Aarya-2

Aarya has just talked a villainous fiancé of Geetha into helping them and as the four elope in a car, Geetha sneezes; immediately three hands with kerchief emerge. This kind of comedy is all Aarya-2 is all about. Aarya-2 is not another episode in Aarya, Ajay and Geetha’s life. It’s about people like Aarya, Ajay and Geetha who go through the same things like in Aarya. While Aarya now is a calculative selfless person (oh yes, those two characters can exist together!), Geetha and Ajay essay the same role of innocent girl torn between two guys and brainless loser respectively.

With such contrasting traits its Aarya, whose unconventional “striking like a thunderbolt” schemes and reactions to each situation (sometimes just for the sake of creating a comedy and at times pleasantly surprising) that works for the better of the movie, which otherwise could have been a boredom had it been amateurishly handled by Sukumar & Allu Arjun. From a rowdy friend to Mr. Perfect to an obsessive lover & friend on the nayward side to a true friend who is torn between self need & sacrifice, Aarya’s character (akin to Ravi Teja’s Kick) has all that Bunny needs to make his female fanatics keep whistling throughout the movie. What with difficult dance movements being displayed at élan and grace truly interspersed with the flow; like when Aarya sees Geetha’s picture with a miscreant whom he had just bashed with unreal flare like a true hero should, jumps into air and into a song, making the audience howl in frenzy with his steps what should have been just climbing up and down the stairs.

When all these are occupying our mind, who has time to think as to why should Aarya uses a ghost like car to beat everyone or why the compulsive friendship of Aarya towards Ajay is hackneyed or why … oh sorry I forgot the flaws.

Kurbaan

Concise version:

With the promotional team spilling us everything about the movie, there is no surprise when Eshaan locks Avantika after she finds out about the true colours of her neighbours. Instead we were waiting for the clichéd cupid love to get over and the movie to really begin. With on you face hints like when Avantika writes her address and the number of the flight in question, we were hoping for something gripping, but what we end up seeing are the ever lasting scenes just because the director had the vision that lingering the moment in the audience’s mind (not caring to convey what should be conveyed) is classy, thanks to the poor or absence of words when you need them. Ignoring the mediocrities that unfold, be it the operative nature of the FBI or the terrorists or for that matter an over indulgent reporter who becomes plain stupid to avenge for his fiancé death by infiltrating them, and if you try to look into the movie as an emotional tangle the director doesn’t let us do that too as he pushes Avantika out of the picture making this movie into a glossy non-detailed rambling of a pre-terrorist attack. If the director had wanted to use the star value to create an uncompromisable tale of love and jihad, he ends up making a mess wasting a lot of well written sequences which could have become classic had the things associated to it helped. Even with all the loose ends its Vivek and Kareena’s ernest efforts that stays in our mind long after the movie is over, overcoming the artificial seriousness that becomes so self indulging to a point that we don’t care if a character dies or cries. Yet we feel for Avantika when she pleads Eshaan to reveal his real name as he is dying. Wish there were more of such moments in this long drawn out film.

Detailed version:

There is a scene in the movie where Avantika runs home on finding about the true colour of her neighbours who are chasing her. They break in eventually and as the tension built up, Eshaan (with whom she had entered this world after the heavily sugar coated (s)cupid love seasoned with all the cliches) turns up ushering her in, from the balcony, into a twist in the tale. But we don’t feel it as the marketing team had already told us Eshaan is a terrorist. As the film nears end, we start to think where is that “controversial love making scene” hoping at least that part of the movie will be something to remember. When Reyaz requests Avantika to somehow get a document from Eshaan: cut; as anyone can guess, the oldest cliché of seducing a terrorist to peak into the document unfolds with Kareena doing a “yeh mera dil” act instead of being an emotional Avantika.

