Movies Around You

It’s the end of a year. This year was filled with a lot surprises. Each film that I went with a huge expectation led to disappointment. The big heroes continue to graze the barren land and new directors/ actors presented us wonderful films. Good content films released at frequent interval quenched our thirst for good film. Another happy thing about this year films is that they started telling stories with strong women characters. The female characters/performances that I loved are Sshivada (Adhe Kangal), Aditi Rao Haidari (Kaatru Veliyidai), Anushka and Ramya Krishnan (Baahubali 2), Shraddha Srinath (Vikram Vedha), Andrea (Tharamani), Nayanthara ( Aramm), Anisha Victor(Aval) and Aditi Balan (Aruvi). The best male performance was surprisingly dominated by character artists rather than heroes. My favourite are MS Baskar (8 Thottakal), Raj Kiran (Pa pandi), Anand Sami (Lens), Madhavan & Vijay Sethupathi (Vikram Vedha), Vasanth Ravi (Tharamani), Barathi Raja (Kurangu Bommai),

Cast: Sivakarthikeyan, Nayanthara, Fahad Fazil, Rohini Music: Anirudh Direction: Mohan Raja Mohan Raja decides to narrate the core problem from the first scene. The narration dialogue in the opening relating genetic disorder and social hierarchy tells the director has brought us another social issue. The problem which Arivu (Sivakarthikeyan) face gets dedicated attention. The story and screenplay is written around the problem which get rids of unnecessary contents. Yet we get a duet song post interval which seems misfit. Arivu’s character is brilliantly written and its Sivakarthikeyan’s best in his career. He opens a radio station for his slum and he wants to awake his slum people from certain misguided things. This trait becomes huge as film progress and now he cares for whole nation. The stories inside the slum and the main problem get linked in a marvellous way. The scene that relates two different professions is amazing. The film has many characters and not

Cast: Aditi Balan, Lakshmi Gopalswami Music: Bindhu Malini, Vedanth Bharadwaj Direction: Arun Prabhu Purushothoman Before the film I glimpsed at the trailer, which I generally do for every film. This normally gives me an insight of the film or what to expect? While most of the films don’t deliver what trailer promises. Aruvi  is also on similar lines, but it's other way round, exceeds your expectations. The film opens up with an investigation about Aruvi ( Aditi Balan), which reveals her past ( The details are revealed from different persons like in the movie ‘Ctizen Kane’). As the past of Aruvi is revealed an ambiguity sets in and we seem lost at a certain point of time. But that’s what keeps us glued to the film and when everything is put together, we are into a surprise. The lengthy dialogue before the interval is brilliant and it can be called as female version of 'dialogue out of frustration' as male version is done by Sivaji in Parasakthi. ( coinci

Cast: Fahadh Fazil, Suraj Venjaramoodu, Nimisha Sajayan Music: Bijibal           Direction: Dileesh Pothan The story building in Thondimuthalum Driksakshiyum is what makes the film interesting to watch.  Prasad (played by Suraj Venjaramoodu, who became my favourite after this film) walks off from a drama saying that he will catch cold siting in the cold night. The next scene, in the morning, he goes to a medical shop to buy medicines where he see Sreeja (played by Nimisha) buying a pregnancy test kit. This makes Prasad gossip about her, which in turn makes Sreeja to talk with Prasad. This story building is supported by the cinematographer. Most scenes first introduce an atmosphere and then the actual scene relating to the story. Look at the scene where Sreeja’s chain is swallowed by Prasad (played by Fahadh Fazil) in a bus and the passengers decide to take him to police station. The next scene involves a person who fetches water as a punishment and pleading to an of

Cast: Siddharth, Andrea Jeremiah , Anisha Victor Music: Girishh Direction: Miland Rau Indian horror films have created a separate genre called ‘Horror Comedy’. I am happy that Aval is not a film of that genre. It’s a pure horror film though it opens with a love song showing how Krish ( played by Siddharth) met Lakshmi (played by Andrea) and fell in love. The cinematography was so wonderful with different colours that I wished the film could have been a rom-com. As the movie progress, the cinematography is well balanced; showing beautiful landscapes of Himalayas and frightening horror movements inside the house. The sound design is another feature that intensifies the horror moments. Just the sound without visual would even bring in some fear in you. The first half has certain scary horror scenes. Anisha Victor’s acting is wonderful, especially the interval scene, making Aval a dream debut for her. The interval feels like a climax, once it’s over it creates a cu

