cute couple!!

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a path to heaven!!!

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RAMAN THEDIYA SEETHAI MOVIE REVIEW

While a romance in Tamil cinema immediately brings to mind a young couple trying to overcome some sort of obstacles, there have been some mature romances that dealt with the affairs of the heart of older couples. Raman Thediya Seethai is a solid addition to this small list. Chronicling the many twists and turns in a man's search for his Mrs. Right, it is a natural, feel-good film.

Venugopal(Cheran), who owns a wedding invitation store, isn't having much luck with getting married. While the first girl he meets, Ranjitha(Vimala Raman), says "No" since she doesn't feel like marrying him, the second girl, Vidya(Ramya), elopes with her lover on the day of the wedding. Vidya's father, dejected over his daughter's act, takes it upon himself to find a girl for Venugopal. With an alliance in hand, he takes Venugopal to the girl's village but life has a few more surprises for Venu.

Director Jagannath goes the Vikraman way in filling his movie with people who are good. The characters in the film are the kinds who help out people who haven't exactly been nice to them and go out of their way to help people they don't really have to. They are selfless, self-confident and optimistic and their hearts are filled with goodness. Even a character(who was shown to be a drug addict earlier) who is in jail is there because he was upholding his wife's honor. So, though these people have their own troubles and miseries, the film works as a feel-good tale because the way the characters are shaped and their basic attitudes in life. We watch the film with a warm feeling in our hearts and that's always a good thing.

At the same time, the film doesn't go overboard in portraying these characters and their goodness. The things they do and they way they react to situations feel extremely natural and down-to-earth and we don't need to suspend our disbelief to accept that people like this do exist in the real world. The director also handles things in a low-key fashion and avoids portraying anything in a dramatic fashion. This extends right upto the climax, which works better because of it. These two factors - the authenticity and the low-key nature - make it easy to swallow the string of coincidences the movie throws at us after Cheran arrives in the village. They feel like natural turns of a story rather than contrivances forced in to move the story along.

The film devotes substantial chunks of time to the tales of Pasupathy and Nitin Sathya but avoids making them feel redundant by creating links to Cheran's story(though Nitin's story has a much more direct effect on Cheran's life). Still, the naturalness that accompanies Cheran's track takes a bit of a hit in these segments. The characters(the blind man with a zest for life, the reformed thief) and the situations they go through(a fight with rowdies, a marathon) feel more cinematic compared to what happens to Cheran.

Cheran has no problem playing the goodhearted man in search of love and the role fits him like a glove. Vimala Raman surprises us with a very natural, well-tuned performance. She is able to express her feelings without indulging in theatrics and that's exactly what the movie needs. She easily earns our sympathy during the conversations with her mom about her true feelings. Pasupathy's body language and diction are perfect for his character and Nitin Sathya impresses also. Gajala looks a bit plump and aged while between Ramya and Karthika, the former makes more of an impression because her role has more substance.

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Silambaattam Movie Review

Kaalai's failure has apparently done nothing to dampen Simbhu's interest in cliched, violent masala movies. Inspite of him playing the role of a priest in a temple, Silambaattam is simply another opportunity for him to take on a larger-than-life role and indulge in all the usual elements that go with the role. Simbhu may be an Ajith fan but its Vijay's place in Tamil cinema that he seems to be gunning for and Silambaattam is further proof of that.

Vichu(Simbhu), a timid temple priest who lives with his grandfather(Nedumudi Venu), does his best to stay out of trouble. But as an encounter with some rowdies shows him and others, he can't be pushed too far and his timid exterior hides enough strength to down several men single-handedly. When a man is chased into the neighborhood by some rowdies intent on killing him, Vichu dons a makeshift mask and saves him. But one of the man's friends sees Vichu's face and that leads to his past being unravelled.

