With expectations comes great responsibilities. For Venkat Prabhu though, those responsibilities are meant to be light at heart, no matter how huge the hype is. The fifth from the 'Venkat Prabhu Brotherhood', the expectation was generally high, due to Karthi being in the cast and also for Yuvan Shankar Raja's blockbuster music, which ironically is his 100th milestone film. Produced by Studio Green, can Venkat score another super-hit, following the blockbuster success of 'Mankatha' ?
Karthi, who has been facing a career crisis with continuous flops, bounces back with a refreshing and likable portrayal. Venkat has exploited the charm factor of Karthi's and turned him into a smooth-talking, girl-magnet playboy. He wins over his legion of girl-fans with his naughty smile and good looks. He has adopted an apt body language for the role, and his dialogue delivery was spotless. More brownie points for him in terms of dancing and fighting skills, as he has shown marked improvement from one film to another. A sigh of relief for Karthi, indeed ! His partner Premgi, was at his usual best and underplays his capabilities, by allowing himself to be ridiculed all the time and be the butt of jokes. It works well for the movie and his character is the perfect foil for the hero. But typecasting will catch up with him, sooner or later ! Hansika Motwani looks ravishing and seems to have a good hold of her character. There's a big contingent of supporting casts such as Nassar, Jayaprakash, Sampath, Prem, Ramki (a good comeback - the man still looks the same !), sizzling & hot Mandy Takhar, Madhumitha, Subbu Panchu, Uma Riyaz Khan, Shanmugasundaram, Nithin Sathya, Sam Anderson, Aadhavan, Badava Gopi, Tharika, Vijayalakshmi and etc. And there's even cameo appearances of Venkat's boys such as Jai, Aravind Akash, Vaibhav, Mahat, Ashwin, Vijay Vasanth and etc. That's some star-casting, atypical of Venkat Prabhu films !
The film carries excellent technical outputs from all the technicians involved. Vasuki Bhaskar's costume designing plays a big role, in projecting the characters in a very urbane manner, while not losing the essence of the each characters. Very good job ! Silva, who also scores his 100th assignment with this project, has handled some high-octane action sequences. The car chase sequences have been very well handled and executed, while the climax fight sequence, shot in an construction site, takes the cake among all the fight sequences. Production design by Videsh is at top-notch quality, with plenty of detailing for all of the set works. The interiors of posh hotels and also of different types of homes, were well set up. The outdoor sets such as the roadside biriyani stall and etc, were very real-like and natural. Fantastic output from Videsh ! The film would not be as good as it is without the editing duo of Praveen K.L and Srikanth N.B. They have experiment with different cutting patterns, and has done meticulous work in many sequences, especially with the opening title card and also for some song sequences. They keep the story tight and gripping but at the same time, did not lose the fun elements to their scissors. Venkat's regular, Sakthi Saravanan cinematography is a big plus-point for the film. The glossy look and rich colors, with perfect lighting, brings out the joy and fun factor of the script. His Steadicam usage is commendable and adds more zing, to the action sequences.
Yuvan Shankar Raja reserves some of his best for his cousin Venkat and 'Biriyani' is no exception. The soundtrack is a big hit and complements the script, perfectly like hand in glove. "Biriyani" title track fits perfectly as the mood-setter and has clever editing works by Praveen and Srikanth, who presents the title credits by infusing some scenes of the film, in a graphic novel style. The pick of the album, "Naah Na Naah" was shot on a beach-house party atmosphere and involves most of the star casting. The setting was glittering in glitz and glamour and has some cheeky comedy portions, interspersed. "Pom Pom Penne" had elaborate set works, such as Moulin Rouge and Mary Poppins-like setting. The lighting by Sakthi Saravanan adds more glamour to the richly produced song, and Karthi proves his mettle in dancing. "Mississippi" is the sultry song shot on Karthi, Premgi and Mandy Takhar, who was simply irresistible with her sexily choreographed dance moves ! Some light-hearted moments are there too, thanks to Premgi. "Run For Your Life" comes as a situational song, where two drastic sequences were interspersed together. One is of a clubbing scenario featuring Malaysian artistes Psycho Unit and the other, the high-octane chase sequence. Brilliantly edited by Praveen and Srikanth ! "Edhirthu Nil" is the emotional climax song, shot on the hero and other important characters, making a daring, action plan. Yuvan nails it in the background score department as well, with complementary sound effects.
