After the sensitive and decent debut in 'Aarohanam', Lakshmy Ramakrishnan is back again in the director's seat with her second venture. Curiously titled, 'Nerungi Va Muthamidathe' is a road movie, with a multiple-person narrative based screenplay. Consisting of a fresh cast, with some old-timers and a young technical crew, can Lakshmy Ramakrishnan outdo her debut and deliver a clean film ?
Debutante Shabeer comes out clean with his first film and looks convincing. He can work out to improve his screen presence and his expressions, nevertheless he looks like a promising actor, waiting for his big moment. Piaa Bajpai makes her return to Tamizh cinema and though she appears more often than the other artistes in the film, she has a very limited role and her character doesn't have screen timing and space. She's okay, but she could do more. Kannada actress Sruthi Hariharan makes her Tamizh debut, and in a very small role with very limited screen timing, she comes unscathed. Hoping to see more of her in Tamizh cinema ! There's a big list of veteran Tamizh cinema character artistes and there's the likes of A.L Azhagappan, Viji Chandrasekhar, Y.Gee Mahendra, Thambi Ramaiah, 'Thalaivasal' Vijay, Ambika, Shyam Sagar, Gautam Kurup, Bala Saravanan, producer A.V Anoop, Ramakrishnan, Kavithalaya Krishnan and etc. Bala Saravanan and Thambi Ramaiah gave the film's lighter moments and A.L Azhagappan alongside Gautam Kurup and a cameo by Lakshmy Ramakrishnan herself, don the antagonist roles. The experienced folks nailed their characters and delivered no-nonsense performances.
Sai Naresh handles the costume designing department and his work fits the bill and all the characters looked their roles. Its refreshing to see Viji Chandrasekhar's character donning stylish wears, especially if you consider how Tamizh cinema has portrayed widows. 'Mirattal' Selva's action choreography was functional and looked very realistic and kudos to the director for incorporating stunts only when it is needed. Art direction is taken care by Raja A.S and G.Kumar, and the duo have executed their roles very well. The vegetable factory, the interiors of the protagonist's town home, Viji Chandrasekhar's posh bungalow, everything looked realistic and was aptly propped. Sabu Joseph V.J's editing work has no gimmicks, functional and sufficed the needs of the script. Cinematography is handled by Vinod Bharathi.A and its very evocative, with vivid visuals and purposeful camera-movements. The dry and hot Trichy/Karaikal outskirts were effectively used and portrayed through his lenses and adds more color to the script.
Music is by the Madley Blues team, consisting of Prashanth Techno and Harish Venkat. Music is a big strength to the film and the Madley Blues team has delivered a very refreshing score and goes along with the screenplay very well. The songs are situational and fits the mood of the scenes well. "Hey Sutrum Boomi" focuses on Piaa Bajpai and a group of youngsters having an outing, with montages of them having fun in a beach house atmosphere. "Kaligaalam" is a situational song, sung by Shankar Mahadevan and has its focus on the main leads, especially on Sruthi Hariharan's character's journey. "Yaar" has montages of Viji Chandrasekhar and Piaa Bajpai and focuses on their troubled mother-daughter relationship. "Yaarum Paakama" starts of with Viji Chandrasekhar performing as a lead singer of an pop/rock band and it continues till the end credits, finishes rolling. The background score by the Madley Blues team, is very refreshing, cool and is very apt for the script. It gives a different color to the story and accompanies along as an additional character itself. Good work, guys !
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Lakshmy Ramakrishnan has gone for a different subject and moved away from the feminism based scripts. A road movie, can be tiring and boring for some people, due to the slow nature of the screenplay but with 'Nerungi Va Muthamidathe', she has kept us guessing till the end, which holds our attention, very well. The multiple-person narrative, doesn't give away any suspense elements early and kudos to Lakshmy for coming up with a clean screenplay with no hiccups in the narration. What keeps us hooked is the interesting small twists and turns, which comes one after another during the climax. But, the zing and zest was missing from the narration, which could have made it more engrossing. Also, the ending looks contrived, which she could have avoided. Lakshmy Ramakrishnan has done her homework and the detailing in the plot setting is laudable. Her choice of issues discussed is very pertinent, relevant and topical and being a women herself, the way she handled the issue of violence against women, was very subtle. But some of the issues needed more explanation and many questions and issues are left unanswered or unexplained. Her characterizations were not bad, but they need more depth, which many characters lacked. A better dialogue writer could have given stronger content but Lakshmy's work was commendable. End of it, what works for 'Nerungi Va Muthamidathe' is the sincerity and honest work done by Lakshmy Ramakrishnan, and may this be a stepping stone for even better works from her.
