Director Suseenthiran, who had a fantastic 2013 with two solid film in 'Aadhalaal Kaadhal Seiveer' and 'Paandiya Naadu' is back once again and its a return to sports-based theme. 'Jeeva' is produced by himself, together with cinematographer Madhie and art director Rajeevan, under the newly formed Vennila Kabadi Team Productions. Co-producing the film is The Next Big Films production unit, alongside actor Arya under his own production company The Show People. Distribution is handled by Arya's company together with Vishal's Vishal Film Factory. Being a project entirely funded and distributed by industry friends, can Suseenthiran strike a hat-trick ?
After the success of 'Mundasupatti', Vishnu Vishal has once again done it in 'Jeeva' with a very clean and neat performance. Being a real-life cricketer himself, Vishnu Vishal performed very naturally and with consummate ease. His diction is good and he is showing more improvement with his dialogue deliveries and modulation. Job, well done ! Sri Divya has substance in her performance and she manages to show a gamut of expressions on her face. Her lip-sync, too is spot on and with a very pretty and pleasing personality, hope she gets more good roles to explore her acting credentials. Soori's character is something unnecessary for the script, though we don't mind the few occasional chuckles, he creates with his sharp dialogue deliveries and apt sense of comic timing. The film has plenty of supporting artistes such as Lakshman Narayan (another real-life cricketer), Charlie, Harish Uthaman, Vinoth Kishan, producer T.Siva, G.Marimuthu, V.Madhusudhan Rao, Akhila, Monika, Bava Letchumanan, Muthuraman, Mahendran and etc. Nearly all of them had good acting scope and made good use of their screen timing. Co-producer and distributor Arya makes a cameo appearance towards the end of the film.
C.Harikesh handles the costume designing and his work sufficed the needs of the script. The changeover for Sri Divya from a school-going girl to a college student, deserves mention. All artistes looked their part and the costumes made everyone look original and authentic. 'Anl' Arasu's action choreography was minimal and functional. G.C Anandhan's art direction gave the film a very realistic look and ambiance. The set properties, especially for the 80's and 90's era deserves special mention. The detailing in the middle-class homes depicted in the film, is another highlight. Editing is handled by Ruben, and there's nothing much to complain about his work. The cricket game shots, were well edited, which keeps the momentum of the scene from not depreciating. Cinematographer Madhie's work is enthralling and the color tone and the various style of lighting employed for different scenes, elevated the mood of the film and gels well with Suseenthiran's presentation. Madhie has tried his best to bring out the grandeur and awe-inspiring moments of an actual cricket matches and he succeeds to a certain extent. The angles he employed for the tense moments in the cricket games, were no less brilliant and is a visual treat !
D.Imman's compositions gels very well with the film and is almost complementary to Suseenthiran's narration. "Ovvondrai Thirudugirai" is a beautiful number written by Vairamuthu and is a duet number shot on the lead pair, with many montages of their teenage lovey-dovey moments. The lovely blue tone employed by Madhie for this track, brought out the romantic mood of the song, very well. "Oru Rosa" is a booze number, which had popular cinematographer cum actor Natarajan Subramaniam @ Natty, in an cameo appearance. The typical dim lighting from Madhie and the wine shop and bar set work put by G.C Anandhan fits the bill. "Netru Naan" is a wonderful, melodious bit-song, shot on Vishnu and Sri Divya. It depicts the moment the protagonist sets his eyes upon his lady, after disengaging himself from her for a couple of years. Sri Divya's looks complemented the song's lyric, very well ! "Oruthi Mele" is a charming, naughty number shot on the lead pair, surrounded by some of the supporting cast, such as Soori and Lakshman Narayan. The college campus ambiance, with an urbane look and modernist art work by G.C Anandhan, gave the song a lively look, alongside the colorful dancers. "Enge Ponai" is a situational pathos song, which comes just before the climax. D.Imman's background score was mellow and very soothing for the ears. He has toned down his usual melodramatic scores, and the move worked very beautifully in 'Jeeva'. Hoping to hear more such lovely background score from him !
