OSTHE MOVIE REVIEW

Silambarasan is back once again this year with the much talked about Osthe. The movie was much awaited by fans of commercial cinema since it is the remake of Salman Khan's huge hit "Dabangg" and also the return of director Dharani who has given smashing hits before with "Dhill", "Dhool" and "Gilli". Added to that, the songs of the film is a big hit and Richa Gangopadhyay is having her second release in Tamizh cinema within two weeks. Besides that, there is Santhanam who always keeps some of his best work for his 'mentor' Silambarasan. So did "Osthe" live up to "Dabangg"?

As the whole film depends on his character, Silambarasan has lived up to the role of 'Osthe' Velan and he oozes arrogance and style to give color to that character. As expected from a commercial cinema hero, he displays all emotions well and does comedy, utter punch dialogues, shows good flexibility in stunt sequences and not to forget, his whacky dance movements in song sequences. Besides that, he scores in scenes which needs heavy emotions and he played it very well with subtle body language and facial expressions. Silambarasan is making improvements from film-to-film. Some fans might not be able to accept Silambarasan in a larger-than-life role but he has enjoyed doing this role and it is evident in the film. Sonu Sood is an ample villain and he is dashing and brooding and gives good competition to Silambarasan, though he is far more taller and heavily built compared to the protagonist. Richa Gangopadhyay, who made a terrific debut in "Mayakkam Enna", is reduced to just songs and some glamorous shots which is normally expected of in a 'masala' movie, though Chinmayee's voice was suitable for her. "Jithan" Ramesh has found his proper second innings in Tamizh cinema with a neat portrayal. The rest of the supporting cast such as Revathy, Nasser, "Nizhalgal" Ravi, Saranya Mohan, "VTV" Ganesh, Azhagam Perumal, Vijayakumar and the "Osthe Velan" Force, comprising Mayilsamy, Vaiyapuri, Thambi Ramaiah were perfect and did their portions very well. One man who kept the audiences attention all the time was Santhanam. He was absolutely funny and humorous with his one-liners and great timing. The act he does in the "Neduvaali" song is the, pinnacle! Santhanam is on a high!!

The film has a decent technical department. Vidhyaa B.Reddy and S.Rajendran's costumes were apt for the roles and Richa's was particularly glamorous. Stunts were done decently in some portions, whereas in certain others, they were over the top. Since there are three directors associated with stunts, Kanal Kannan, Ram Laxman and Silva it is hard to distinguish who, did which. Kalyan and Robert delivered the necessary must-have's of Silambarasan's whacky and zany moves in song sequences. Maniraj's sets are very naturally built except for some sets which looks like 'newly' erected, especially with the heroine's house set. Though the artwork was neat, it is quite debatable to see how close the sets came in portraying the Thirunelveli district. S.Gopinath is class above the rest when it comes to commercial mass masala and his work elevates the mood of the film, especially the confrontation scenes and in the railway track sequences. Not to forget the pre-climax scenes. He is a big asset to Dharani. Veteran V.T Vijayan's work is clean and neat. The biggest strength of the film is the music by Thaman. All the songs are foot-tapping and entertaining, which is the ultimate need of mass movies. "Osthe Mamey" was typical of hero's introductory song and it was cool to see Dharani making a cameo as well. "Unnale Unnale" was done in a montage style with dance and sequences thrown in as well and the scenes in the temple were well shot. "Neduvaali" was done in a spacious set and was a complete entertainer with the dance sequences. "Pondatti" song was decent and cute and was mostly shot in Dubai and the opening few seconds in the early morning dew was pleasant to see in screen with the light purple tinge in the backdrop. The much talked about "Kalasala" was a letdown though. It had 2 big advantage in the form of rocking music with superb rendition by Vijaya.T.Rajender and LR.Eshwari and also the hot Mallika Sherawat as the item girl. Yet the song failed to live up to expectations, video clip wise and is not a match to the original "Munni Badnam" number in "Dabangg".

The strength of mass masala commercials is the screenplay and Dharani has a solid track record before this. "Osthe" too was well written and had fast screenplay, keeping the audiences attention and even when we were expecting a slight slump in the screenplay, either a song or Santhanam comes in handy to keep the audiences entertained. Dharani has very cleverly made the necessary changes to make the script apt and suitable for Tamizh audiences and having his assistant Bharathan as a the dialogue writer, he has added more plus points to the film. Bharathan's dialogues especially the one mouthed by Azhagam Perumal about politics/politicians were very well written.

