Kavalan- The defender

 
Its been long that i have written a movie review..I had planned to write on one of my favorites long back...But did not get a chance...Amidst that i happened to watch this movie and here I am to share my thoughts...To set things straight i must call this as my view than a review...I try to be always honest and say what i feel than to say the words put in my mouth by others.Honesty is the first thing that a writer should have.

I must confess two things before i proceed,one is that i am an Ajith fan.Second is that i dislike Vijay more than i admire Ajith.But despite that when i go and sit in theater-which i rarely do unless i feel the movie is worthy- i leave these favoritism out and focus only on one thing.That is,the movie.How the film makes me feel and does it do justice to the time i spend are important to me.

With that spirit i sit here to blog this.I absolutely have no problems to accept that a movie is good if it is really good ,no matter who has acted in it be it Vijay or anyone. I guess i know to appreciate a work done well keeping aside personal grudges and likings(if not why the hell on earth will i go to a Vijay movie on the 3rd day of the release when i have never seen a Ajith movie in the first week of release).Even after this precursory explanations i still stick to the idea of calling this as my view on the movie even then it is not going to be biased.Yes,not biased but honest.

To say about the movie,one can see Vijay in a different Avatar after a long time.Thats what the buzz is about and it has proved positive for the promotion of the film.As far the story is concerned it  shows how a irresponsible guy becomes a bodyguard of a respectable man in the society and how things turn when the respectable man's daughter falls in love with the bodyguard without revealing who she is.The story deals with emotions between the characters than on the top flashy action sequences and commercial elements.Vadivelu's comedy has worked out in few scenes and in others its rather dull and mirthless.Asin has acted well but i kept on wondering why the hell she cries a lot(amount of glycerin would have had an effect on the budget of the movie  for sure..:P)

Positives:

• Its good to see Vijay in a role which does not  utter deadly punch dialogues or do superman comic action sequences or give build up than necessary etc.To say simply he has not tortured audience like his previous films.That in itself is a great plus.
• The movie had not basked on the glamor quotient.Thanks for the producer and director for providing costumes that cover enough.:p..The movie sans obscenity  make it watchable with the family.
• Considerable part of credit should go to Siddique as he had made his presence felt  in the movie in a lot of instances.His effort behind the screen is visible.

Negatives:

•  Even though the movie is not a torture its hard to say it is awesome.Movie is too good comparing with other Vijay movies but not too good in general.
• The way heroine melts and feels too much  for Vijay suddenly, without reason, is cinematic. Had that been justified it would have been more convincing.
• Over sentimentality and emotions in some places makes it look like TV serial.I did not see any reason for Asin crying in lot of scenes.For instance scene in which Vijay says his opinion about Asin over phone.Too much tears proved irritationg after some point.I kinda looked at the corner of the screen to check suntv symbol at times.
• The sad violin BGM in Asin's scenes during the second half and the climax BGM resembled BGM's where usually the TO BE CONTINUED will appear in soap operas.
• Siddique's direction at some points beckons him to come out of small screen set up.

From my personal perspective,the twist the director gave in the climax was the death punch.(Angaye sethuten). The friend character turning into a cheater just like that reminds small screen again(well im exhausted saying this :().As far as Asin is concerned i think this is a milestone for her.If  bollywood doesn't click she can grab a chance for Zee TV serial with eyes shut.Trust me she had been trained well in the movie. I feel the opening and first one hour or so was bit ok.The 20 minutes before intermission was racy and proved good.I thought the movie will go in the same pace after that.But unfortunately.... It did not ..Asin's characters with tears in eyes and unnecessary display of emotions had altered the feel of the movie.

What ever it is i don't think it is a movie that has to be watched in theater.That too on the third day of release?..No way..As far as i am concerned i have wasted 3 hours of my sleep and 100 bugs.I could have watched it in TV later..May be if it is telecasted as half an hour episodes it would be a huge success.. :P..

                                                                                                                                                          One thing is for sure,i won't go to a Vijay movie even if it gets good review(coz this time i was bullshitted by these reviews only-that too from Ajith fans themselves- and i was not pleased as the movie was not upto the reviews).. Still i maintain that i have no qualms to call a  movie  good if it is really good..But this is not it..Perhaps if i had gone to the movie with less expectations it would have felt different...who knows...But hats off to Vijay for finally deciding to act..Bravo!!!!..Good try... :)

My verdict: Comparing other Vijay movies its too good..But in general it is mediocre.. Body guard has put in every effort to defend..

ENTHIRAN (ROBOT)-Just a BETA version.

The film is grossing millions in the box office and has set record first week collection of 117 crores,surpassing best box office collection  of movies like 3 idiots and Gajhini.From a South Indian dictating superstar, Rajni Kanth's stature has grown in to a mesmerizing National superstar.But you don' t rate a movie best based upon the collections nor by the star-cast.And in my opinion good movie is the one which pleases your senses and which is a treat to watch  without compromising much towards the commercial elements.