Venkat Prabhu's USP is his screenplay, and with 'Biriyani' he has managed to maintain the suspense element until the very end, by keeping the cards close to his chest. He has a very clear picture of what he wants and how he wants it from his technicians and his artistes, and that delivers most of the final output wanted. As always with Venkat, he infuses humor in the most unwanted and gravest of situations, which sometimes results in a crackling, comedy portions. Venkat has given most of the important characters, a good detailing and depth, with their identities and mannerisms. The dialogues, though are not family-friendly and incorporated lots of double entendres, which would find reception among the youngsters. For those who was expecting a different attempt from Venkat, they might find it a little tad disappointing, because the run of events, featured in the screenplay will definitely remind us of Venkat's previous ventures like 'Mankatha' and 'Saroja'. Also, some of the proceedings are a wee-bit farcical and out-of-place, but as promoted, its a Venkat Prabhu 'diet' after all and why care of logic in the first place ! And as it is always, don't forget to watch the fun and funny bloopers in the end !
'Biriyani' - A hearty meal, for those with the correct expectations !
Ratings: 3.25/5 STARS
BY:TAMIL
Comedy genre is not something new or fresh for Tamizh cinema audience, but infusing fantasy element into it, is a rarity. AGS Entertainment produced, 'Naveena Saraswathi Sabatham', is the debut directorial venture of K.Chandru, who has co-written the script of 'Tamizh Padam' along with C.S Amudhan. With a fresh and experimental combination of next-gen comedy artistes, K.Chandru has attempted to entertain us with comedy, albeit with a clear message. How did this 'modernized vow' of Saraswathi turn out to be?
Jai, after his pleasant performance in 'Raja Rani', had pretty much nothing to do. He was in his utmost comfort zone and has aptly used his shrill voice, for the right moments. Debutante heroine, Niveda Thomas looks sweet and performs well, with good dialogue delivery, which was perfectly dubbed by her dubbing artiste ! Alas, she has an extremely short screen timing, hence the limited acting scope for her. Sathyan and C.Rajkumar of 'Naduvula Konjam Pakkatha Kaanom' were at ease with their roles, particularly Sathyan, who did a great work with his expressions and body language, especially for a photo-shoot sequence in the first half. The one with the 'meatiest' role is none other than 'VTV' Ganesh, who rocks in some sequences, with his trademark dialogue delivery and antics, especially in the second half. On the other side, Subbu Panchu, Devadarshini and Manobala, donned the roles of religious deities Shiva, Parvathi and Naradar, respectively. They were apt choices for their roles and gave good dialogue deliveries, and Subbu Panchu should be appreciated for his funny expressions and voice modulations. Venkat Prabhu and Sam Anderson make fleeting cameo appearances. The rest of the cast such as R.S Sivaji, Chitra Lakshmanan, Swaminathan, Badava Gopi, Vishal Venkat, Rekha Suresh, Ramya Ramakrishnan and etc were apt for their respective roles.
M.P Vanitha Srinivasan's costume designing was okay, though the shoe-string budget is a little evident, especially with the GOD characters. The conventional real-life characters too, were well presented, in terms of costumes. Dhilip Subbarayan's action choreography sufficed the needs of the script, quite well. M.G Murugan's production design is vital, and he has done a good work with the Mount Kailash abode, with touches of contemporary. An unique idea, indeed and kudos to him, for pulling it off. The private abode of Shiva, is the highlight, with modern art paintings adorning the walls ! T.S Suresh's editing was not flawless, as the film moves at a snail's pace in the second half, and the some sequences dragged the length of the film. The transition from GOD's world to the episodes taking place in Earth, could have been smoother. J.Anand's cinematography was average, apart from the beautiful shots of the island for a song sequence, late second-half.
Music has been handled by newcomer Prem Kumar, and the melodies are worth listening. "Kaathirundhai Anbe" was shot on Jai and Niveda, in montages, with the quirky element of the heroine holding a microphone and singing from it, all the time ! "Saturday Fever" is a clubbing song, and was shot on the gang of four, comprising Jai, C.Rajkumar, Sathyan and 'VTV' Ganesh. The typical color lighting and scantily-dressed Asian girls, are there in the song. "Vaazhkai Oru" is also shot on the four buddies stranded alone in an uninhabited island, with montages of them spending time by doing what they can afford to do. "Nenjankuzhi" is the pick of album, shot on the lead pair, and had some beautiful shots of the island, against the backdrop of dark clouds and blue ocean. R.Kannan, handles the background score and he gives his input with some unique, modern sounds.