The film is strictly for those who like and do not mind watching mass masala commercial films and in addition, do not mind seeing Silambarasan in a larger-than-life type of role which usually fits the Fab 4 (Vijay, Vikram, Ajith & Suriya) of Tamizh cinema. If it wasn't for some over-the-top scenes, this film is a near-perfect mass masala commercial film.


Ratings: 3/5 STARS

BY:TAMIL

MAYAKKAM ENNA MOVIE REVIEW

Mayakkam Enna was anticipated with great expectations thanks to the chart-busting tracks of GV Prakash and also having the stamp of Selvaraghavan-Dhanush combination which has worked wonders before. Dhanush is on a all-time high, fresh from becoming the National Award winner, but he had to score in this film as his previous 2 releases, Mappilai and Venghai were damp squibs. As for Selvaraghavan, it's a total changeover from Aayirathil Oruvan and the theme was something he handles very well and known for, darker personalities of common people and their relationships.

The film belongs to Dhanush as he delivered a smashing performance. Certainly one of the best in his whole career, Mayakkam Enna brought out more refined performances from Dhanush. He scored in all the transitional periods, be it from the amateur photographer, to a caring husband, a drunkard on the verge of losing his sanity and finally a matured man who has seen success. His facial expressions and the subtle emotions were well punctuated with controlled dialogue delivery and intonations. It's really difficult to pick out the best scene of his in the film and its amazing to see Dhanush evolving into an intense performer. He has raised his bar and more accolades are on the way to his doorstep. Debutante Richa Gangopadhyay couldn't have asked for a better entry into Tamizh cineam. She is the pivot of the script where, the story unfolds around her and is very much impressive. Selvaraghavan's films do have strong women roles and here it goes to Richa. She is neck-to-neck performance wise, with Dhanush and her best scene was certainly the outburst she did in the second half. With no dialogues, it was a brilliant moment from her and she pulled it off with intense emotions and body language. Another added plus point to her is the dubbing of Deepa Venkat as the voice of her character. Kudos to Deepa as well for a near perfect dubbing and adding strength to the character of Yamini. Sunder Ramu, a professional photographer himself, makes his debut here as a friend of Dhanush and he was very much adequate and pulled off the fun portions of the film, very well. Raviprakash as the scheming ace photographer was good and it's a good changeover from his roles. Mathivanan, Soni, Shilpi and Rajiv completes the cast and all were very natural and reflected the current trend among friends in real-life, on-screen.

GV Prakash's music was already a huge hit and this is certainly one of his best albums ever. It's very rare these days to see an whole album becoming a chartbuster. Picturizations were neatly done as well. "Voda Voda" was fun with animations thrown in between and it was done in a quirky manner. "Kaadhal Yen Kaadhal" had the usual dance routine but the placement of the song was perfect and elevated the mood and feel of the song further. "Naan Sonnadhum Mazhai" had a neat cut-shot style with montages and so as "Pirai Thedum" though certain styles in "Naan Sonnadhum" was similar to the song "Pul Pesum" in the movie 'Pudhupettai'. Background score was on par with the quality of the songs and it was a brilliant touch by GV Prakash to use silence in necessary places to propel the impact of the scene further. Job very well done! The other strong element of the film is cinematographer Ramji. Since the film revolves around a photographer, many scenes were beautifully shot akin to a picture-postcard frames especially the shots in the forest and busy streets and lanes though he could have toned down the coloring of certain portions to be more natural. Kola Bhaskar's editing was very crisp but he could have trimmed a few scenes more in the second half. Kiran's job as an art director was simple and clear cut but a higher production cost could have ensured even better outputs especially with the awards presentation sequence. Gitanjali Selvaraghavan's costumes made the hero-heroine pair to look simple and at the same time, trendy.

Selvaraghavan chose a simple and easy plot to convey this time, yet it has all the necessary ingredients expected in his films. Dark emotions, weird relationships, subtle comedies and hard-hitting emotions. As promised, this film showcased the current situation among the youths and teenagers. Any director can come up with such simple story-lines but only talented people can make it engaging and hard-hitting and Selva is one. He conceived powerful and emotion-filled scenes and extracted nothing but the best from the artistes. The bus-stop scene, post-abortion sequence, pre-"Kadhal Yen Kadhal" scenes all had the stamp of Selvaraghavan throughout. Another brilliant touch from him is the usage of silence as a tool in making progress in scenes. There was one obvious flaw towards the end, in the film which doesn't correlate with the timeline of the plot and Selva should have corrected it to maintain continuity.

Mayakkam Enna, a real treat for Selvaraghavan fans. A simple one though, this time.

Ratings: 3.5/5 STARS

BY:TAMIL