The base of Suseenthiran's story is a typical underdog-triumphing-in-the-end mould, which we would seen for umpteenth number of times. But the treatment of the theme and the issue of casteism or a form of social stratification based on caste system, is very well explored and narrated here. Suseenthiran does not shy to point out the system which plagues the Tamil Nadu cricketing scenario and how only a select group of players from a specific community, makes the cut for the team selection and how others are discarded, just like that. Santhosh's dialogue writing does the work for Suseenthiran with very simple, straight-forward, earthy but contemporary dialogues. The confrontational scene in the second half, has some of the stronger worded dialogues and its the real highlight of the film. Not to forget, some of Soori's one-liners too deserves a praise ! Suseenthiran and Arun Balaji's screenplay has a very smooth flow, apart from the occasional songs, which were minor bumps. The precise allocation of timing for romance, comedy, sentiment, bromance, and pathos quotients in the screenplay, keeps the film engaging. Suseenthiran's direction deserves praise, for his astute handling of his characters and the script's subject. There's no preachy moments, yet the message was conveyed in a very subtle manner and its always nice to have an underdog overcoming the improbable hurdles, lying in front of him. Its definitely a hat-trick for Suseenthiran !
'Jeeva' - A simple, honest and soulful sports drama !
Ratings: 3/5 STARS
BY:TAMIL
'Endrendrum Punnagai' has been making the right noise, thanks to the multiple number of stars playing the lead roles and for a glossy output, credits to the classy technicians. Harris Jayaraj's bubblegum pop music was received warmly as well. I.Ahmed, the television writer who previously wielded the megaphone for 'Vaamanan', is back in the helm as creator and director of this urbane flick. Will 'Endrendrum Punnagai' leave us with smiles as the moniker suggest ?
Jiiva, unsurprisingly has the best written role in the film. His characterization has some considerable depth in it, and Jiiva seized the opportunity to polish his acting credentials. He proves that he is an actor of great capability and shines in some of the crucial, emotional moments of the script. His dancing is improving a lot and he shares great chemistry with his fellow artistes. Vinay has a walk-in-the-park sort of a role, and he pulls it off, effervescently. He shows his confidence in humor sequences as well and forms a good partnership with the fellow male leads. Santhanam, was a scream in the film with his spotless dialogue deliveries and spot-on comedy timing. His counter dialogues are the real sucker punch and the man is back with a bang, after some lackluster performances in a slew of recent releases. Check out the drunk act he does, late in the second half ! Trisha, delivers a neat performance and the her soft-spoken character suits to a T. And she is still a looker, even after a decade as heroine in Tamizh cinema ! But why the usage of Chinmayi to dub for Trisha, when the heroine herself can speak well ?Andrea Jeremiah, carries her role as a diva quite well and proves herself to be quite a charmer, in some sequences. She only gets a few moments in the film, but still never fails to leave her mark. Nassar proves that experience counts when it comes to acting, and the veteran is definitely the icing on the cake. The rest of the cast such as Jagan, Abhinay, T.M Karthik, Varsha Ashwathi, Swaminathan, Thanuja, Sriranjini, Sanjana Sarathi, Narayan, V.Balaji and etc were adequate enough for their peripheral roles.
The costume designers, Chaitanya Rao and Nikhila Sukumar must be praised for their fantastic work in their department. All of the artistes were looking very attractive and radiant, with their chic and elegant costumes, projecting a very urbane and fashionable set of people. Production design by Milan is top notch, with classy set work, especially with the interiors of the posh bungalow houses shown in the film, as well as the contemporary office set-up. His props of the outdoor sequences were in tact, as well. A class act ! Praveen K.L and Srikanth N.B ensures that the editing is smooth and flawless, and there are no jerky transitions from one sequence to another, at all. The duration of the film though, could have been shorter because 155 minutes of running time is not a necessity for such a script. Cinematographer Madhie must be congratulated for his brilliant work with his camera. The film gets a rich and glossy look, due to his lighting and postcard-like framing, especially in the second half, which has beautiful locations, shot in Switzerland and France. He definitely made up for the high cost of the film, with good cinematography works !
