Wednesday, June 26, 2013
Sunday, June 16, 2013
Soodhu Kavvum Review
Weather is changing in the East Coast and I was pretty tired after running a few personal errands. When I read into the listings Soodhu Kavvum alongside a few other Bollywood flicks, I was in two minds – whether to risk or not risk.
I took the gamble and decided I need to rehydrate myself with some soda.
To my shocking surprise what a funny delight, Soodhu Kavvum turned out to be!
I’ll start this out with a song “Comena come Comenatti go”. While the tune was not so catchy, the song was hilarious with its lyrics!
To me it sounded like an audacious statement to the audience “if you’re interested come watch this flick or else go fuck yourself”.
Now that is some real confidence of director Nalan Kumarasamy!
Story
Three guys fuck things up in life their own ways.One gets kicked out the village for building a temple for …guess who!? Yeah, that hideous monstrosity Nayanthara in her “Billa” Tomb Raider get-up.
The second fella get fired for taking a jolly ride in a Jaguar when he’s actually supposed to park the car.
The third guy gets black-listed and fired from a decent job.
Now these three jobless blokes are recruited by an ethical kidnapper — pussy Das who has five striking rules about his profession including his spelling mistakes. Their adventure begins when they plot a kidnap by breaking rule no 1 – “Never fuck with bigwigs or politicians”.
To Das & Co’s misfortune that politician turns out to be the most straightforward guy in the whole world, literally (even grandpa “Indian” should seek his advice about discipline and ethics) — that his own son plots his own kidnapping for a wealthy living.
What follows, which I don’t wanna spoil for those who have not seen
the film, is a non-stop fun ride that left me in splits until the end.Casting & Performances
Almost all faces were new to me except M.S Bhaskar and Radharavi.I can’t remember seeing Vijay Sethupathi in any movie before. He irritated me in the first few scenes with his dialog delivery but once the relationship between him and Sanchita Shetty gets revealed, I liked him a lot. Vijay Sethupathi got some swag and can effortlessly beat down “Ilaya Thalapathi”, “Ultimate Star” and oh yeah… “Singam” Surya.
This fella doesn’t need to learn to dance, or any of those silly stunts.
The casting of M.S. Bhaskar’s son is definitely worth a mention. He looks a lot like M.S. Bhaskar.
The casting of Yog Japee as the “psycho” cop Bramma is hilarious! He looks serious — very, very serious and cruel. But they’re all funny.
The situation plays out so well!
Screenplay & Dialogs
While there are so many one-liners that are memorable, my favorite is the one when CM Radharavi offers his own funds to M.S. Bhaskar to save his son saying “un payyan uyir oosalaaduthu…innum yen ya unakku indha “nermai” kusumbu”? (When your son’s life is in a big dodo then why would you still stick with your fucking “honesty” agenda?)The twist that comes close to the end driving the main four leads to their lowest point is cleverly worked out and brilliant!
Thematic Resonance
While some might criticize the negative shades of the overall theme in the movie, I see some whining and complaints.“I give a rat’s ass,” as Brad Pitt puts it, whether the theme is negative, positive or neutral.
* I was thoroughly entertained and had my dollars’ worth!
* What Nalan Kumarasamy has shown is the truth!
Rating!
It is good movie every one has done there part ,I won’t use big words like “masterpiece”, “gem”, “pure cinema” etc to praise this film.I doubt this film would even make it to the “awards” section as most people who bestow these awards are truth haters
I doubt it’d even make it abroad as the concept would only fit in India.I guess hence the apt title “Soodhu Kavvum”
While Kollywood filmmakers tend to deteriorate by causing ‘Post-traumatic Stress Disorder’ in the minds of gullible Tamil audience by dishing out drivel after drivel in the name of entertainment, Nalan Kumarasamy has boldly come out with a high-concept situation comedy that’s a welcome relief.
Soodhu Kavvum is still running in select theatres in the
INDIA
I would cheerfully recommend this film!
