Sundar.C, known for his slap-stick and sit-com based movies, is back with another offering but this time its in tune with the current flavor of horror comedy genre. Packed with the usual commercial 'masala' elements such as dance, comedy and action, can Sundar.C pull of another hit with a huge cast and a significantly higher budgeted, 'Aranmanai' ? Will the mix of horror and comedy be in a right proportion ?
Coming to the huge cast list, almost every frame in the film has more than 2 artistes involved and its a constant riot. But its an out-and-out female-centric film and the main lead roles are played by Hansika Motwani and Andrea Jeremiah. Hansika Motwani's second half show was decent enough for this film. She's surprisingly convincing as a village belle and looks bubbly and pleasing. Her screen presence is good as she keeps our attention well. Her lip-sync is getting better but still there's plenty of room to improve. Andrea Jeremiah fits the sensuous role perfectly, and her voice is an added advantage to her character, especially in the transformation scenes. Its definitely a good performance from her, but she somehow her character doesn't sink in to the proceedings easily. Sundar.C plays himself the most important male role and is functional in that role. Santhanam keeps us in splits, though not all of his one-liners were chuckle worthy. The big cast of the film includes Vinay Rai, Raai Laxmi, Kovai Sarala, Manobala, Kota Srinivasa Rao, Saravanan, Chitra Letchumanan, Santhana Bharathi, Swaminathan, Nithin Sathya, Aarthi, Ganesh, Akila, 'Kadhal' Dhandapani, Meera Krishnan, Alwa Vasu, Yogi Babu, Soundar, Gowtham, Raj Kapoor and etc. Though most of them were all over the screenplay, their relevance and importance to the script is a big question mark.
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The film's technical aspects needs special mention, for their inputs. Vasuki Bhaskar's costume designing for the female leads are noteworthy, and all character's costumes blends in well with their respective characterizations. The film is loaded with VFX and computer graphics and the teams from Prasad EFX Group and Sinthu Graphics, deserves special mention. The final climax scene is completely ruled by the VFX, especially with the river water sequence and the solar eclipse effects. The color tone gave the climax a perfect look and its a visual treat indeed. Kudos to them ! Action choreography by 'Thalapathy' Dinesh was over-the-top, especially for the climax sequence, although Sundar.C's introductory fight scene was decent. Art director Gururaj deserves appreciation for his splendid work ! The whole film is based on the huge palace set which was erected and its completely filled with apt set properties. The set-work brought out the look needed for the film and aptly complemented the horror element of the script. Also, his work for the other village festival and etc sequences were rich in detailing. A feather in the cap for Gururaj ! Editing by N.B Srikanth was okay but he could have trimmed the length of the film, which runs unnecessarily long. U.K Senthil Kumar, a veteran and firm favourite of Sundar.C is the cinematographer for this film and his work was functional, but the climax sequence stood out, especially for the scenes involving the river.
The songs of the film is scored by Bharathwaj and frankly speaking, the songs were just pretty boring and lukewarm. "Kaththi Parvakaari" is the opening song for Vinay Rai and Andrea Jeremiah. Its like a mini-road song, which has all the rural hot-spots in it. The lush greenery and colorful art work by Gururaj, especially with the colorful village festival like set properties, deserves mention. "Petromax Lightu" is a typical dance song, involving Santhanam, Nithin Sathya, Sundar.C, Vinay Rai, Andrea Jeremiah and Raai Laxmi. The indoor scenes were well captured and the song's idea stems from the song "Maama Nee Vaama", which featured in Sundar'C's classic slap-stick comedy, 'Ullathai Alli Thaa'. "Sonnathu" is a female melody shot on Hansika Motwani and Vinay Rai and also had all the typical village locations such as paddy fields, water dam and rural homes as its backdrop. "Unnaiye" is a situational song, which sounds like a typical Rama Narayanan 'Amman' film songs and has a huge Hindu festival as its backdrop. The splendor and richness of the event was well captured on camera and also incorporated plenty of VFX in it. There are cameo appearances from singers Manicka Vinayagam, Dr.Sirkazhi G.Sivachidambaram and Sivashankar Master. The background score is handled by Karthik Raja and his work was functional and fits the horror based sequences, well.
The story by Sundar.C reminds us of other Indian horror flicks, such as 'Manichitrathazhu', 'Chandramukhi', 'Yaar', 'Muni', 'Kanchana' and etc. Its not a very novel attempt, but Sundar.C and S.B Ramadoss' screenplay tries to keep us waiting for the outcome and potential twists and turns, though the proceedings were pretty much, predictable. One must admit that though the film may entertain quite a few, there are plenty of obvious loopholes and unanswered questions in the film. The film tries to pick up some speed in the second half, especially one the the surprise is revealed during the interval junction, but is hampered by some dull songs and comedy tracks. Venkat Ragavan and Sundar.C 's dialogues were pretty ordinary too, apart from some efforts in the one-liners for Santhanam. Some visuals might be a turn-off or little disturbing for those who are young aged but other than that, 'Aranmanai' isn't really a scary flick. Sundar.C's direction sufficed the needs of the script, although the Rama Narayanan's 'Amman' film-like climax, was over-the-top.