Harris Jayaraj has scored tunes, which gives us a sense of deja-vu. Nonetheless, his fans will still lap it up, for the feel-good music, with simple and catchy arrangements. "Yealae Yealae" is the song played in the opening credits, and was shot on the trio of male leads. The collage of photographs was well edited by Praveen and Srikanth, which interspersed with the montages shown in the song, highlighting the friendship of the triumvirate. "Ennathe Solle" was shot in a club-like set-up, which was well erected by Milan, and Madhie's lighting gave the song a glossy look, which was shot on the male leads. "Othayile" is a situational song, with plenty of montages and slick camera movements by Madhie. "Kadal Naan Thaan" was shot on Jiiva and Andrea, which had beautiful Swiss Alps as its backdrop, and also some cool chopper shots and not to forget, the sensual shots, with water backdrop. "Ennai Saaithale" is a bit song, used as a situational song in the second half and was shot on Jiiva and Trisha, with beautiful snow landscape as the backdrop. "Vaan Engum" is the pick of the lot, shot on Jiiva and Trisha, with Swiss cities as the backdrop. Harris Jayaraj's background score, complements the script's flavor and style and also supports the emotional sequences very effectively.
I.Ahmed's clever formula of elements such as good-looking artistes, great locations, beautiful images, peppy songs, high production quality, has amalgamated well into a feel-good film. The script has two important driving factors, which are bromance and romance, and each one of them presides the two halves of the film, respectively. The majority portions of the screenplay are light-hearted and is just plain, simple fun. The director smartly manipulates his artistes by allowing them to soak themselves up in their respective characters, and gives them plenty of space to establish their roles. As mentioned earlier, each half gives more importance to only of the previously mentioned factors, at a time, and that can be a little turn-off for some viewers. Such a structure gives an inorganic flow to the proceedings of the script, and might bore some of the viewers, especially in the second half. The bromance portion can look a little silly, and also not really family-friendly in nature, especially with some adult jokes, strewn here and there. The romance factor works out decently, but lacks does not leave a very strong mark, due to inter-cuts of humor sequences and a dragging screenplay. I.Ahmed infuses a good message for those in denial, when it comes to relationship issues, and he must be appreciated for not being too preachy in his handling. A crisper and organic screenplay would have done more good for the film.
'Endrendrum Punnagai' - A feel-good, candy-floss romance & bromance film !
Ratings: 3.25/5 STARS
BY:TAMIL
'Paandiya Naadu' raised eyebrows and piqued the interest of Tamizh audience when it was launched. Suseenthiran join hands with Vishal for the very first time. An intriguing pairing this is, due to their current form in Tamizh film industry. The former is basking in the glories with the critically-acclaimed 'Aadhalaal Kaadhal Seiveer' and the former, reeling in consecutive flops and poor showing of films. Also, Vishal has decided to take things into his own hands by flaunting a new film production company (Vishal Film Factory) and churning out this flick as its maiden debut. Throw in, the best of technicians and Bharathiraja, this is a very interesting concoction indeed. Can Susee redeem Vishal's flagging career ?
'Paandiya Naadu' is certainly a throwback for Vishal to his 'Sandaikozhi' and 'Thimiru' days. Coincidentally, both those films were based in Madurai and its third time lucky for Vishal, because this performance is easily the best from him thus far. Though 'Avan Ivan' had plenty of struggle and pain, Vishal makes us fall for him and root for his success. He is totally convincing as the shy and mild-mannered Sivakumar. Its a refreshing change to see him shed his action-hero image and immerse into a believable and endearing character. A very well written role and neatly portrayed by Vishal, especially with the transformation in the second half, and the way he carried the stammering issues. The legend, Bharathiraja steals the show, with his terrific performance, and its a real shame that only a handful of directors in Tamizh cinema, had actually utilized his acting capabilities. The veteran just oozes class and moves us with his emotional outbursts and a touching performance in the end. Take a bow, sir ! Though Lakshmi Menon was adequate and convincing in her role, her acting scope was very much limited in the screen timing. Antagonist, Sharath Lohithashwa looks menacing and powerful, and is just the perfect villain for this genre of films. A fantastic portrayal by the Kannada actor. Harish Uthaman, comes close as well, with very commanding screen presence and looks. Soori makes his mark, wherever he was given space and Vikranth does a energy and rage-filled cameo appearance. The rest of the cast such as Somasundaram, literateur Jayabalan, Muthuraman, R.S Amudheswar, Thulasi, Keerthi Shetty, Priya, Soumya Satish, Bava Lakshmanan, the cute 'Baby' Rakshana and etc were befitting of their neatly presented roles.
