Remaking a successful film is a very tricky and arduous task and the difficulty increases many folds, if the original is a critically-acclaimed film. Vidya Balan's 2012 starrer, 'Kahaani' is considered as a contemporary classic in the thriller genre and is acclaimed for its pulsating twists & turns filled screenplay. Sekhar Kammula has been roped in for this bilingual, which has Nayanthara, enacting the role made memorable by Vidya Balan. Can this adaptation retain the same tenacity and fervor of the original ?
If you have watched the original, you must be aware that the whole film is a one-woman show, and Nayanthara has done some sort of justice to the lead role of 'Anaamika'. She understands the nuances of her character well and has delivered a rather decent performance. She does have the commanding screen presence and ability to carry the whole film on her shoulders. And as always it is, she looks fabulous in her sarees ! It would have been better if she could have dubbed for herself, though Deepa Venkat's dubbing was apt. Vaibhav Reddy, who plays a rookie cop, delivers a measured performance, with a serious demeanor throughout the film. Pasupathy, is finally back to the silver screens after some time. As the Special Agent, he fits the character quite well, though the characterization was a tad too loud and lacks depth. A better handling of his character by the director, would have yielded better results. Naresh, Sri Ranjini, Harshvardhan Rane, Thagubothu Ramesh, Vinay Varma and etc were befitting of their roles.
Technically, 'Nee Enge En Anbe' does have some good and decent efforts from the technical crew. Nishka Lulla, had designed the costumes for Nayanthara and our lady was simply gorgeous in her attire. But still the necessity for such good-looks for a grim subject is a different perspective, which needs to be questioned. 'Dragon' Prakash handles the action choreography and his work sufficed the needs of the script. Chinna handles the art direction, and he has done a really good work with the props. The hotel room setting and the area around the hotel, ie the road-side stalls, the Durga Dewi shrine and the busy market, were realistically drawn and has splendor in the detailing, especially for the festival like celebration sequence, in the climax. Editing is taken care by Marthand K.Venkatesh, and he keeps the film tight and concise with the duration, although the climax could have been laid out better, which would have added more intensity to the proceedings. Vijay C.Kumar's cinematography stands out, for the raw and gritty look he gave for the film. The color tone and the camera movements, complement the script's mood and feel, pretty well. The charm of the old Hyderabad and the Charminar, as well as that part of Hyderabad's lifestyle was well captured, with plenty of outdoor shots. Music is by veteran M.M Keeravani or credited as Maragathamani in Tamizh. The film would have lost its lustre, if it wasn't for this man's background score. The score was thumping and plays like another character in the film. Only two songs are there in the film in which, "Evvidam Naan" is a montage track, whereas "Aval Appadi" appears during the end credits. Kudos to the M.M Keeravani once again, for the splendid background score, especially with a Qawwali-piece !
The original 'Kahaani' was conceived by Sujay Ghosh and co-written with novelist Advaita Kala. The killer screenplay was developed by a team of writers, consisting of Sujay Ghosh, Suresh Nair and Nikhil Vyas. For the remake, director Sekhar Kammula has joined hands with veteran renowned Telugu novelist Yandamuri Veerendranath. The screenplay adaptation, disappointingly is not as good as the Hindi original. The first half does not set the needed pace and most of the important sequences, fall flat. There is not gist and vigour in the screenplay, nor any attention-grabbing scenes. The characters were not well-etched out and makes a glaring statement of the director's substandard handling of characterizations. Also, a number of loopholes and mistakes are evident in the film, which the writing and direction team failed to take notice of. But what irks most is the half-baked attempt in presenting a proper bilingual. Some Telugu dialogues were just directly dubbed into Tamizh, which gives the film, a dubbing-film like look, in spite of Brinda Sarathy and Mahesh Sai's Tamizh dialogues. Some dialogues do stand out, such as the ones written for the interrogation scenes. There are plenty of Telugu dialogues in the film, which the script demands, but better subtitling could have helped the audience in comprehending, what's being said and argued. Apart from all these, one should take note that the writing duo has significantly changed the original 'Kahaani's plot and screenplay, and has altered the important twists & turns apparent in the original. To put it bluntly, 'Nee Enge En Anbe' looks like a simplified version of 'Kahaani'.
'Nee Enge En Anbe' - No where near 'Kahaani', yet its a decent watch. Wonder, why the producers insisted for such a low-appealing title. Hmmm.