'Aranmanai' - Unmajestic and run-of-the-mill kind, bearable horror-comedy !
Ratings: 2.5/5 STARS
BY:TAMIL
The title 'Aadama Jaichomada' is inspiration of the hit-song from the album, 'Mankatha'. Ironically, the film's theme is revolved around the match fixing scam associated with the highly successful Indian Premier League cricket tournament. Though the film's content might suggest something of a B/C Grade film, but the content could surprise you and might be of good entertainment value for your time and money, spent. With an eclectic mix of upcoming artistes, can Badri pull it off, after the horrendous remake of 'Thillu Mullu' ?
The film has no particular lead protagonist nor antagonist and its nice to see that all main characters have nearly equal amount of space and importance to the script. Leading the pack of artistes is Karunakaran, who is on the roll with another decent and spot on performance. Karunakaran impresses us with his unique dialogue delivery and facial expressions. His comic timing is just near perfect and pulls off most of the jokes, effortlessly. However, he should improve his romance and dancing portions, if he is to pursue lead roles in the future. Bobby Simhaa, has a big makeover from the 'Jigarthanda' looks and plays the role of a cop, for the first time. The pretentious, over-ambitious and unintelligent cop role suits him to a T, He has the ample scenes to showcase his acting histrionics and doesn't let us down. Heroine Vijayalakshmi has done an adequate job and gets her diction and dialogues right. The other artistes such as Balaji Venugopal, K.S Ravikumar, Radha Ravi, Naren, Chetan, Gautham, Chitra Letchumanan, Abhishek and etc have delivered wacky performances in a very nonchalant way, especially with K.S Ravikumar and Naren. Its a jolly-good casting, indeed !
Action choreography is handled by Hari Dinesh, and since the film is purely a comedy, the action sequences are not meant to be taken serious too. The actions are over-the-top, but it is meant to be like that, in order to maintain the comical element of the screenplay. The usage of ropes in such obvious manner, could have been avoided though. Art director Gururaj's work lends a big helping hand for the film's production quality. Almost many sequences in the film have a set based scenario or plenty of props. Be it the interiors of the homes, the songs, police station set, control room and etc, every avenue is properly done and the set properties matched the ambiance very well. Kudos to Gururaj ! K.J Venkatramanan's editing is slick and he keeps the duration of the film short and has done managed the cuts for the wild-goose chase scenes, quite well. A little bit of pace in the first half, would have done more good for the film. Dwarakanath's cinematography suits the film's script and budget very well. His works for the chasing scenes are noteworthy and the lighting sense in some scenes, brought out the right effect, which added more credence to the comedy quotient of the script.
Sean Roldan's music works fine for the film and some of the songs are appealing even if you are to listen to it as standalone soundtracks. "Thanniyile" is montage song shot on Karunakaran and Vijayalakshmi. There are plenty of funny touches here and there's such as the dancing angels ala Bharathiraja-style. The posh bathroom set for this song deserves mention ! "Odura Nari" is a situational song and is shot on Karunakaran who is chased by Naren and his motley crew of henchmen. "Naalellam" is a folk dance number, shot on Karunakaran and Vijayalakshmi, with colorful set work, based on an Rajasthani theme. "One Day" is another situation song, shot in a nightclub/pub scene, and has good lighting effects, with the additional eye-candy in the form of an sexy Caucasian dancer. The editing for the song complements the way the song was shot. "Nalla Kettuko" appears during the end-credits and features all the main leads in an 70's retro style look, with brightly colored simple set work and some patch ups of computer graphics. Sean Roldan's background score is unique and this young composer is very fast making progress and stamping his own mark but he should be cautious in not repeating his works.
Story and screenplay, developed by the director Badri, alongside with T.Senthilkumaran has touches of dark humor or black comedy. The film's thematic contents are definitely not children-friendly but the gags are indeed humorous. Some real life issues and moments are parodied unabashedly and what helps the film is the quirky mix of idiosyncratic characters and their own bizarre scenarios or situations. Be it the foolish theater owner who produces a film deemed failure, a heroine who has some sort of a yearning for a personal bathroom, a police officer who is seen as a complete joker and a philandering but helpful bookie and etc, these sort of standalone weird characters, have their lives intertwined somehow, ensuring the sparks doesn't fail to fly. Helping Badri's screenplay is the colloquially funny dialogues, written by actor Shiva. The dialogues by Shiva keeps the film lively and can be considered the backbone of the script. What hampers the film though, are the needless songs, especially the duets ! 'The film is a breezy entertainer and a perfect light-hearted black comedy.