Cast: Karthi, Rakul Preet Singh, Bose Venkat, Abhimanyu Singh Music: Ghibran Direction: H. Vinoth A powerful antagonist makes a police story interesting. What if it’s a community rather than a single person? This film has one such group who is involved in highway dacoit across the country. The power of that group is established in a scene just after the interval. That village scene just brings out ‘OMG’ reaction. In order to know about their brutality, the dacoit scene will give you shivers (brilliantly executed action). This film is based on a highway dacoit case which involved series of dacoits between 1995 and 2003. This group is behind all the dacoits as well the crux of this film. The story for their behavior which involves history is brilliant and makes the film even more exciting. The only evidence across all these cases is fingerprints and how Theeran (played by Karthi) hunt them down? This cop story does not have high pitch punch dialogues which makes the m

Cast: Nayanthara, Ramesh, Vignesh Music: Ghibran Direction: Gopi Nainar I don’t know whether director wrote the district collector character to be women or changed it when Nayanthara was on board. Whatever it maybe, the female IAS officer has added the movie more authenticity. The decisions which Madhivadani (Nayanthara) takes towards the end of the film are emotional ones which we can’t see in a hero-centric films. We are used to hero diving into the situation, however tough it is, and completing the mission. The film is about the rescue mission of a small girl, Thanshika, who falls down inside an unclosed borewell hole. This is not that one day or one incident (like Gautham Menon’s hero tells) of Madhivadani, rather the issue is given more importance. So the most we know about Madhivadani is her name. The news channel debate that fills in the gap between two scenes is little annoying as it stresses the same point that of people of the village. The people o

Cast:          Vaibhav, Priya Bhavani Sankar, Indhuja, Vivek Prasanna Music:       Santhosh Narayanan Director:   Ratna Kumar Meyatha maan is Idhyam Murali’s (Vaibhav) one side love story. This comes as tag line in the title card. Idhyam  Murali is madly deeply in love with Madhu (Priya Bhavani Shankar) for three years but never confessed to her just like the hero of ‘Idhayam” movie. Hence the name. Murali calls his friend Vinoth (played by Vivek prasanna) and tells that he is going to commit suicide. At first Vinoth takes it lightly, later gets nervous and attempts to stop him. He goes to Madhu’s house and manages to stop Murali’s attempt. Later Vinoth, Madhu and his friend sit around a table. You might expect a flash back about how Murali stalked Madhu, but the director does not do it. Again after sometime, director teases us with a scene where it could cut to flashback. The film is more like a continuation to ‘Idhayam’ movie. Vaibhav is brilliant on screen, espe

Cast: Vijay, Kajal Agarwal, Samantha, Sj Suryah, Vadivelu Music: AR Rahman Direction: Atlee “Nee patra veitha nerupu ondru, patri yeriya unnai kekum” is the dialogue Vijay tells before killing a person and we see montages of another Vijay. This shows that we are going to witness a revenge story. There is another Vijay receiving Humanitarian award. So before finding why he is taking revenge, the director  fools around with audience brilliantly. We see one Vijay receiving award another killing in magic show and audience are confused whether it’s one Vijay or two characters. The editor has intelligently created this doubt with his cuts. Vijay gets arrested by Sathyaraj for a series of murder from medical background. Satyan plays as assistant to Satyaraj, who calls him ‘mani ah’ (I loved it as it reminded me of Amaidhi padai). The story revolves around Dr. Maran (Vijay) who is popularly called as Rs.5 doctor. Vijay as usual a bundle of energy, the intro scene is longe

Cast: Mahesh Babu, Sj Suriyah, Rakul Preet Singh Music: Harris Jeyaraj Direction: AR Murugadoss Shiva (played by Mahesh Babu) is working in Intelligence Bureau. His job profile is to tape phone calls of criminals but he likes to listen to the conversations of the public. He has even created a software that will alert him when someone utters words like ‘help, fear’ during their phone conversation. Shiva loves helping unknown people and in fact he wants to do only this desk job rather than high paying senior posts. Other than these there is nothing much in his character. “That one call come on April 28 th “, is the dialogue that Shiva tells to describe us that the call is going to start the story of the film. The problem is that this dialogue comes after 30 minutes of the opening scene. What until then? The same usual hero intro song, actress introduction, a duet song and fill the rest by yourself. But once the antagonist character starts to reveal (am talking only a

