A trend-setter in 2012, Karthik Subbaraj's 'Pizza' won the fans and critics alike, and its no surprise that the producers want to cash in on its name, by turning it into a franchise. 'Pizza - II : Villa' is directed by newcomer Deepan Chakravarthy, and please make no bones about it, it is definitely not a direct sequel to 'Pizza'. Then what else it could be ? The namesake, purely for profitable purpose ? One has to think about it after watching the film, rather than making assumptions before a viewing.
Ashok Selvan, who made his debut in 'Soodhu Kavvum' plays the lead role here for the very first time. Though he looks confident, the acting was not exceptional, and definitely there were plenty of room for improvement. His expressions could have been better and more intensity in his portrayal would have done great justice to the role. Still, Ashok tries his best to give you the 'writer-look' and with his nearly apt body language. Sanchita Shetty, performs an extension of sort of her 'Soodhu Kavvum' performance, minus the humor. The pair has no proper chemistry between them and the romance sequences, actually fell flat. Though the lead pair has rendered their best, its still an injustice to the potential of the script and scope of acting. Keep improving, folks ! The rest of the cast such as Nassar, Kaali, Jayakumar, Vegan Rajesh, Veera Santhanam, 'Pizza' Venkatesh, 'Boys' Rajan, Ramanathan, Anjali, Aaryan, Sarath, Vinoth, Jith, Ram and etc were adequate in their limited screen timing and presence.
Technically, the film has some very good output from the relatively, young and talented crew of technicians. First of all, congratulations to the sound department for its brilliant work. Arun Seenu with the effects, Vishnu Govind and Sree Sankar dealing with the designing and the experienced M.Gita Gurappa taking care of the Dolby Atmos mixing, the sound engineering is riveting, especially in the second half. Kudos to the sound department ! 'Billa' Jagan handles the action choreography, and whatever action sequences present, were neatly executed. Production design by Maayan Ela's sufficed the needs of the script, though the budget was quite tight. Good detailing work with the props of the villa and also for the interiors of other plot settings available, interiors especially. Leo John Paul should be credited for the tight editing, and ensuring the screenplay is racy, especially with a slow-moving type of story-telling involved. The climax was well put together, though the end could have been little more smoother in scene transitions. The man who the director should be really thankful, is the cinematographer Deepak Kumar Padhy. Deepak's framing, and the quick camera movements in the second half created the perfect mood and feel of the script, added with Maayan's well set ambiance. Deepak, experiments with indoor lighting and he comes out with flying colors, in his attempt. The eerie and chill factor needed was justified by Deepak's work !
Santhosh Narayanan, rocks once again with his musical score. "Kaanum Gnanam" is a perfect soundtrack for this script and was used as the introductory song of the villa, featuring Ashok exploring the indoors of the villa for the first time. The lighting and framing for this song by Deepak, was really good ! "The Villa" and "Varaipadam" are background scores and were well used for the appropriate situations. "Boomiyil" is a melodious number shot on the lead pair, with many montages used for the song. Leo's editing was smooth for this song. "Pa Pa" was shot on Ashok on his venture of fact-finding and also had plenty of montages. Santhosh's background score was fabulous and his contributing to the script, is immense. This man is certain for great heights, provided that he's got talented directors with good scripts.
First of all, kudos to the producer and director for launching the idea of a 'Pizza' franchise. Let's clear the air, first. This is no direct sequel to Karthik Subbaraj's film. The similarity ? Both are thrillers. The difference ? The first installment was a supernatural/horror thriller with a twist, whereas the second is more of a psychological thriller. Its evident from the opening sequences that Deepan Chakravarthy has crafted the script in such a way that, it does not scare or fright you with atypical horror movie tricks. Deepan creates an eerie atmosphere throughout the screenplay and its more about the characters' dilemma and their understanding of what's happening around them. Deepan should be appreciated for his research and scientific explanations about paranormal activities, which are very interesting, in Manikandan.K's dialogues. But there are flaws in the direction, where the extraction of performance from the lead pair is below par, and the intensity needed for such scripts, missing. For some audience, this film can bore you, till the climax is reached. But the director made up for it, with a sucker punch of an ending, which has a promising prospect for a direct sequel.
'Pizza - II : Villa' is a neatly executed film, but a more matured writing, direction and performance could have done wonders to this flick.
Ratings: 2.75/5 STARS
BY:TAMIL
The explosion of daringly innovative new directors in Tamizh cinema, continues with another fellow alumnus of "Naalaiya Iyakkunar", Nalan Kumarasamy. Known for his unique style of attempting black/serious comedy, Nalan has teamed up with the potential 'Superstar' of shoe-string budgeted different films, Vijay Sethupathi, for his debut mainstream cinema venture. A bizarre title, talented crew, a visionary young producer in C.V Kumar, and influential distributors in Studio Green, there could be no other better platform for Nalan to launch himself into the stratosphere of Tamizh cinema.