With marketing doing the needed damage before entering the hall, the direction does the rest with a tad too long lingering moments with minimal dialogue for each everlasting scene, assuming that is all is needed to make a classy scene ending up making us think about the stupidity that is unfolding. Stupidity because, what else can you call when the FBI which has a clear picture of a treacherous terrorist well knowing that he has entered their country recently, doesn’t run a search in the recent immigrant list, for Eshaan according to his “so called” plan enters the country as a civilian without any disguise; instead when caught hold of a female corpse whose left side face is damaged beyond recognition, rather than simulating the left side using the clear right side, magically creates a crystal clear photograph of her (maybe FBI did have the technology to travel back in time to take a snap of the female even before her death). Or for that matter, a reporter who when handed over the address of terrorist, instead of nailing down the people, stays up night after night watching them and when opportunity dawns he literally follows Eshaan in a queue to infiltrate the organization manipulating them, but for what? To cover a story on how terrorists eat and sleep like civilians we might wonder, No… to know what their next plan is and stop them, as we are told by the FBI in a different investigation. From what he knew from the message, they could be escaping to some third world nation as he owes to take revenge for his fiancé’s death. The terrorists aren’t far behind in the stupidity line up either. These trained people can’t even realize that a person is stationed every night at their doors watching over them. Well … what can you expect of people, who just out of anger shoots police officers at random on losing the cool, when they are supposed to lay low. It’s even strange that when there is a shoot out in a train no authority is shown to take any sort of action.

Having gotten used to glitches, we as an audience respect a film if the characters are drawn out well with their actions meant only to be reaction to a situation. Instead we get a feeling that situations were created only for us to see their reactions. Or else why else should Eshaan take a bullet near his heart during the most idiotic scene of the film and ask Avantika to meddle his heart as blood oozes out artificially. Though this might sound like a well written scene, when you see it on screen what registers is completely different thanks to the lingering of moment concept as Mr. Eshaan “am stone hearted” Khan tries so hard artificially to stand the pain while Avantika genuinely scared of the situation tries her best in her perplexed state. The same goes for another well written scene too. When Eshaan aims at Reyaz point black, he prays after asserting him their jihad is only against the innocent people; but what we see is Eshaan like a smart dude repeats his punch line and points the gun on his head and Reyaz rambles on some innocent people affecting thing and then as an afterneath thought says a prayer. This moves Eshaan and he reveals the location of the bombs (which aren’t that effective btw – the FBI officer standing just few feet near it was all alive and in action after it exploded in another location). Had the dialogues in these situations been very brisk and witty instead of the old fashioned all “this is for a girl” – be it Eshaan and Reyaz, with a better command over the scenes instead of trying to be clever in the wrong way by not conveying what should be conveyed, we wouldn’t have thought of these mediocrities created by the contrived characters.

Kanden Kadhalai

When Shakthi is shown meeting his ex with a flashback of their relationship following it, we get a glimpse of the “suitability to the native” tool that Kannan is going to use for this remake. While Jab we met was – jab things happens it reveals itself – Kanden Kadhalai is all about seeing is believing – everything said then and there, leaving us dry at the end as we know from the time Gautam (Munna) hides inside the car, Anjali will end up marrying Shakthi. It is as if the director has made up his mind that tamil audience’s intelligence is not adept enough to handle the multiple layers of the script Imtiaz had in hand. Where Imtiaz employs sarcasm and subtle emotions or witty dialogues for that matter to handle a situation which made the usual story that JWM was into an intelligent film, Kannan (who did something of that sort with Jayam Kondan) assuming we won’t understand them, adds commercial gimmicks to some of them which even though good only makes the movie an one time watch; or else why should Shakthi fight, why should he let Anjali's brother hit him, Gautam be reduced to an all black character on which Shakthi lights a torch, Anjali have the "train missing" dream symbolising her missing the love of her life, Shakthi have feelings for her from the beginning itself, Anjali instead of answering: Mokkai Raju indeed is a fertile guy and i knows it well; which should have led into a suggestive murkier phase as the camera zooms out, keeps quiet, Shakthi proclaim time and again from the beginning itself for us to understand that she has changed him a lot and what ever his mind set is now (and then later) is all because of her which Aditya only does to make her realise – and yet we only get to see Bharath overacting as a "take it easy" guy (though he shines as an introvert). But Kannan’s descriptive mode does enhance the script, when he shows Shakthi search for her arduously aided by Vidyasagar’s melody while Aditya just finds her out or the way the whole cellphone, from the way the idea springs up in Shakthi’s mind, is handled. He also should be appreciated for invoking the local flavour without being clichéd or artificial; well apart from the leading lady and her cousin. Tamanna, though slips into the role easily and performs commendably, she doesn’t look like a Theni-kari.

