After the rather lukewarm 'Settai', R.Kannan, a former associate of Mani Ratnam is back with his own script and judging from the cast, he has given more importance to comedy, this time. 'Oru Oorula Rendu Raja' has the potential to be a safe bet, especially with D.Imman's music and a good cast, but can R.Kannan nail it after continuous flops ?
What's refreshing with this film is that the hero and heroine alone doesn't hog all the limelight. The script gives equal amount of space, time and importance to all three main leads, which are Vemal, Soori and Priya Anand. For Vemal and Soori, this script does not provide much challenge for their acting capabilities and both of them breezed through their roles. Vemal looks continually the same for most of his films and its Soori who actually shoulders the film, among the two "kings". His dialogue delivery and witty sense of humor, together with a good timing sense provides some laughter, though the comedy tracks are below average. Priya Anand is the refreshing element of the film, and she gets a meatier role than what conventional Tamizh heroines get to do. She's at her glam best thus far in the songs and looks sweet during the remaining. Nassar and Anupama Kumar were cast as the antagonists in which, the former was completely wasted and the latter was a total miscast. Thambi Ramaiah, Singamuthu, Narendhra Khatari, Bala Singh, E.Ramdas, Kalairani, Kamala Krishnasamy, Sasha and etc make up the rest of the cast, with a special appearance from Vishakha Singh, who did an important role.
Costume designing by Chaitanya Rao sufficed the needs of the script, especially when the bulk of the story is set in a single day. Particular importance was given to Priya Anand, who looked gorgeous in the songs. Action choreography by Silva, who also played a minor role in the film, was decent and was more situational, rather than purposeful. His choreography matched the physical attributes of Vemal and Soori. N.Subbu's art direction was neat and the set properties for all the live locations matched the scenario. The rundown godown featuring in the climax scene, was the best of his work. Suriya's editing was crisp and he made sure the film doesn't drag for more than 2 hours plus. Other than that, there's no gimmicks in the editing pattern of Suriya's. Cinematography by P.G Muthiah adds more color to the script and there's plenty of aerial shots, using the helicam, but the necessity of it is a different question. The picturization of songs were particularly good and pleasing to the eyes.
D.Imman adds strength to the film with his musical score. The songs are good and provides some entertainment to us. "Oru Oorula Rendu Raja" is the opening song shot on Vemal and Soori. It has the typical rural locations such as the village streets, paddy fields and etc and we get to see Soori doing some serious dancing for the first time ! "Odum Rayile" was picturized on Vemal and Priya Anand and was entirely shot in a railway station. It has a mixture of situational moments, as well as some dream sequence, but the entire song has the railway station and the train as the main setting. "Sundari Penne" is the best picturized song, which was shot on Priya Anand and Vishakha Singh. The rain soaked atmosphere reminds us of Mani Ratnam's heroine intro songs and Shreya Ghoshal's voice is just so wonderful to listen to ! "Kukkuru Kukkuru", a song sung by actress Lakshmi Menon was shot as a highway song and featured Iniya in a special appearance. The girl dances well and provides little bit of glamour effect of her own and is ably supported by Vemal and Soori. "Mazhakaathe" is a typical dream song shot on Vemal and Priya Anand, in picturesque hill stations. Priya Anand appears in glamorous costumes, probably for the first time in Tamizh films and she is definitely an eye-candy ! D.Imman's background score adds more depth to the emotional scenes and certainly lifts up many moments in the film.
R.Kannan handles the story, screenplay, dialogues and direction for 'Oru Oorula Rendu Raja' and he has taken up the issue of noise pollution and the malpractice acts of big manufacturers and how the laborers are victims of circumstances of such acts. The script has been given a road-movie like treatment with plenty of travelling and constant location changes. Though the film was promoted as a comedy film with some social messages in it, the humor quotient is low in substance and its pretty much lukewarm. And some of them are crude in taste, which is not so family & kid friendly ! Soori does make you smile, but those scenes are far and few in between, whereas the social messages were not smoothly infused into the screenplay. The post-climax scenes were jarring and looks forcefully thrust into the story, just to give the film an happy-ending. End of the day, this film is just a basic commercial fare and is primarily targeted at the B & C audiences.