The trailer and teasers suggested a touch of 'Hangover', but the director has dismissed the idea, through a dialogue uttered by the protagonist. K.Chandru's script has a good and timely message to the viewers, but the message presentation was corny and ends up being dull. However, K.Chandru should be applauded for his unique ideas (Lord Ganesha on treadmill, Lord Murugan and his Temple Run game on the iPad, Naradhar with a guitar and Lord Shiva with his iMac and etc) along with creative and cheeky dialogues (especially for the 'heavenly' episodes, with the right amount of English and Tamizh mixture, giving those episodes a contemporary feel). The first half was interesting, especially the GOD sequences, which were cutely conceptualized and well executed. The introduction of the human being characters were okay to some extent. But the second half becomes quite tedious with long drawn sequences and K.Chandru tries to cover it up, by spoofing some of the popular Tamizh films. The script is pretty obviously wafer-thin, so K.Chandru should have trimmed the second half, quite considerably. Also, why are Tamizh cinema directors still trying to do cover up with the foreign locations ? Kuala Lumpur has been passed out as Bangkok in this film, and its about time for directors to realize that, its not easy to fool any audience, anymore !
'Naveena Saraswathi Sabatham' - A fantasy comedy, with preachy messages.
Ratings: 2.25/5 STARS
BY:TAMIL
'Maalai Pozhudhin Mayakathile', a wonderfully titled movie, this film is by newcomers entirely from the crew. It garnered attention through the success of one of its song on Youtube, "Oh Baby" hitting more than 200,00 views. Also, music director Achu's songs were very well received, especially the haunting, melody numbers. Well designed and photographed, it carried an interesting premise, that is the whole movie will be set in a coffee shop and what happens between the characters in that coffee shop, who are stuck inside, due to heavy rain. Did the film charm us as how the music did?
The protagonist role was done by Aari, who previously did the Shankar produced 'Rettaisuzhi'. He has an aroma of confidence with him and his appearance makes him a delightful to watch, to some extent. Heroine, Subha Putela, Miss India South of 2010, makes her debut in Tamizh cinema. Her performance is quite average and its a little obvious that she is struggling with the language. Not much of acting scope for her, as she has very less emotions to display. The rest of the cast did justice to their respective roles, be it Panchu Subbu, Sivaji R.S, Tejasvini, V.Balaji, Karuna, Sathish and etc. Choreographer Nandha and Ashwathy Warrier makes an appearance in a song.
Technical wise, the film has some decent output from the crew. Stills and designing by Maneksha and Jeff was good and romantic, keepin in mind with the theme of the film. JPK Prem used minimal but just necessary amount of props in the film as 90% of the film is based only around the coffee shop. Editing by M.Thiyagarajan was decent, and costumes were done by Narayanan Nagendra Rao and Gopi Amarnath, who are the director and cinematographer of the film. Gopi Amarnath, has captured some good shots in the songs and the color tone used in the film, especially the ambience it created for the coffee shop scene, was splendid. Not to forget, the beautiful rain shots, too. Achu, has delivered some beautiful melodies in the movie. "Oh Baby Girl" picturized against a bulbs-lit backdrop, was shot in a music-video format, something similar to the Asian music videos. Also it had some good choerography by Nandha. "Nerathin Neram Ellam", a poem recital was shot on the lead pair sitting romantically on a bench, with close-up shots, and a soft blue tone. "Yaaro Ivalo" was shot in colorful locations with good lighting. "Yen Intha Thideer" was shot in a dark color tone, with some ballerinas dancing around the sad protagonist. The song has been shot in the washroom of the coffe shop portrayed, so the angles were a little close and tight. The pick of the lot of the songs, is the 'Yen Uyire" track sung by Karthik. It was shot like a dreamy-sequence, in fog-filled, green pasture atmosphere. And also there's another version used at the end of the film, sung by 'Bombay' Jayashree. "Kadal Karaiyinile" a retrospective-montage song was picturized on the hero, reminiscing about the girl he met. Achu has also delivered soothing background score for the film, especially with the violin section.
Narayanan Nagendra Rao, the director, would have been inspired by Gautham Vasudev Menon's style of romance film, but sadly his script has nothing to offer, story wise. The script is very weak, dialogues are preachy, and the characters has no depth in them. There is no chemistry between the lead pair and there's no organic story development. Actually, no one can figure out what is the actual story of the film or what the director wanted to convey, in the first place ! Trying to present a romantic scene should be just left for advertisements and not feature films, unless you have a solid script and screenplay!
'Maalai Pozhudhin Mayakathile', a poorly written film with no story to tell ! Its a pity that Achu's wonderful music was wasted, entirely. The only other thing that can be appreciated is the 'effort' of the team to use live sound recording instead of dubbing the voices for the artistes, which gives a realistic feel to the settings.