Peraanmai

When Suseela dies, Dhruvan instead of shedding tears, runs across in all directions to check if any threat still exists while others break down, and then joins them only to remove her shoes; for people alive are more important in war. Welcome to the world of Dhruvan who is leading a silent war to bring the tribal up the ladder of status; a model person who keeps quiet when insulted beyond disgrace and takes up the punishment for the fallacious acquisitions bestowed on him by his caste centric officer, but in a flash kills intruders cold blooded, that too with stealth, methodically. With an extremely high IQ thanks to his exposure to books, he speaks on world politics through the eyes of Karl Marx and many ideologists, the power of working people, internal and international politics, caste preference, farming, life in forest and the behaviour of fauna, physiology and even on advanced weaponry as a matter of factly which can only be answered by his books, as he takes us through the dense forest with five ignorant girls from the parallel world (as chivalrous as possible) whose hormones seems to be working overtime for there interest to shoot men in langottis or speak about sex or walking nude at midnight just for the sake of revenge, evolve into mighty force through the lessons of Dhruvan after hating him for being a lower caste person and teams up with him to literally fight for the nation, for a cause which is threateningly weak.

It's very rare that such screenplay takes the visual form which deals about tribal even though it glorifies them many a times and yet the panache with which Jayam Ravi takes up this character makes us overcome all the flaws, for the script has so many gem of a sequence like when Ravi replies for “we never knew you could speak english well”, “my people don’t understand english and you people don’t like me to speak in english” or the master stroke in the concluding scenes in a very subtle manner establishes the role of authority as Ponvaanan receives all the glories for Ravi’s labour, the main theme of the script.

Blue

Director: Antony D' Souza

As the piano strikes the majestic sound of jazz backed by Shreya and Sonu which swiftly changes to western classic ala Arabian nights which was about the mysteries of the land of no water, A.R.Rahman introduces us to the depth of the blue ocean, the similarity being that, both explores treasure, by which one might mistake this to be a riveting experience and sure it promised to be at the initial few scenes when Akshay sleep-swimmingly fights a shark and then makes fun of Sanjay for his over-weight and lazy approach to this role (which even in anyone’s dream he never fits) while boxing, Zayed ACTING like a pro aided by wonderful camera work backed by stupendous bgm races his bike to victory, and Lara clad in a two-piece bikini in her most glamourous self scorches the screen. But things get boring after Lara gets intimate with her grand-pa boy friend suggesting the other meaning for the title to be indeed true, Akshay still sleep-swimming and rambling just lines without punches and Zayed keeps a somber face for the loss of the love of his life who he met for just 2 mins. Things get even boring with the repeated scary face of Sanjay when ever “lady in blue” is mentioned, Akshay still rambling silly lines about kismat & will and Zayed still crying. When Rahul Dev enters and tries to attack our Bhai with his daughter like gf at his house, in the name of breakthrough technique in camera, makes the two teams fire their guns at the sides when they are standing behind each other which makes Bhai to loose his gf and reveal the tragic story of his father who died because his son literally and figuratively hit the bucket. After consoling the weak heart they map their way with the help of a song, to the treasure trove surrounded by sharks which incidentally are typical Indian side-artists in a masala hindi film who are just there to on-look the happenings (well here they swim here and there) where they meet the enemy and after the climax like a post climax Akshay drops a secret in the name of plan B with the bgm of Fiqraana playing behind and makes us scream OMG!