Ratings: 2.75/5 STARS
BY:TAMIL
After the cult-hit 'Soodhu Kavvum', the in-demand hot-property of Tamizh cinema, Vijay Sethupathi is back quickly. Another off-beat project and another dark-humored film. But the direction is by Gokul Ramana instead, who previously wielded the baton for the Jivva-starrer 'Rowthiram'. What's interesting is that Madhan Karky has been roped into the board as a dialogue writer and the barrage of peripheral characters. Did 'Idharkuthaane Aasaipattai Balakumara' satiate the thirst of fans of different attempts ?
Vijay Sethupathi, has rocked it once again with a brilliant and acute performance. This guy is raising the bar for himself, higher and higher for each of his films, and this flick is no different from it. The guy oozes composure and apt maturity to handle this peculiar 'Sumaar Moonji Kumar' character with panache ! His improvisation in dialogue delivery is fantastic and he finishes off his dialogues with the apt timing, needed. His theater experiences, have obviously molded this guy into a very good performer. The climax definitely belongs this chap ! Ashwin Kakumanu, has a parallel role as Vijay's, which plays an important part in the script. His histrionics are diametrically opposite to that of Vijay's and he has grabbed his opportunity with both his hands. Though some sequences might suggest a sense of over-acting or exaggeration, it adds more zing to the script. The balancing act sequences between his nagging boss and possessive girlfriend, was well performed. Swati Reddy and Nandita, look good on screen and did what was required from them, with limited screen space though their characters were of importance to the script. The supporting cast have been fantastic as well and all added more fun elements to the script. Pasupathy takes the cake but still others such as M.S Bhaskar, Soori, Livingston, Robo Shankar, Rajendran, Daniel, Sai Ramani, Madhumitha, Pattimandram Raja and etc were fun to watch with their unconventional and peculiar characters.
Harikesh and Karthik did their research well, in terms of the costume designing, as each character was very much complemented by their costumes, which reflected all the weirdness the characters portray. Anbariv's action choreography was adequate and very realistically choreographed. S.Sivaraj should be applauded for his very detailed work in regards to the production design. All the minute, small props mattered for the sequences, which mostly was shot on real locations and some of the artificial sets, looked very much realistic as well. Leo John Paul's editing styles worked aptly with the presentation of the script, though the second half's pace drops a little and the dragging factor, kicks in. Mahesh Muthuswamy's cinematography style was very contemporary and fits the mood and feel of the script.
Siddharth Vipin's music was peppy and appealing to the audience. "Naaye Naaye" is used as a background score during Vijay Sethupathi's introductory scene and also in the late second half. "En Veetula" is the pick of the lot, and was shot on Vijay Sethupathi and Nandita, in and around a low-cost housing colony board. Plenty of dancing and montages are interspersed in between the songs, and its also great fun to watch and listen to this number. "Yean Endral" was shot on Ashwin and Swati, and also had plenty of slow-motion montages. The backdrops were based on contemporary and modern urban-setting. "Enge Ponalum" is the infamous "Prayer Song" and was shot in a bar-like setting, which had good detailing work by S.Sivaraj. V.S Raghavan makes a cute cameo appearance in this song, and Vijay Sethupathi is slowly picking up the dancing skills. The background score too is fun and brings out the quirky elements of the script, very well.
Director Gokul Ramana has cleverly laid out all his ideas and plans and placed them well in his script. But the screenplay was a winner, which was very cleverly and intriguingly written. The narration does not lose its core contents and makes us to stick with the characters for the entire film. To add more strength to the writing, is Madhan Karky's funny, intelligent yet unconventional dialogues. The film is replete with funny dialogues and its great fun to watch black comedies, written and executed well in Tamizh cinema, these days. Though Gokul has perfectly played his cards by executing each of his mini-ideas into the screenplay, the second half could have been a little tighter. Also, the director should be applauded for his character sketching and apt casting for each roles. Not to forget, cheers to Gokul for ending this dark-humored film on a sweet note, which leaves us with a smile on our faces.
'Idharkuthaane Aasaipattai Balakumara' - We are "HAPPY", too !
Ratings: 3.25/5 STARS
BY:TAMIL
Vasanthabalan, a film-maker who makes films which revolves about deep human emotions and harsh realities of the unforgiving world, comes up with a period film this time. Vasanthabalan's handling of his script is a well-known fact and there i no doubts in his capabilities of offering a good film. His past records speaks for him with "Angaadi Theru" nearly missing the National Award and "Veyil" managed to get itself showcased in Cannes Film Festival. This time he has chosen to make a film based on India's National Academy of Letters/ Sahitya Akademi-winning novel "Kaaval Kottam" by Su.Venkatesan. Vasanthabalan has only taken a small subplot of the novel comprising 10-20 pages out of the 1000 pages and made it into a film. A film long in the making, it was much waited as Vasanthabalan has promised a racy and fast-paced entertainer. Did he deliver on his promise?