A Brahmin character in a Tamil movie is typically used for comedy and the hope that things would be different here since the hero is a Brahmin are quickly dashed. All the aspects that are used to derive comedy out of a Brahmin character - the exaggerated accents, expressions and body language, the vulgar jokes, the portrayal of the women as sex-crazed ladies - are all present here too. And the hero being a Brahmin turns out to be even more damaging since these aspects occupy the bulk of the movie instead of being relegated to a comedy track that pops up only occasionally.

The movie faithfully follows the template set by all those movies where the hero is shown to be meek(here Simbhu pulls the heroine away when she argues with some young men creating a ruckus in the temple) and has noticeable gaps in his past (like the fact that he is living with his grandfather and there is no mention of his parents). So we first get fight sequences to show that Simbhu is really not meek and then a flashback that informs him - and us - about his past, gives him some new family members and introduces a few new villains he has to go up against. The flashback, even is familiar and predictable, has energy that the rest of the movie lacks though.

Simbhu is a self-professed Ajith fan and has no qualms about revealing it in his movies. Here he gets to play Billa in the climax. This may make Ajith's fans happy but it does nothing for the rest of us. The entire segment feels unnecessary and silly and with Santhanam, Manobala and Nirosha donning similar costumes to make up Simbhu's gang, it takes away the seriousness from Simbhu's vendetta.

Simbhu, not surprisingly, hams his way through the role of the priest. But he is at home in the flashback with the get-up sitting well on him and his expressions and gestures going well with the character. Sana Khan is clearly another one-film wonder while Sneha has little to do. Santhanam is his usual crass self but Karunas, inspite of having a lot less screen time, figures in one of his funnier tracks by never talking except for a single line towards the end. Machaan Machaan..., the only slow song, is an old-style number with Ilaiyaraja's voice enhancing the 90s feel. Where is the Party? is a very interesting number in terms of composition, singing style and lyrics but loses some of the effect since it is thrust in unceremoniously and is picturized in a rather ordinary manner.

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GHAJINI FILM REVIEW

Shahrukh khan rab ne banadi jodi movie review

What does a woman want Sigmund Freud had famously asked. A mousy office drone Surinder Sahini, played by Shah Rukh Khan, asks the same question in Aditya Chopra’s new film Rab Ne Bana di Jodi.

Surinder’s wife Tani, played by debutant Anushka Sharma, replies that a woman wants a man who loves her more than anything else in the world.

Surinder loves his wife so much that he is willing to transform himself into a fictional character Raj, who is hipper, cooler and most critically, makes Tani laugh. Slowly she finds herself falling in love with her husband in disguise.

In life, this would probably mean years of marriage counseling and therapy but since this is a Yash Raj film, everyone lives happily ever after.

Aaja Nachle, also produced by YRF, had a sub-plot of a painfully boring husband joining the theatre to impress his wife. Aditya, who returns to direction after eight years, has stretched that track into an entire film, except here theatre is replaced by a dance contest.

Rab Ne starts off promisingly. Both Aditya and Shah Rukh have a great affection for Surinder. He is the best-written and best enacted character in the film. Shah Rukh plays him with a loving tenderness. The film is interesting as long as we are watching this super geek who is too timid to even knock twice on his wife’s door.

Unfortunately none of the other characters match up. Surinder’s alter ego Raj, the loud-but-good-natured Jat, becomes boring after the initial laughs. And Tani herself is a mystery. The film begins with her losing her father and fiancée but she never mentions them again. Tani is willing to leave Surinder but then suddenly, after a visit to the Golden Temple, she starts to see the goodness in her husband. Newcomer Anushka is confident but she isn’t sparkling enough to dazzle you so that you can bypass these holes in the character.

The premise of Rab Ne is illogical but even if you are willing to overlook the fact that Tani fails to recognise her own husband because he loses his moustache and gels his hair, the film is a frustrating experience.

Sporadic scenes play out nicely and Shah Rukh Khan works every acting muscle to bring conviction to this story but the overwhelming emotional inconsistency fractures the film.

As events unfold, you are constantly asking: why is this happening. Eventually then, Rab Ne is a disappointment. See it only for Surinder and what Shah Rukh does with him.

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Cute Baby

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