For dicussion on the music of Blue click here.

Aadhavan

Director: K.S.Ravikumar

When asked what he knows, the over enthusiastic Murugan alias Aadhavan alias Madhavan like an adept who knows it all yet humble, starts rambling on for 10 reels about varies intricacies in cooking and then as one would expect, at various scenes throughout the film he demonstrates that he knows everything from enacting a monkey (the stunts; not Anand Babu), to yoga, to acting like Shivaji, to various forms of dancing and if you aren’t satisfied he does a Rajini ala muthu style and even shells out a sentimental scene for the sake of it akin to Varanam Aayiram; ultimately ending up proving yet again that none has the speed and grace of MGR to enact the “Naan aanaiyital” and when the cool dude sure-shot assassin walks out of his yacht with anger that he missed his target and being insulted for that, the wanna be cool act acclimates to great heights. If that is not enough we have the yesteryear overacting queen reprising her caricature, while the Thara without any spark, reduced to just repeating “it’s ok!” could borrow few tonnes of makeup from the former, for it’s not ok for us to be scared during close-ups so often which the younger Aadhavan does, whose face stuck using chewing gum (that Aadhavan uses throughout the movie) to the older one just for the sake of proving that if its Aadhavan’s role, his face should one be there regardless of the age or ridicule factor.

The over enthusiasm even spreads to the Commissioner and AC, the duty conscious strict officers that they are, who directs NSG commanders proving that NSG may rank above State police but FEFSI chairman will always have more authority than them. If this is not enough, the icing of the cake (the rotten one) is in the form of the director and the producer appearing in a cameo when all gasped: finally (!!) lets go, and repeats the 10 reels dialogue that Madhavan did with few lines shared by the producer acid testing his acting skills for his debut venture next. It’s a pity that the director who has given ample attention to the gizmos failed to demand songs that suit the movie which though good doesn’t get along with the flow if by luck it ever tries to be. If not for the comic timing of Suriya and Vadivelu in the first half, everyone would have been long gone.

For detailed discussion on the music of Aadhavan click here.

Kandasamy

Director: Susi Ganesan
Cast: Vikram, Shriya

Apart from good screenplay- a super hero movie needs a great build-up for the hero entry and then slowly with the power of deception, terrorize the enemy and bring a smile in our face which should widen as the hero displays his master stroke of appearance; a stylish movie demands great camera angles with rich colour tones, glamorous heroine dancing her way into our heart, exotic locations, a stud who is the epitome of trend; a Robin Hood movie should offer a clever and cunning hero with a completely contrast alias, a moving circumstance to be an outlaw, an intelligent officer to nail him down and finally a social message; a masala movie need a heroine exposing every time she appears on screen, an item number, few lines praising the hero, gravity defying fights, cantankerous comedy track and sentimental scenes.

I guess Susi started off with a Robinhood script, digressed into other subjects and concocted a dish with the weakest ingredients from them all in poor ratio, making this movie to not even become a collection of well executed set-pieces. Hence, what we see on screen is a drama troupe, whose members become big officers and stage a poorly executed incarnation drama to bring back Indian money locked abroad to use them for adopting villages, with their super cool (wannabe) (fe)male protagonist depicting himself as a multi-millionaire(but only a CBI officer) in day and a cock at night which sings while fighting crime, all because there is a far-fetched relation between his friend’s hand being cut and poverty; all in the name of God.

In the name of sleekness, Susi shuttles with different tones for filming, changes the hero’s dress from casuals to blazer before his execution, ultra-modernizes CBI and never let important scenes to linger in our minds in the name of fast paced editing.

One feels bad for Vikram, the only good the film offers. Every time he gives a menacing smile we feel his cry to save the film.

Verdict: 1/5 Stars