Ratings: 1.5/5 STARS
BY:TAMIL
"Kalakalappu @ Masala Cafe" is the film which brings us back the Sundar.C which everyone recognized. A director with fantastic comedy sense. Some of his films are cult classics for slapstick comedies such as "Murai Maaman", "Mettukudi", "Ullathai Allithaa" and etc. Even commercial films of his have fantastic comedy sidetracks and "Ullam Kollai Poguthey", "Winner", "Rendu" being the examples. Since he took a sabbatical from directing and venturing into acting, the director in Sundar.C was sorely missed. This film did bring up hopes, with Sundar.C directing for the 25th time and that too with Shiva and Santhanam in the cast, the expectations were high.
Usually Sundar.C has his films centered on a few characters and the comedic situations will be based on them. But in this movie, though you have two heroes and two heroines, there's a host of artistes and all of them plays fantastic comedy roles. Starting off with the lead heroes. Vimal as usual was casual and comfortable in his role. The soft-nature and naive character suits him very well. Meanwhile Shiva was a scream throughout the film, especially in the first half. His one-liners were fantastically delivered by him and the movie is replete with them. Lines like "Kathirikka Knife & Katrina Kaif", as well as "Aduthan figurekku aasaipaduranukku ellam, thannode figure sappeya thaan mattum" are exemplary of the hilarious lines in the movie. Anjali as the health inspector was apt for her role and she was good with her comedy lines and showed her glamorous side in songs. Oviya delivered what was expected from her as well, and she too upped her glamor quotient in songs, but her comedy timing was not up to the mark. Santhanam, the current King of Comedy makes an entrance in the second half as a comedic villain and the second half belongs to him. He raises the bar even further with his one-liners and the second half chasing scene, involving him, Vimal and Manobala was a laugh riot. Ilavarasu, John Vijay, Subbu Panchu, V.S Raghavan and etc, everyone did their roles very well and each of them had something to contribute, comedy wise.
The film was made on a moderate budget, so the technical aspect of the film was just average but still good enough. Rajendran's costumes was apt for each and every artistes, making them look perfect for the characters that they played. Praveen K.L and Srikanth N.B's editing was good as usual, but they could have trimmed a little in the second half. The comic-book style pauses was well done. 'Thalapathy' Dinesh's stunts were funny and a little over-the-top, which was necessary for this genre of film. Gururaj's artwork was decent. The "Masala Cafe", before and after revamp, both was well done by him. U.K Senthil Kumar, a regular of Sundar.C's films has done a neat job, especially in capturing the mood of the small, beautiful town of Kumbakonam. The mansions, temple ponds and street views were pretty sights. The interiors of the cafeteria could have been done a little better. Music director, Vijay Ebenezer has come out with simple and sweet songs. The pick of the lot will definitely be "Thirumbi Paarthu" picturized on Vimal and Oviya in the green fields. Simple artwork and choreography was enough for that song, which looks nice on screen. "Unnai Patri" picturized around mansions and houses of the film plot, but still proved enough to hold our attention with the proceedings happening in the screen. "Mokka Manusha" was done within a tight area, that is around the cafeteria set and it involved lots of dancers in a small, congested area, which could have been done a little better. The opening song "Masala Cafe" and "Angelina" has montage sequences and some of them did have the necessary comedic elements to it. "Ivalunga Imsai" was picturized on the four lead artistes of the film. Both ladies were pretty glamorous in it and the lighting work and set work matched very well.
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Sundar.C has scripted the film with full of slapstick comedy scenes. Flaws and illogical sequences are aplenty in the film, but that's overlooked for the fun factor Sundar.C promises. The basic plot of the film was taken from a German film titled "Soul Kitchen" but Sundar.C has aptly modified the story and added sequences apt for the Tamizh audience which actually brings the roof down with the silliness and humorous manner in which the scenes were done. Definitely Sundar.C's biggest asset is his dialogue writer, Badri. His dialogues were a scream and nearly each scene had its own one-liners and they were aptly written for the characters which mouthed those lines. Sundar.C should be appreciated for his choice of artistes for each roles. The choices were very well made, even for the small characters which comes in one or two scenes.
Kalakalappu @ Masala Cafe is just a silly, plain and enjoyable fun ride for all viewers. Logic, common sense, rationality and seriousness are not to be associated with the script but that's not a complain because the film doesn't need those factors. Sundar.C is back to what he is best at and thoroughly fulfilled the expectations of the film.
Ratings: 3/5 STARS
BY:TAMIL
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