Cast: Vishal, Vinay, Prasanna, Andrea Music: Arrol Corelli Direction: Mysskin Thupparivaalan (Detective) is directed by Mysskin and Vishal plays a Sherlock Holmes type detective named Kaniyan Poongundran (an ancient Tamil poet). He wakes up from his bed, runs around his house frantically blaming lack of case to solve. An old woman comes to complain about her lost husband, to which Kaniyan answers in a way Sherlock would. You will get a few more Sherlock references but let’s set aside the fact that Kaniyan resembles Sherlock as Vishal has pulled off his role brilliantly and there are many things to concentrate. In the first scene a lightning kills a father and son, later a police officer gets killed by stroke and a small kid meets kaniyan complaining that someone has killed his pet dog. The wonderful narration ties all these unrelated scenes making it an interesting tale to watch. All these small knots tie as a big knot which is later loosened by Kaniyan. When kid

Cast: Vijay Deverakonda, Shalini, Rahul Ramakrishna, Music: Radhan Direction: Sandeep Vanga When the film gets over and while you walk out of the theatre have you heard a few people saying “It’s a normal same old story” (No one did for this film). Arjun Reddy is such a film with same old story. Arjun Reddy (played by Vijay Deverakonda, about whom I will talk in a while) is a topper in his medical college and a short tempered guy with zero anger management. He meets a first year girl, Preethi (played by Shalini) and they fall in love. What happens to Arjun after his love failure is what explored in a unique way. So this not a film that you can expect every year. This is a film that has a beautiful narration enthralling you for 3 hours. The initial scenes when Arjun frequently visits Preethi are a little surprising as Preethi never utters a word whenever he visits her. You start thinking what kind of love it is. But the love that Arjun has on Preethi is explained in

Cast:           Ajith Kumar, Kajal Agarwal, Akshara Hassan, Vivek Oberoi Music:        Anirudh Direction:   Siva Vivegam as the title logo suggests it’s a film where Ajay Kumar races with time. Ajay Kumar is an international spy agent, though he doesn’t do any spying work. His pertinacious character in the film which is relatable to the actor’s personal life (one who knows about him, basically fans) makes this character enjoyable to watch. Ajith’s physical transformation reminds me Amir khan’s ‘Fat to fit’ for Dangal. It’s disheartening that Ajith’s rigorous work outs are wasted in this film. Even before the title card, Ajay Kumar gets introduced and through the intro fight Siva gives us a hint about how the film is going to be. If you liked the first defying physics stunt, you might probably accept the rest of the stunts in the film. The film takes you to the time of 2006 as well as 2025. There are abundant clichés in the film and the use of technology gadgets, methods

Cast:            Vasanth Ravi, Andrea Jeremiah Music:         Yuvan Shankar Raja Direction:    Ram When Althea ( Andrea Jeremiah), a girl working in a corporate stands aside in shade to avoid rain and Prabhunath ( Vasanth Ravi) is sitting under the same shade. Althea’s mind runs all the news related to rape. Prabhu mind reads and tells “I am not going to rape you”. Prabhu opens up about his past and scenes later try to tell you this is yet another romance film. After the film, I would still call it a romance film but narrated in the most unique way. Their love is not disturbed because of different castes but different life styles. Althea and Prabhunath’s characters are brilliant and the way it changes as their life moves on (as film moves on) is beautiful and convincing. The film starts in a unusual way with Ram’s voice explaining why six women are praying that India to lose in the ‘India versus Sri Lanka’ cricket match. After you hear the explanation, you would t

Cast:            Hip hop Adhi, Vivek, Athmika, Vigneshkanth Music:         Hip hop Adhi Direction:    Hip hop Adhi Meesaya Murukku is neither complete fiction nor an autobiography. It’s somewhere in the middle so that audience can take what they want. The film is about Adhitya’s life (played by Hip hop Adhi) from school to independent artist. The story is simple and straightforward, yet it is enjoyable. Despite a known story the fresh actors, jazzy colors, innovative cuts make it a new experience. Vivek as Adhitya’s father and its delightful to watch the first scene where he talks a serious dialogue and in a matter of seconds change it to a comedy scene. I was impressed by the casting of school boy for Jeeva (played by Vigneshkanth) who looked alike the grownup Jeeva. Hip hop adhi has given a dream debut as an actor cum director. All the youtubers have done their part well to make this enjoyable. The only place where film was a little dragging was the senior-junior