'Aadama Jaichomada' - An effortless winner, indeed !
Ratings: 2.75/5 STARS
BY:TAMIL
Sundar.C came back to the limelight as a successful director with 'Masala Cafe' after his ill-fated decision of becoming a lead actor. Now he's back with another ensemble young cast in 'Theeya Velai Seiyyanum Kumaru' and also with a different city backdrop. Can Sundar.C maintain his grip in the box-office with his enviable track record of churning out hit comedy movies ? 'Masala Cafe' did kick-start, but can he follow suit with TSVK ?
For Siddharth, it would have been a piece of cake enacting the loser role of Kumar. But its interesting to see him do a complete comedy film, which could be the first in his career, thus far. Nevertheless, an easy and comfortable job for him. Hansika Motwani, is not far behind and she too delivers a convincing performance, with apt expressions and neat comedy timing. Not to forget, she looks a million bucks in this film, and is perfect for the role of a quintessential Tamizh audience dream-girl ! The man Santhanam, was just too good as Mokia, and his ever-present, rocking dialogue delivery and comedy timing was there, to deliver the actual USP of the film. We just wonder, how this guy can go on and on, with his antics in nearly all the important films of a calendar year, and yet never fail to evoke laughter ! The biggest asset of the film is the big cast which has RJ Balaji, Ganesh Venkatraman, Devadarshini, Bosskey, Aishwarya Menon, Chitra Letchumanan, Manobala, Nalini, Veena Kumar, Vidyullekha Raman, Sri Ranjini, George and Vichu Vishwanath, who all chipped in with their comic antics, which further enlivened the screenplay. Besides that, there were cameo appearances from Vishal Krishna, Samantha Ruth Prabhu, John Vijay, Karunakaran and Khushboo Sundar, which further spiced up the humor quotient.
Khushboo Sundar takes care of the costume designing, and she has done a wonderful job, especially with the main characters of Siddharth, Hansika, Santhanam and Ganesh, who were looking great ! 'Thalapathy' Dinesh's stunt choreography was functional and sufficed the need of the script. Gururaj's production design was simple, yet neat and his art work for the a song sequence was well handled. Praveen K.L and Srikanth N.B's editing was smooth but sadly the songs were just unwanted breaks in the film's screenplay. Gopi Amarnath's cinematography was fresh and cool on the eyes, with cool color tone and well picturized song sequences. His lighting is a must-mention, as well.
C.Sathya's musical score was easy on the ears and pleasant to listen to. "Melliya Saaral" is a short song, which was used as the heroine's introductory song, which was shot in a posh office setting. "Azhagendral" is the pick of the lot among all songs, which was well shot in a rural temple setting, which had a celebratory marriage backdrop. Not to forget, Hansika was smashing in the sarees ! "Kozhu Kozhu" was shot on the lead pair in Japan, and had backdrops of harbor, railway stops and city center. "Enna Pesa" had more scenic locations of Japan, with beautiful snowy mountains, and spring-filled blossoming trees of postcard worthy gardens. "Lovekku Yes" is another popular track from the song, which had different and colorful sets by Gururaj and efficient lighting from Gopi Amarnath. "Thiruttu Pasanga" is an end-credits song, which featured nearly all the artistes from the film, dancing on a graphic-filled backdrop, and good editing from the editors.
The winning element of the film, is the screenplay by Sundar.C developed with a team consisting Srinivas Kavinayam, Prabhu Dass, Karunakaran and Nalan Kumarasamy of 'Soodhu Kavvum' fame. The urban setting was well used for the script and Sundar.C never leaves any open space or gap in the screenplay, and the jokes starts to come in thick and fast, scene by scene. The second half plays an even faster tempo, with lesser songs. Sundar.C's directorial skill should be applauded, for he has handled the film expertly, which should be credited to his experience of handling such humor-filled comedy films, in his long career. Besides that, he has used the services of Nalan Kumarasamy once again for the dialogues department, along with Venkat Raghavan, who came up with side-splitting one-liners, especially for Santhanam, who uttered them nonchalantly. A bonus plus-point for the film is the clean and family-friendly jokes, with no double entendres or loud slapstick comedy. Some sequences were well conceptualized, keeping in mind of the contemporary urban audiences' taste and connectedness element.
'Theeya Velai Seiyyanum Kumaru' - a clean, jollyfull entertainer. Sundar.C is definitely back in action !
Ratings: 3/5 STARS
BY:TAMIL