Talking about the movie,the movie opens up with Dr.Vasi in the process of making a Andro-humanoid Robot.Finally he succeeds in making one(chitti) and the first half of the movie is occupied by the antics of the robot when an attempt is made by Dr.Vasi to check how the robot handles outside world.Interestingly  chitti doesn't comply to Asimov's 3 laws since its the ambition of Dr.Vasi to contribute it for a special purpose.Dr.Vasi finds an enemy in his mentor and coz of the troubles given by him to hinder Dr.Vasi's realisation of his ambition vasi decides to give emotional logic and feelings to chitti.

And this turns out to be a real path breaker which leads to unimaginable circumstances.What happens to chitti and Dr.Vasi forms the rest of the story.Many people said Rajni without his usual punches and mannerisms is a plus to the movie.But i guess to ask Rajni to act without  those elements is like asking sachin tendulkar  to bat at No.6.It never pays off,this scientist's role is too ordinary and in that Rajni's role is to merely  yell out at the Robot or to do tiresome dull romance with Aishwarya rai.Dr.Vasi fails to catch the imagination.

But Rajni as Chitti has rocked truly, especially towards the end he has belted out a fantastic performance in the bady robot avatar.If there is something that is completely  flawless in this movie,that has to be  Rajni's acting.Going forward one more plus is the visual effects.It needs a special appreciation and that too towards the climax it at least lives up to the build up given for the movie before the release.With out that movie would have been  much more somber jinx.ARR's music is handy with his usual brilliant numbers and a handy bg score.2.0 bgm towards the end is good.Shankar's meticulous approach shows in some parts like the usage of terms like Robo-sapiens,Andro-humanoid etc etc.

Moving to the negatives of the film i would say there two major components.One,weak storyline with lots of masala, commercial elements and two the build up.Talking about the storyline there is really nothing that is captivating.one can see lots of scenes inspired from I-Robot(a major part),bit of terminator and some say  from Matrix too.Dr.Bhora's death and the robot taking control looks like  pure adaptation from I-robot.One can't accept that its a sci-fi movie given the fact that it has been stuffed with this much commercialism.(No wonder why few of my friends updated that the movie was not that much good in Facebook after seeing first day show).Its coz of the fact that they  are made to see this half cooked commercial sci-fi flick after they have seen pure breathtaking sci-fi movies.

I wonder when Shankar says this is his 10 years dream.I thought he would have spent lot of time on the story and fine-tuned it.Thought that this would be his Masterpiece considering the repertoire he has.But this is not even close to his first flick gentleman in-terms of script.If the masterstroke had lied in the script then i think this would have forayed into international scene without doubt.His brilliance as an script writer has stopped after Mudhalvan i guess.

Coming to the second part i.e the build up given,i could very well say that has proved to be a niggle  for this movie.Over the top build ups has given a lot of expectations and when the movie doesn't live up to it,it proved to be a negative.More than these build ups about the movie,which one can live with and tolerate,there is one more annoying build up about the production house.In 1940s there was a producer called S.S.Vasan who set up Gemini studio's.He took a film called chandralekha with a budget of $600,000 which can be like 28 million in 2010.Even that great man never would have promoted the film portraying he is the face of the movie.Neither did i hear any other great producers like A.V.Meyyappa chettiyar nor the the likes of yash chopra doing those things.Even the highest budgeted movie King kong had not been promoted in such a way.But here the story is opposite.

Here MD(thats what they call) has been the man most sort after.He hogs limelight similar to Rajni.Another torture is from Sun Tv which -frankly- is quite understandable.They are habituated to give build ups to epic movies like sura,vettaikaran,singam etc etc(mokka padangaluke ipdina?) and why not to a Rajni flick.But they ought to consider that people watching are also human. Man!!! a function for audio release,one for trailer release, documentary for 1 hours on the opening day and the list goes on.(As premji says in saroja tamizh nattu makkalu romba pavam).

The peak is the cheap promotional stunt of Rajni visiting Bal Thackrey and calling him god has gone on to show how low these promotional tactics can go.Rajni in the trailer release said that he was asked to give interviews to north Indian medias as a part of promotion but he said he was embarrased to talk about his own movie.If he has that much unliking towards cheap publicity how the hell on earth he would explain this?.Being a hardcore rajni fan i personally lost my part of respect for him  when he apologised  some goddamn nobody so that his film kuselan can be released in Karnataka following Rajni's remark on Hogenakkal row.What ever...Finally after coming out of theater i knew two things.One this doesn't fall exactly under the genre of sci-fi film may be a kind of beta version of sci-fi commercial.Two this is not the best of Indian Movies absolutely not even near to the best.May be in terms of making and technicalities it might be a step ahead.But not the best Indian movie and all that.