'Oru Oorula Rendu Raja' - Two kings, one queen and the audience ends up as the Jokers !
Ratings: 2.25/5 STARS
BY:TAMIL
From a relatively new team, 'Yaaruda Mahesh' earned some brownie points with the youngster's for its naughty and cheeky trailer. Judging by the adverts, this film clearly indicates that it is strictly only for adults, as it contains plenty of adult jokes. A rarity in Tamizh cinema indeed, but it is worth fulfilling the vacant place of a proper and enjoyable adult film ?
The lead roles are done by relatively newcomers, Sundeep Kishan and Dimple Chopade. Sundeep, who did a role in 'Maranthen Mannithen', just passes muster with his role, of an irresponsible and good-for-nothing sort of hero. As for the heroine, Dimple was just adequate and is another addition to the various new-coming glam dolls of Tamizh cinema. The only person who actually catches your attention throughout the film is Jagan. He carries the film on his shoulders, and his humorous with his funny one-liners, dialogue delivery and body language. He definitely keeps us in splits with his near-perfect timing ! The film has a host of character artistes such as Livingston, Vijay, Srinath, Uma Padhmanabhan, Swaminathan, Singamuthu, Nellai Siva, Venkat Sundar and etc, who were functional.
The film's technical works were adequate as well and have worked well, within the shoe-string budget allocated to them. Sathya N.J's costume designing was spot on, making all the characters to look lively and colorful, which was a necessity for the script, as the characters were suppose to be loud. Vanaraj's art designing was simple but cool. His interiors for the posh bungalow house sets and also the simple bar and street sets were, well brought out. Sathya Narayanan's editing was smooth and crispy, but he should have chopped off many sequences which were inconsequential to the overall script and storyline. Raana's cinematography was adequate as and very much functional, but his work for some of the songs are noteworthy.
Malayalam composer Gopi Sundar, takes care of the music score. His tracks were pretty lukewarm and uninteresting to listen to. "Odum Unakithu" was a loud, item song, featuring Sana Oberoi. The bright lighting and the clean bar set-up was cool on the eyes. "Pudhu Paarvai" was a duet, picturized on the lead pair, romancing in top hillside areas, and Raana's soft color tone, worked well for the song, as his framing and angles were just nice for the song. "Vayadhai Keduthu" is a sensuous situational song, where the lead pair gets into some steamy actions. Dimple Chopade shows no inhibitions in shedding her clothes and the lighting and camera movements, together with efficient editing, was very professionally done. The modern bedroom set work complemented the song's mood, as well. "Yemathitta" was a loud and boring song, shot on Sundeep and Jagan dancing in a bar set-up. Vanaraj's props for the street set, was spot on, with good detailing. "Yaaruda Mahesh" was shot on the lead pair and was done like a music video, with very smooth editing and lighting for the picturization, which had a warehouse like background. The background score was too loud, which should have been toned down.
Written and directed by debutante, R.Madhan Kumar, 'Yaaruda Mahesh' does not live up to the mild expectations it evoked through its trailer. The jokes and gags, which were sexually suggestive in nature, is there but the second half of the film is littered with unnecessary comedy sequences and songs as well ! The film does not get any direction, until late into the second half. Most of the jokes of the character artistes, fall flat except for Jagan's. Unfortunately, his one-liners alone will not be sufficient enough for the audiences to go through this ordeal. The film carries no logic progression in its screenplay and the climax was a big let-down. A well plotted screenplay, with strong story presentation could have done mini-wonders, to the film ! A sincerest advice to the director: Youths do lap up for adult contents but that alone will not fixate them to a film, for its entire duration (unless its a plain, simple porno) !
'Yaaruda Mahesh' - Disappointing adult comedy film.
Ratings: 2/5 STARS
BY:TAMIL