Characterization is very important for a period film because the artistes involved in such projects need to be as convincing as possible to portray the character that they play, or else it will fail to register in the minds of the viewers. The problem in "Aravaan" is that, all the characters were not properly etched out. The body language and dialogue delivery of most of the artistes was very contemporary in nature and did not reflect the 18-th century Madurai, which was portrayed in the film. Aadhi who was dishing out back-to-back failures in "Ayyanar" and "Aadu Puli" has done a good job, especially in scenes involving heavy physical movements such as the "Jallikattu" and racing sequences. His buff body is the result of extreme hard-work and he deserves a pat for it. A spirited performance from him and he was accompanied by another good performer, Pasupathy. It's been 3 years since the last we saw him and he too has not failed to deliver good performances. His hard-work is evident in the opening burglary sequence. Both Aadhi and Pasupathy has literally carried the film on their shoulders. Dhansikha and Archana Kavi dished out what was needed for their characters with Archana Kavi coming out as a better performer, though the former had more scenes. International performer Kabir Bedi was given a loose character with not much scope to perform. Singampuli's dialogue delivery do tickle the funny bones but its not in-tune with the timeline of the film. Bharath, Anjali, Swetha Menon and Sruthi Prakash makes cameo appearances to fill out the roles needed to push the story further. All the other extras should be credited and applauded as well for toiling in harsh conditions portrayed in the film.
S.Rajendran's costume department did a decent job with appropriate costume and detailings such as tattoos, jewelries and other accessories. Rocky Rajesh's stunts looked fake at certain sequences, especially when the "flying" effect comes into the fray. RK Vijaimurugan has done a wonderful job in the art department. His work on the village area brings to life the Madurai of the 18th-century and that too the life of thieves not kings and queens, only. Praveen KL and Srikanth NB's editing work was fine especially in the first robbery sequence and flashes of the good work comes sporadically throughout the film, though they could have shortened the length of the film, which was unnecessarily slow. Siddharth was brilliant with his cinematography. The opening robbery scene was the highlight with tight angles and interesting rotation shots, in the picturization of the houses. Also the running and chasing scenes in the forest as well as the "Jallikattu" scenes which were shot on normal photography camera's were very well made. Job very well done. Singer Karthik has made a decent debut in "Aravaan" as the music director. His songs vere simple and "Oore Oore" and "Nila Nila" being the pick of the lots. The former was the best shot song in the film with good camera movements and choreography, which kept the energy level of the song sustained throughout, and the latter with some postcard-worthy frames. "Naagamalai" and "Unnai Kollaporen" were done with montages and some good choreography evident in "Naagamalai" and also Vijaimurugan's good set-work of the local deity temple.
The script of "Aravaan" has its good and its weakness. On the positive aspects, this film manages to capture the attention of the audience due to its different periodic portrayal which revolves around an interesting group of ethnic tribes. Their culture, practices, lifestyle, custom are well portrayed and the "Oore Oore" song is the testimony of this statement. The minute details of the burglary methods of the tribal thieves, piqued the interest of the viewers. The hard-work of the entire crew is applaudable as its is no joke to film in barren lands with no basic necessities and its even more difficult to shoot action scenes in dense forests. Also, Su.Venkatesan's dialogues are a big help for the film. The flip side of the script is its length and screenplay. Vasanthabalan fails to sustain the excitement of the audience and the engrossing factor goes missing. The second half of the screenplay was not properly written with the movement in the timeline going back and forth which confuses audience, plus some sentimental and song sequences acted as speed-breakers to the pace of the script. A good suspense factor was kept secret until the climax of the film, but it was not put to use to its maximum effect, which pulls down the excitement level. Vasanthabalan could have avoided including additional stories and should have taken a better look at certain aspects of the screenplay, regarding the time-frame and appearance of the people. In the end, Vasanthabalan did come up with a message regarding the abolishment of capital punishment, but it doesn't really settle into the script well, and it baffles audiences on why he came up with that idea in the first place.
Vasanthabalan failed to keep his promise of producing an engrossing film but nevertheless, "Aravaan" is a good attempt at different cinema. A decent rating for the efforts of crew.
Ratings: 2.5/5 STARS
BY:TAMIL
