Harish Film views

Director: A L Vijay A movie is often considered a symphony of the audio & visual medium; and sure enough the auteurs have always striven to tread on a path between the said & the unsaid in order to keep us in a trance. To achieve that feat in Thandavam, a self-proclaimed unusual revenge saga of a blind man, A L Vijay employs everything in the rule book & that could precisely be the reason for its inability to interest us. Looking at Thandavam on the whole, the crucial problem with the film clearly lies in its immature treatment. Sure the premise of the action thriller is something even an infrequent film viewer would appreciate of. But when the film sets out to express itself, what clearly could be and had been registered through the visuals gets re-registered again and again till one feels nauseated by the events. As this redundancy gradually distances the audience for the silver screen, the age old formulas to invoke emotions becomes too tiresome & juvenil...

Director: Myskkin On surface level, Mugamoodi (Mask), from the acclaimed director Myskkin, sure poses as a bland name for a superhero movie. Anand (a) Lee (Jiiva) the man, who would adorn the coveted mask in the movie, is a loafer to his father’s eyes & the world which consists of his eye candy girl. But according to him, he is a dreamer who wants to make it big in the world by doing something that would require his complete soul to be involved & not just 9~5 of his time. Ironically his only defense against the society is his love for Kung Fu. When his Master, who he reveres, abstains him from showcasing his talents, all he could do is wear a scarf around his face and break the knuckles of his unworthy opponents. These righteous acts lead him to Gaurav (Nasser) a police officer , one among the many perplex characters in the film. O n his trial for safecrackers , Gaurav fills the screen with seriousness and it does feels right when people fear him. Yet, the veteran,...

Director: Trivikram Srinivas In every mass hero film’s opening shot, as the hero poses in his immaculate signature style, the camera zooms in to capture the gushing zeal of a no-nonsense hero accompanied by an earth shattering buildup of tempo; all for the thundering response it would get theatres all over. Eons have passed and yet we aren’t sure whether the response is for the signature pose or the mere appearance of the mass hero or the wonderful build-up to the fitting coda. But, when Allu Arjun (the mass-hero of Julayi) comes into the frame as suddenly as a dog crossing the street, we are left with none of the three factors to cheer for the mass-hero. However, the past master that he is, Trivikram (director) compensates for that by conjuring an enticing bank robbery as the next scene to show the acumen of our beloved hero. Julayi, its mass commercial formula notwithstanding, is the story about the clash of intellects. While the protagonist is an impatient youth, w...

Director: Narayan Nagendra Rao In the very beginning of the movie, an aspiring filmmaker gets money from a big-shot under one condition that he makes his aide (an old hefty guy) the hero of the film. Rejecting the offer, the protagonist comes to a coffee shop from where the story kicks off. At the end of the 2 hours long movie, I felt, with great potential to be the decade’s best unintentional comedy, had the film-maker went on to make the film with that aide, the director of Maali Pozhuthin Mayakathile would have spared us from the insipid tale of romance. For a film that is set in CCD where one would at least expect a cappuccino, the director takes a bean that is neither roasted nor dried out, brews it with rain water that floods the screen and serves with a teaspoon of salt. Sometimes we make few decisions based on certain information. Many a times, they backfire; one such being my decision to watch Maalai Pozhudin Mayakathiley. I could go on blotting this pa...

Director: Chakri Toleti When you have a successful franchise in your hand that had survived three decades of viewership, any maker would want to expand the frontiers. While his counterpart in the Don series moved forward with the story, the Ultimate Star of tamil films decided to tread on a different path, that of going back in time to tell the genesis story of David Billa (the tamil version of Don).  While an origin story usually stresses on the formative days of the titular character, with Billa, the urge to see the history of the much revered Don surmounts thanks to the insufficient material available on the reclusive gangster. But five minutes into the movie, with the best dialogue of the trailer wasted terribly, I suspected dreadful times await me. As it happened, after 2 long hours, Billa-2 stood as a testament that any film, no matter how good a star you have in it, how tech-savvy & creative technicians you involve in it, will only be as good as the creati...