'Nerungi Va Muthamidathe' - Lakshmy is showing improvement as an film maker !
Ratings: 2.75/5 STARS
BY:TAMIL
'Sattam Oru Iruttarai' finds itself a new coat of paint, through a remake by the grand niece of the original's director. Sneha Britto, a 19-year old grand niece of S.A Chandrasekhar and niece of 'Ilaiyathalapathy' Vijay remakes the cult hit, which was released some 3 decades back. Backed by her parents as the producers and her grandfather as the creative head, Sneha Britto, makes some changes to the script for the suitability towards the current context, factor.
Thaman Kumar, a relative newcomer, replaces the Vijayakanth, and sadly, he is not match for the latter. Thaman is no where near the fiery and spirited performance of Vijayakanth in the original, which cemented his place among Tamizh cinema elite and elevated the film to a cult status. Thaman struggles in nearly every department and he has a hell lot to do, if he wants to stick to acting and surviving in this cut-throat cine-field. Reemma Sen, has a substantial character to play, but there's nothing special to discuss about the performance. It looks like, she felt uninterested half-way through acting in the film. Piaa Bajpai and Bindhu Madhavi has nothing much to offer, other than to be the eye-candies of the film. The rest of the cast such as Radha Ravi, Suresh, Sampath Ram, Krishnamoorthy, 'Erode' Mahesh, 'Tiger Garden' Thanga Durai, Adams and etc has even less substantial roles, and it puzzles the audience, especially on the necessity for a large number of unimportant characters. S.A Chandrasekhar, tries to impress in his late cameo, though.
The technical department's contribution to the film, was just functional. Art direction by A.Vanaraj, was okay, especially with the interiors of the sets, such as houses and police stations. M.R Rejeesh's editing was sloppy, especially in the first half, which had bumpy narration. 'Billa' Jagan's stunt choreography was adequate, especially the climax fight sequence. C.J Rajkumar's cinematography work was passable, with good choices of techniques but nothing noteworthy. Vijay Antony's music was poor and not catchy at all, which is a big disappointment for the audience, especially when the movie is faring badly. "Nimirndhi Nil" was shot with Thaman and Bindhu, performing a stage act, along with dancers on a laser-lit setting. "Adam Eval", also shot on the same pair, was picturized in Bangkok, with those scenic Buddhist monasteries, beaches and parks. "Thirumba Thirumba" and "Uyirin Uyire", both were shot on Thanam and Piaa this time, and had montages sequences, showing the love moments of the couple, going around Hong Kong. The final track, "Poochandi" is a typical folk song, with heavy beats and features the all there lead artistes, Thaman, Piaa and Bindhu dancing along with the back-up dancers in the park, with blandly-colored but skimpy costumes for the heroines. The background score too was too out-dated and boring. Not enough motivation, Vijay ?
The handling of the script was very amateurish. Though S.A Chandrasekhar puts in his effort as the creative head, it was not enough to save this film. Sadly, the original is still miles ahead better in terms of cinematic value !! There's no logic in the screenplay, the direction is poor, the acting is amateurish, the characterizations were awful, and sadly, there's no narration at all. The only scene, which makes us to take a look, is the end, where S.A Chandrasekhar, points out his opinion on the current state of law and order in India. The handling of the police episodes, is a disgrace to the actual officers, where police where made to look like idiots ! The original had the melodrama as its USP, together with good music and performance, but here its all about the glossiness and no conviction from the director. R.Ruban's dialogues too were, not up to the mark, as well.
Its not wrong to be ambitious, but Sneha Britto should not plunge into direction at the expense of her parents' financial support, and the backing of her successful grand father and uncle, in the cinema industry. It will be better for her to learn the nuances of direction first, before deciding to direct a film. Sorry my lady, though truths hurt, a truth is still a truth ! 'Sattam Oru Iruttarai' is poor. Very poor !!
Ratings: 1.5/5 STARS
BY:TAMIL
