MIRATTAL MOVIE REVIEW

'Mirattal' is the comeback vehicle of actor Vinay Rai after 3 years of absence in Tamizh cinema. This film is a remake of a hit Telugu film titled 'Dhee'. As it is the flavor of the season to have Santhanam, in its cast, this film too has him playing the sidekick to the hero.

Vinay Rai looks at ease, pulling off the character of Babloo and plays comedy quite well too. But he has to improve his dancing skills a lot, if he wants to make it out as commercial artiste. Sharmila Mandre, a Kannada actress makes her debut in this film. Her expressions and emotions are pathetic and seriously needs to go for acting lessons, if she intends to make a living as a performing artiste. Prabhu breezes through his role and Pradeep Rawat as the antagonist was loud and his character looks silly. Santhanam was the best asset and only asset of the film. He is simply funny with his dialogue delivery and fantastic one-liners. The film is full of such witty one-liners, which keeps you entertained for sometime. Accompanying him in the comedy portions are 'Ganja' Karuppu, Pandiarajan and Mansoor Ali Khan. Besides them, Rishi, Uma Padhmanaban, Yuvarani and Bosskey dons small roles in the film.

The film carries very average technical standard. Vivek Harsha's editing work was just normal, as in to compile a set of scenes into a film. E.I Mayan's art work was average too, with sloppy work in the birthday sets. D.Kannan's camera work has nothing to shout about apart from few scenic locations shot in England covering areas such as Richmond, Windsor, Bath, Surrey, Oxfordshire and around the University of East London. Praveen Mani's songs were boring too. "Radio Radio" a typical 'kuthu' number was shot in England around housing complex areas and "Kalla Paarvai" was shot with castle and greenery backdrop. "Mugamoodi" was shot with a birthday celebration background, involving the other cast members.

Director Madhesh's film has a script which is as old as the hills and nothing novel about it. Also the presentation was pretty lame and only Santhanam was helping the audiences to not fall sick. The only saving grace act from the director is to include Santhanam in the film and to pen funny one-liners for him. The story has plenty of flaws in script wise and the supposedly 'thrilling' climax was just lame.


'Mirattal' is just a one-time watch and that too for the comedy portions only.


Ratings: 1.5/5 STARS

BY:TAMIL

PORALI MOVIE REVIEW

Sasikumar and Samuthirakani are back again with Porali this time. Their last work "Eesan" was a success critically wise but failed to set the cash-registers, ringing. Due to poor release timing, they're movie faltered. This time they are once again offering another hard-hitting film but it's Samuthirakani's turn to do the direction. His "Nadodigal" was a super hit and was much appreciated by all section of fans and much is expected from this film.

Starting with the cast, the soul of the film is the protagonist, Sasikumar and he has done a good job. Nothing outside of his regular acting as he had replicated the same mannerisms, dialogue delivery style and body language as he did in "Nadodigal" but with less fire, due to the characterization. His plus is his look and the beard and it complements the intelligent/smart persona of his character very well and the whole film is carried by him. The changeover from rural to city background was smooth, though there are some questions which can be raised with the transition. Allari Naresh was fine and the scenes which required the tough emotions, were neatly done though his mannerisms were similar to what Bharani did in "Nadodigal". Heroines Swathi and Niveditha has not much to do and only the former has more screen space as Sasikumar's pair. Nevertheless, they were well used but the surprise package is the appearance of Vasudhara in a very short role in the second half. Her's was a meaty role which demanded some physical struggle but it was a short-lived one. Job, well done. There are a plethora of extras in the film like Jayaprakash, 'Ganja' Karuppu, 'Parotta' Suri, 'Badawa' Gopi, Prof.Gnanasambandhan, Namo Narayanan and etc. The comedy portions in the first half was neatly done and evokes a few genuine laughter, thanks to the fine timing by 'Ganja' Karuppu and in the second half it's 'Parotta' Suri's turn to entertain the audience with his dialogue delivery.

On the technical front, the movie is quite simple. S.R Kadhir is brilliant as usual with his wide angles, top angles and angles from tight spots which he squeezes into the frame. His brilliance is evident in the scenes captured in the small housing colony. Nice work, all the time. Keep it up, Kadhir! Sundar C.Babu's music is disappointing this time with non of the songs really catchy and only the background score was done well, thanks to his effort of recording it in the Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra. A.L Ramesh should have done a better job with Samuthirakani as the screenplay was sloppy. R.K Naguraj's props and sets in the barren land was well done. Dhilip Subbarayan's stunts were tad a bit disappointing this time as some stunts were not neatly executed. Technical wise, the film had average work except for SR Kadhir's contributions.

Samuthirakani, who always comes up with fiery screenplay with full of enthusiasm and angst at times, misses the plot this time. His screenplay was very sloppy, as mentioned earlier and there was no coherence in the flow of the story with various flashbacks of different timeline. The movie started off very well, with all the necessary grip and anticipation but slowly rolled out to be a moderate product. His dialogues though were intelligently written with doses of angst, pain, emotions and sarcasm and even cheeky, by making reference to their previous film and personal opinions as well. The first half had the right portions of suspense, comedy and emotions but the second half was slow and confusing. Besides that, a few proceedings or events in the film are questionable which seems to be out of logic or should be said as out unjustified. The scenes depicting the patients in the mental asylum looks a bit disturbing and it might not be fathomable for a few.

In the end, the movie turned out to be a below average film and it's disappointing to see it coming from a very talented team of film-makers. Samuthirakani had a very good message and theme to play with, but his screenplay was a big letdown and some issues were not properly looked into.


Ratings: 2.5/5 STARS

BY:TAMIL