To start off with the cast, where else can we open up other than the man of the moment, Vijay Sethupathi. As Das, the leader of the motley, chaotic 'kednaping' crew, he should be commended for choosing to play a role which is off much senior to his actual age. His paunch and looks have been very well sketched out and he fits into the role as perfectly as a glove. Brilliantly, composed performance ! Perfect body language added more sheen to his acting delivery. This boy's place is definitely cemented and he is for sure here to stay as a poster boy of the unique small-budgeted films. Way to go Vijay !! The pretty and petite Sanchita Shetty, a literal dream girl, was near-perfect with her dialogues and lip-sync but she could work out more on her body language to improve her performance. The other three crazy guys of the 'kednaping' crew were fantastic as well. Simhaa's soft image worked out very well for his character, RJ Ramesh was brilliant with his voice modulation and Ashok Selvan's expressions were spot on. The rest of the cast such as the incorruptible politician M.S Bhaskar, the psychotic silent-killer Yog Japee, the straight-in-the-face Radha Ravi, the scheming son Karunakaran and whacky henchman cum gangster Aruldass, were too good in their roles.
'Soodhu Kavvum' is definitely one of the films to have had all of its technical department, deliver fantastic outputs. Costume designer Shiva did a wonderful job with Vijay Sethupathi's costumes, which gave Vijay the dirty, odd look. Whereas Sanchita was looking very pretty in Reshma's costume designing, which was a necessity as she is an 'dream-girl' after all ! 'Billa' Jagan's stunt choreography was very professionally done, with precision executions, which was a difficult thing to do, since Yog Japee's stunts had changing backdrops ! Not to be left, the bar fight sequence, was also well choreographed. Vijay Adhinathan's art direction was veridical in detailing. The dingy, half-torn, home of the lead character, which was filled with odd props, the moderately decorated house of a minister, the warehouse setting, and also for the "Kaasu Panam" durbar sequence. Everything was bang-on and its laudable achievement, since he has done it, with moderate budget. Leo John Paul's editing was sharp yet smooth. The transition from one event to another was smooth and his hard-work was evident throughout the film, with many cut-shots and montages pierced together into particular sequences. Brilliant work ! B.Dinesh Krishnan's cinematography complemented the mood and feel of the directors vision of his script, which gave the film a neo-noir look. His lighting and angles for many sequences were unique touches, which added more fun element to the script.
One of the exciting talents of the current Tamizh film music arena, Santhosh Narayanan has once again smashed it, with a brilliant album, which has fantastic outputs mastered by Steve Smart, who has contributed his talents to Madonna and Michael Jackson ! The theme music, "Sudden Delight" is literally a sudden delight which is played sporadically along the film's screenplay. "Mama Douser", a zany song sung by Andrea, was picturized on a bar fight, with fantastic lighting and props, with good camera movements, and also re-used again later for a thrilling chase sequence. "Coma Na Come" is a montage filled song, which showcased the 'kednaping' crew with their funny 'kednaping' ordeals. "Kaasu Panam" was fantastically picturized, with Karunakaran in a dream song, which resembled the old Durbar courtyard of ancient Indian kings. 'Gaana' Bala makes a groovy cameo in this song as well. "Sa Ga" is a short situational dream song, which resembled like a lullaby, shot on the lead pair, showcasing Sanchita in an angel-like role, comforting the brutally battered Vijay. "Ellam Kadanthu" is another situational song, showing Karunakaran's rise in politics, picturized in montages. This same song was also picturized separately for promotional purposes, with most of the cast singing the lines, in scenes of the films ! The background score was brilliantly composed, with unique tracks for each characters and they did not overwhelm the flow of the screenplay. 'Soodhu Kavvum' is a milestone in Santhosh's career !
What works for 'Soodhu Kavvum' are the crazy and quirky ideas layered throughout the film, and none of them were simply thrust into the film for the sake of it. A creative script and story (jointly developed by Nalan with Srinivas Kavenayam) is further strengthened by the strong and well-written roles of the main artists. Each of them uniquely varied from each other and has their own sense of comic timing. The congruence of all these characters led to a zany and wacky situations, and these episodes were very well conceptualized and executed by Nalan, who deserves a big round of applause, for achieving it. And what worked well for the film was the manner the concepts were executed, which was very light-hearted, yet quirky in nature. The experimentation did not go wrong for Nalan most of the time, but there was a light dip in pace in the second half, which stretched the duration of the film. Yet it can be forgiven, since the final output was master-class. Nalan also impresses with super dialogues, which were well timed and delivered perfectly by the acting cast. Wacky ideas, creative script, fun screenplay, near-perfect execution, an aptitude cast, a quality crew, what else can we ask from Nalan's debut noir-comic film ?
'Soodhu Kavvum' - scooped our attention, in a big way !
Ratings: 3.5/5 STARS
BY:TAMIL
