song had fantastic sound engineering work with well shot video song and Na Muthukumar's lyrics for the title track was brilliant though songs were unnecessary speed breakers of the film. Yuvan made up for the disappointing album with an excellent background score. The film's biggest asset is the dialogue write Gnanagiri who wrote simple, straightforward and thought provoking dialogues. Kudos to him for coming up with such gems and that too for the important scenes of the film. Krish has penned a neat story with strong messages but the script had space for improvements especially for the first half but still he should be appreciated for not coming up with a nonsensical masala film.
Vaanam manages to get the recognition as a good film though it had room for improvements and the director should have stuck to his original Telugu film, when it comes to depicting the ending of 2 major characters of the film. Overall, a decent and different film for the average viewers.
Ratings: 3/5 STARS
BY:TAMIL