Cast:            Madhavan, Vijay Sethupathi, Music:         Sam C.S Direction:   Pushkar & Gayathri Police in search of a gangster. Vikram (played by Madhavan) and his team is in search of Vedha (played by Vijay sethupathi). So is it a good versus evil story? It’s rather ‘what is good and what is evil’ story. Vikram utters a dialogue “Everything is in details” which actually summarize the script by Pushkar & Gayathri. Before telling about the depth of detailing, the script is a mind boggling puzzle. Vedha likes to narrate his story, but the brilliance in writing makes the story relatable to Vikram. The story is predictable at times, but it never moves as one predicts. Vedha replaces a guy who is right hand to a gangster. Anyone would expect a revenge from that guy. But the directors had something else. The film is a puzzle. To solve a puzzle, one needs details. Even a small burn on Priya’s hand (played by Shraddha Srinath) and a bruise on a photo is used to sol

Cast:           Krishna, Anandhi, Saravanan Direction:    Feroz Music:         R.H. Vikram Pandigai, a name for the gambling event where two men fight brutally and others bet on them. Velu (played by Krishna) is a hotel management guy who tries for job in abroad. When he faces impede, desperately in need of money for his job, he starts to fight in Pandigai. He joins it through Muni (played by Saravanan) who also in need of money. As the film moves on many characters are revealed and each one changes the situation in the story.  One among them is Karunas who plays a small role yet he enthralls all the whistle and applause of the audience in a single scene. The film is brilliantly written that even a minute frame counts. The interval scene where one could witness a nail biting fight which ends in a way that brings neither joy nor sadness. When the first half ends everyone could find oneself at the edge of the seat. In the second half the robbery scene is exuberantly ex

When one has his father as a successful film maker and he directs his first seven films, he is definitely has a edge over other actors. Though he has acted as a kid in some of his father’s movies, his first film as a hero is “Naalaya Theerpu” at 1992. None of his first few films were neither a box office hit nor critically acclaimed. In fact he was brutally criticized. His first breakthrough was for ‘Poove Unakaga’, 1996. Later his career was a roller coaster with humongous success and failure. Many quote him as a ‘Father made hero’ but the Star he is now is by his choice of family based scripts, effortless dance, excellent sense of humor and cute expressions (Where he rolls his tongue at the corner of the mouth). Vijay, the name itself depicts victory. He is always a producer’s hero. Through his 24 year career, He has acted in several characters that are close to any vijay fan’s heart and the common audience too. Here are 11 memorable characters played by Vijay, Poove

Cast:            Gautham Karthik, Sana Music:         Vikram RH, Vishal Chandrasekhar Direction:    Rajkumar Periasamy Rangoon, a place in Myanmar, from where Venkat ( Played by Gautham Karthik) migrates to Chennai. A few years later, he happens to go back to Rangoon for his work and everything changes. What happens next forms the plot of the film. The first half of the film lays the groundwork for the story. The director takes time to introduce the appropriate characters whereas does not waste much time in love.  The scene where Venkat goes to meet Natasha (played by Sana) after she knows about his smuggling activities. Normally there will be an emotional scene where actress blackmails the hero. Instead it is replaced by a beautiful mature conversation. Gautham Karthik’s artificial tan makeup looks a little odd. The film is filled with wonderful performances. The cinematographer has captured both Chennai and Rangoon pleasantly. The scenes involving smuggling is inter

Film making is a not a single man task and that’s why everyone gets excited when two creators join together for a film. This article is about the best moments of a director- music director combo who share their birthday on same day (Today). This director’s film made me realize that a movie can impact you  in a way that you don’t sleep or think about anything else. All these I realized at the age of 12 when I watched ‘Kannathil Muthamittal’ on the television. Years later I came to know about the brain behind the film, Mani Ratnam. If one writes a book about music in India or music around the world, he is inevitable. Many music directors can be claimed as king of background music, he was the one who used background music to narrate the film. Back in 1960s Hindi music was predominantly heard in Tamil Nadu. Annakilli, his film, changed everything from the type of songs to the musical sense of people. Illayaraja, as his name personifies he is the king (raja) of music. Ma