Saturday, June 15, 2013
Actor and director Manivannan passes away
Actor and director Manivannan, who enlivened many Tamil films in the last two decades in character roles laced with comedy, died of a heart attack at his residence in Chennai on Saturday. He was 58. He is survived by his wife, daughter and son.
In a career spanning three decades, Manivannan went from being a story and dialogue writer for veteran director Bharathiraja to a successful director who thrived in experimenting with different genres, before becoming an actor who quite literally appeared in every second movie at the box office. It was only in the last three to four years that his health slowed him down. His career spanned over 400 movie credits as an actor and 50 as a director.
His 50th directorial venture ‘Nagaraja Cholan M.A., MLA,’ released last month to lukewarm response at the box office. He had finished acting in a few movies that are in various stages of post-production work. ‘Nagaraja Cholan M.A., MLA’ was in the same mould as his box office hit ‘Amaidhipadai’ (1994), starring close friend and actor Sathyaraj.
As an actor, the rustic looking Manivannan played mostly negative and comic roles. His strength was his dialogue delivery, which he admitted in various interviews was heavily influenced by veteran actor M.R.Radha. In a television interview, Manivannan said he considered himself a cultural heir of Radha, whom he also admired for his atheistic views.
An outspoken political activist, who did not think twice while taking on political and film industry bigwigs in public forums, Manivannan was also an ardent supporter of the pro-Eelam movement and an open supporter of the LTTE. He was also briefly a member of the Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam.
On Saturday, his body was draped in an LTTE flag and kept in his residence at Nesappakam, where leading film industry personalities and politicians paid their respects.
In his condolence message, DMK chief M.Karunanidhi recalled that Manivannan had directed the 1986 film ‘Palaivana Rojakkal,’ for which he wrote the script. “A talented person has left us all too suddenly,” he noted.
Director to actor
Manivannan’s three-decade long film career could be split down the middle: the first 15 years as a technician – director, script and dialogue writer; and the next 15 mostly as a character actor.
As a director, he made movies in different genres – from romance to thriller to drama – often ensuring that no successive films of his belonged to the same genre. His most brilliant successes came from casting unlikely actors in negative roles: actor Mohan was known mostly for his romantic movies before he was cast as a psychopath killer in ‘Nooravathu Naal’; and Sathyaraj had only just gone on transitioned from negative roles to hero, when he cast him as Amavasai, a lowly political worker who uses guile to climb the rungs of power in the State in the film ‘Amaidhi Padai’ (1994), which has set the standards for political satire in Tamil cinema. The film proved a smash hit and benefited Manivannan the actor, as he had cast himself as a sidekick to the ambitious and street-smart protagonist.
As an actor, Manivannan is best remembered for his role as the tongue-in-cheek aide to the Chief Minister in Shankar’s “Mudhalvan,” the bumbling landlord in “Avvai Shanmugi” and his twin act in Sunder C’s “Ullathai Allithaa” as the millionaire Vishwanathan and the villainous Kasinathan.
His friendship with actor Sathiyaraj translated to several memorable moments on screen. Manivannan was known to be a vociferous reader of books and along with Sathyaraj epitomised on screen what is colloquially known in Tamil as ‘nakkal’ (snideness).
Equation with ‘guru’ Bharathiraja
At many public forums, Manivannan has credited director Bharathiraja for teaching him the various facets of film-making. Bharathiraja had introduced Manivannan as a story and dialogue writer in his 1980 film ‘Nizhalgal’ that sunk at the box office despite its compelling story, music and performances. The follow up to that was ‘Alaigal Oiyvathillai’ the next year, which fetched awards both to Bharathiraja and Manivannan.
However, the two have had a very public falling out in recent years over political and personal reasons, and have both used public forums to hit out at each other. But in an emotional interview to FM radio station Radio City just a few days ago, Manivannan sought Bharathiraja’s forgiveness for all misgivings and insisted that no matter what he would always remain “Bharathiraja’s assistant”
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