When SS Rajamouli announced that he is going to make a revenge saga of a housefly and that too not on the lines of Bug’s life, I was appalled to say the least. Now how can a tiny insect attempt to kill a man? Even if he had chosen the blood sucking mosquito as his protagonist there could be some plausibility to the idea. But this is from the director who convinced everyone south of vindhyas of a warrior who could fight and win over 100 soldiers at a time. SS Rajamouli the director with the Midas touch sure must have known what he was doing. The end result is a buzzy little creature called Eega (House-fly) that could give bumblebee a run for its honey at being audaciously capable of doing the impossible. In its screen time of 2 ¼ hours, Eega not just defies almost all laws of nature, but also breaks tons of clichés associated with a masala film while proudly being one. For one, though the title role of Eega is the star of the film, the film relies primarily on its antagonist’s ...

In the film world or in any writing industry, anything that needs to be conveyed starts off with an idea. This idea creates a spark which makes it to grow into a full-fledged story. When this story captures the imagination of the people involved, the plot and the characters that are driving them are subsequently developed and enhanced to magnify the impact that the one liner had on the creator.  Coming out after watching Vazaku En:18/9, I realized how miserably the movie has failed to rise above the synopsis  that it started out with. With a plot line similar to that of the movie ‘Ram’, VE18/9 opens up as a crime thriller with a boy being the prime accused. As he gets prodded by the interrogating officer about his life, the boy begins to recount his trials and tribulations up till the day he is brought for interrogation. Like any scared boy would tremble before a police officer and plead for innocence, the protagonist keeps reminding the audience through the vo...

As the powerful role of Zoya (Ishaqzaade) is becoming the talk of the town, a brief analogy between Zoya & Muthazhagu (Paruthiveeran). Ishaqzaade is probably the most women centric film to have come out from the commercial stable.  Similar to how people associate good cinematography with flashy - oscillating shots that stands outside of the film rather than be integrated to it, women centric roles are recognized only when the protagonist bring about violence is screen. Muthazhagu (in Paruthiveeran) was recognized as a great women centric role not because that the character stood up to Paruthi in the aftermath of the interval block, but for the climactic battle & the vehement tenaciousness it portrayed to signify the love for Paruthi in the confrontation scene between Muthazhagu & her parents. Yet here is a film (and a role) which doesn’t go over the top to emphasize the stubbornness of Zoya. Baring the opening block that acts merely as a gimmick, Zoya lik...

The other day I was watching Raging bull because I was told it is one of America’s finest films.  Aside from the ideology which has been inculcated in our system that anything American is of superior quality, I was interested to see some serious drama for a change. Yes, after finishing entire 5 seasons of BBT in a week I did want a change in mood.  The beauty of a serious movie is that it invokes numerous emotions inside you. For example, when I watch The Dark Knight, I ponder over the thin line that separates morality & justice and while at it, I mull over the threshold for resistance in each man. So, to be honest I did have expectations when I sat to watch Raging bull. As most of you would know, the movie is about the downfall of a boxer. The protagonist being a fickle minded person, most of the scenes that involve him with others, come off as a fire cracker. While I thoroughly enjoying the erratic behavior of the lead, I realized how I was drawn into the characte...

There is a storm coming, Mr. Wayne. Do you want to know a little secret about it? It doesn’t come out of the blue like you think. It grows around you whilst your dismal senses choose to turn blind eye over it. And before you know, the silent grumbling would have become an insurrection, encircling you. Intrigued Mr. Wayne? Because there is an inscrutable beauty to the storm. It’s an agent of chaos. You won't have time to think. You could run, but you won’t have any place to hide. You will think what wrong I did other than using everything that was under my disposal, to suffer the wrath. You would feel it’s better to give up everything and die under its hands. But do you really know the beauty of a storm? It strikes at the backbone of your society, tearing you apart, making you battered, yet leaving you alive fighting to find a ray of hope. You think you could be that ray of hope? Do you think you could fight the storm? With all your valor do you r...

In a scene in OK OK, the latest blockbuster from Rajesh & Santhanam combo, the heroine driven by the insults that her ex showers her with throughout the film, calls upon him to a restaurant where she is going to meet a guy fixed by her parents. But the guy turns out to be an even worse douche bag who pounces at every chance to insult her for her overweight. As expected, she tears him apart only to be mocked again by her ex for her pathetic state. It isn’t a one off scene. In another scene later in the film, the hero along with his guy-soul mate trashes her beyond any permissible limit inside an airplane where she is an airhostess. Am not going to lie here that I didn’t laugh for few of the gags they pulled off. But while I was squirming in my seats seeing how the girl was treated by her ex, all in the name of humour, I was feeling that the other douche bag was way better. At least he had the guts to call a stick a stick (read log), instead of sneaking in insults after insult...