Vasugi Bhaskar has done a terrific job with Vishal's costume designing, as he looks like a Madurai chap, perfectly ! Malini and Nikila are in charge of Lakshmi Menon's and their work was not bad, either. Rajeevan has handled the production design very well and all the landscape and plot setting looked very apt and authentic. The prop detailing was intricate and very well-researched. The opening sequences are a highlight and also the climax fight sequences, which had very good detailing, in terms of set properties. Anthony's editing was as usual, sharp and precise. Some trimming in the first half would have made wonders to this film, but the feel-good moments will have to be sacrificed, which could deter the reception of general, family audiences. 'Anal' Arasu's action choreography is simply superb, as it is very original and realistically shot. The climax fight sequence, where Vishal uses whatever props he can reach, was very well executed. Action sequences are definitely big highlights of the film ! The backbone of the film, is definitely Madhie's exceptional cinematography work. He made use of the 4K resolution camera very well, and each frame and camera movements, were well measured and carefully shot. The golden brown color tone maintained throughout the film, brings the nativity feel to the script. Virudhu Nagar of Madurai has been shot beautifully and 'Paandiya Naadu' will certainly be one of Madhie's best works, so far, especially with the fantastically shot, action blocks.
D.Imman is certainly having the time of his life, and he rocks again with brilliant musical score for this film, as well. The "Theme Music" was used for the opening credits and also used sparingly as background score. The thumping score, certainly eleveates the mood of the script. "Daiyare Daiyare" is an enjoyable opening song, which had a colorful, funeral 'celebration' as its backdrop. The camera movements and angles are the highlights of this song's picturization. "Yelay Yelay" was beautifully shot inside the ancient temples of Madurai, on Vishal and Lakshmi Menon, and had brilliant natural lighting and color tone, which brought out the earthy essence of the song. The pick of the lot, "Othakadai Othakadai" was shot on Vikranth, Soori and Vishal and was mostly shot in the narrow back-lanes and alleyways of Virudhunagar, with few montages interspersed. "Veri Konda Puli" is a situational song and had plenty of montage sequences, depicting the hero in his new 'journey'. "Fy Fy Kalachify" is a typical dance number, shot on Vishal and Lakshmi Menon, on barren fields, with minimal props. D.Imman, scores big time with the background score as well, with stirring and emotional arrangements. Clean hit, D.Imman !
When it comes to script novelty, there's nothing path-breaking here, since Suseenthiran has taken the beaten-to-death revenge story as his core content. But the treatment and screenplay, developed along with G.K Gopinath, Arun Balaji, Nagarajan and Vijay Anand, wins our attention and interest. The screenplay is packed with well-written, thrilling and suspenseful moment, especially in the second half, and keeps us on the edge of our seats. Suseenthiran should be really applauded for proving that one can still make a decent and innovative new script, based on as-old-as-the-hills type of theme lines. The unpredictability factor, coupled with some amusing scenes in the first half, entertains us pretty much, and Suseenthiran proves that he is a master in handling his artistes and bringing the best effort from them, with perfect conviction. Dialogues, co-written with Suseenthiran's pal, writer Bhaskar Sakthi are a scream in certain scenes and has a no-nonsense approach, with the serious sequences. Another plus point of the film, is the avoidance of over-glorifying of the protagonist and the shelving of needless heroism and a special thank you to Suseenthiran for not taking the audience for granted, by avoiding illogical scenes. The travel in the screenplay is nearly free of jerkiness, except for the needless song, late in the second half, which sticks out like a sore thumb.
'Paandiya Naadu' - Suseenthiran saves Vishal's career and enhances his directorial repertoire. They hit the bull's eye !
Ratings: 3.25/5 STARS
BY:TAMIL
Two winning personalities coming together creates lots of expectations and excitement. Suseendran, fresh from his critically well-received "Azhagarsamiyin Kudhirai" and 'Chiyaan' Vikram, after the heart-warming performance in "Deivathirumagal" join hands for "Raajapaattai". From the very beginning itself, the production team has made it very clear that it would be an out-and-out commercial movie on par with Vikram's earlier hits like "Dhool" and "Saamy". Besides that, the film comprises of good technicians and it was supposed to be a cracking film from the crew. Alas, the end product was of poor quality and far from what the audiences wanted to see.There's no doubt that Vikram is a brilliant actor, and also it is not wrong to choose a commercial film to sustain the pedigree in the cinema market, but it should be a film with enough flavor to cater to the mass image of the hero. Here Vikram does carry the whole movie on his 'very broad' shoulder, but what is the point of carrying a burden which has no worth? 'Chiyaan' has a very limited role here and the much hyped 17 different get-ups were just small time cinema gimmicks, though he was brilliant as usual for carrying different body language for each get-ups, especially in the "Villadhi Villain" song and in a few scenes in the second half. Vikram looks too 'matured' for the funky, cool colors and it does not suit him very well. Deeksha Seth, makes her debut in Tamizh cinema here and as usual she has nothing much to do other than to look pretty in songs. Legendary director K.Vishwanath as the old grandpa was very adorable and cute with his fantastic timing and expressions but too bad his role too was limited to the first half. The rest of the cast including Pradeep Rawat, Avinash, Sana, Thambi Ramaiah & Mayilsamy was pretty much ordinary and only the stunt actor Aruldass evokes laughter once in a while.Harikesh and Shobana Kailasam should be applauded for the costumes department as their work was very neat and the hero-heroine pair looked wonderful in the "Paniyepani Poove" song and also with Vikram's funky costumes, though whether it suits him or not is a secondary issue, but it suited the character of 'Anal' Murugan very well. Meanwhile, stunts by 'Anal' Arasu was a bit over-the-top in certain shots but the fight sequences taken in the rain and in the market street was very well coordinated. The technician who has contributed the most is definitely the art director Rajeevan. The whole movie were shot on sets and each set was very natural be it the housing colony, the street market, the film sets, everything was done very neatly. Class work from him, as usual. Mu.Kasivishwanathan did a decent job in the editing department by keeping the film very short and not draggy with unnecessary scenes. Madhie's cinematography was pretty much ordinary this time, but the fight sequences in the rain and in the market street were well captured with clever positioning of camera angles. Yuvan Shankar Raja's song was quite average this time with only 2 songs hummable, which are "Podipaiyan Polave" and "Paniyepani Poove" being the best of the lot. "Podipaiyan Polave" was done with montages and in choreography in colorful and simple sets, erected by Rajeevan in the beach. "Villathi Villain" was picturized in a pretty lame manner with Saloni Aswani making a special appearance in the song. The only bright spark was the various get-ups of Vikram who pretty much fitted into everyone of it! "Paniyepani Poove" was picturized in a rather simple and elegant manner in autumn-filled locations. The much publicized "Laddu Laddu" song featuring 2 hot gals, Shriya Saran and Reemma Sen fails to attract attention as it was placed in the ending credits, which by the time many audiences would have left the cinema hall. Yuvan's background score was pretty decent and neat with the opening rap-bit sung by Emcee Jesz sounding attractive and energetic.The main drawback of the film is the poor screenplay of Suseendran. Though the story, written by co-director Seenu is a much relevant issue of today, Suseendran's screenplay was very lame and dull. It didn't create any impact, didn't generate any zing and didn't keep the audiences hooked to the screen, even though the film was only running for little more than 2 hours! All the jokes and comedy portions fell flat except for a couple of scenes, thanks to the cute and K.Vishwanath and the poor 'henchman' Aruldass. There confrontation scenes between the protagonist and the antagonists too was very lifeless and looks amateurish with no excitement generated to keep the audiences on their edge of the seats. The only saving grace is the no-nonsense dialogues by writer Baskar Shakthi where a couple of them were real hard 'punches'. "Raajapaattai" was a total disappointment from a talented crew, which left many audiences thinking was the movie meant to be taken as a serious film or a spoof of some sorts. Vikram promised a pucca mass masala commercial but end of the day, the audiences were treated to a very bland and tasteless product.Ratings: 2/5 STARSBY:TAMIL
