Movies Around You

Cast: Aishwarya Rajesh, Sathyaraj, Siva Karthikeyan Music: Dhibu Ninan Thomas Direction: Arunraja Kamaraj Kanaa (Dream) is a sports drama film about a girl from a village who dreams to play for India. She wants to play because her father cried seeing India losing the match and she wants to make India win eventually make her father happy. There are quite a few sports films in India, so writing a sports film is challenging as protagonist or his/her team will eventually be the winner. Arunraja Kamaraj tries to make this narrative enjoyable with interesting moments. One of the beautiful moments is how Kousalya Murugesan (played by Aishwarya Rajesh) says how she saw cricket in her father’s face rather than television. And the sadness in his face (after India losing) inspires Kousalya to play cricket. It’s not just her who watches the match on his face; see her mom who just stares at him during the whole match in which her daughter is playing. Another wonderful piece of

Cast: Rajinikanth, Akshay Kumar, Amy Jackson Music: AR Rahman Direction: Shankar Shankar directing ‘Super Star’ Rajnikanth for the third time, and this time it’s a sequel to their magnum opus ‘Endhiran’. 2.0 brings back our favorite robot Chitti fighting the fifth force of nature. Before talking about the movie, please do experience the movie in 3D. The 3D was not just a gimmick but was organic in the movie. The movie’s visual effects is well done, making the 3D experience a must watch. Now about movie, Shankar dives straight into the story. The phones getting pulled to the sky, Dr. Vaseegaran wants his robot, Chitti to be approved to solve the problem. Well, in the same scene we get introduced to Dhina, son of scientist Bohra who is killed by Chitti in ‘Endhiran’. One of the weakest character in the film, but plays a major role in this film. It’s enough of the weakest character, let’s talk about the strongest character, our very own ‘Chitti’. He is amazing on scr

Cast: Vijay, Keerthy Suresh, Varalakshmi Sarathkumar, Radha Ravi, Pala. Karuppiah Music: AR Rahman Direction: AR Murugadoss Sarkar (meaning Government) is where Sundar Ramasamy (Vijay), CEO of GL Corporation comes to India to cast his vote. He finds out his vote has been already casted. He decides to deal this issue in court. He is called as ‘Corporate Monster’ and I loved the way he handled the court scene and the press meet scene. The problem is all these scenes get over in the first 20 minutes. What follows is Vijay's political ambition. If only AR Murugadoss had handled the rest, it would have been a film like ‘Mudhalvan’. But AR Murugadoss decides to help Vijay in his political campaign. When Vijay and AR Murugadoss joined hands first time (Thuppaki) was dedicated to Indian army, their second film (Kaththi) was dedicated to farmers and this film has to be dedicated to Vijay’s future political party. I am still confused how AR Murugadoss wrote this script. A

Cast: Ayushmann Khurrana, Tabu, Radhika Apte Music: Amit Trivedi, Raftaar Girish Nakod Direction: Sriram Raghavan *Spoiler Ahead* “This is a long story. Coffee?” the opening dialogues in the blank screen. The scene opens with a farm land owner trying to shoot a notorious blind rabbit. This has nothing to do with the film, until the writing connects the main story. The film is a complete circle, every character serves a purpose and has an ending. Even a small character like the neighbor kid who is curious to know whether Akash (Ayushmann Khurrana) is blind or not gets a good character ending. Akash is a piano player who blinds himself in seek of focus. His experiment of being blind to gain more focus becomes miserable being a wrong place. The entire scene where Akash goes to play piano in Pramod Sinha (Anil Dhawan) house is brilliantly staged. The cinematography with the piano background score brings audience to the edge of the seat. The story development till t

Cast: Dhanush, Aishwarya Rajesh, Samuthirakani, Kishore, Pawan, Andrea Jermiah, Ameer Music: Santhosh Narayanan Direction: Vetri Maaran Vada Chennai, Vetri Maaran’s dream project started its production stage in 2016 and it’s a trilogy about a group of people living in North Madras (Vada Chennai) spanning over 15 years. The first part of trilogy starts with a murder done by Guna (Samuthirakani), Senthil (Kishore), Velu (Pawan) and Pazhani. A narrative voice, by Vetri Maaran himself, narrates that this murder is going to affect everyone involved in it and persons who are indirectly involved, Anbu (Dhanush). The narrative is chapter wise, where each chapter establishes the relationship of Anbu to the murder. Vetri Maaran is brilliant in not revealing who was murdered. He takes us through the lives of the people and how the murder was done, why was it done and mainly who was murdered. He is genius in casting. The casting choices from Pollathavan to Vada Chennai is spot

Cast: Kathir, Anandhi, Yogi Babu Music: Santhosh Narayanan Direction: Mari Selvaraj Pariyerum Perumal (played by Kathir) says he wants to become a Doctor during the admission in Law College. When told he cannot become a doctor studying Law, he says “He doesn’t want to become medical doctor, rather Dr. Ambedkar”. We know we are in Pa. Ranjith’s film when we hear names like Ambedkar. But this time Ranjith is the producer of the film and Mari Selvaraj directs this beautiful piece of art. The story is situated in and around Tirunelveli district and with the help of cinematographer, Sridhar, Mari selvaraj portrays this story realistically with utmost honesty. Amidst the realistic portrayal of the story, Anandhi, who plays as Jyothi Mahalakshmi, has a quirky voice in the film, which totally undermines her performance. The characters are relatable, though Anandhi’s voice was annoying, her character is relatable. Kathir’s character is someone whom we would have seen in cla

Cast: Vijay Sethupathy, Trisha Krishnan Music: Govind Vasantha Direction: C Prem Kumar The batch of 1996, hence the title 96, is planning to have a reunion and all this is started by K.Ramachanran a.k.a Ram (played by Vijay Sethupathy). The film opens with ‘Life of Ram’ song suggesting us that Ram is a travel photographer. The song visuals also conveys he isn’t enjoying it as we Dhanush enjoys in Mayakkam Enna. Ram is the one who goes to his school after 20 years. The whole scene where Ram admires his school standing in front of the gate to entering the classroom to sliding fingers through the edge of the black board is such a nostalgia. And with Govind Vasantha’s background score you would want to live the school life again. It’s not the only scene where Govind vasantha’s background score gives an exciting audio visual experience. The songs are a chartbuster before the movie’s release. The ‘Kaathalae Kaathalae’ song’s violin, which itself gives a delightful experie

Cast: Vijay Sethupathy, Aravind Swami, Arun Vijay, STR, Jothika Music: A R Rahman Direction: Mani Ratnam *Spoiler Alert* Chekka Chivantha Vaanam(CCV) opens like is trailer, Rasool (Vijay Sethupathy) narrating about Senapathi (Prakash Raj). After the movie, when I think of it, it changes my view perspective of the film. The gagster drama written by Mani Ratnam and Siva Ananth (who also plays a role in this film) is a generic story of greed and revenge. But what made the change is the direction. Mani Ratnam once again proves why he is best in town. I always love the way he plays with emotional drama. I remember him saying in an interview that “Every film is a romance film”. This film is the romance of the three bothers. Mani Ratnam’s Agni Natchathiram was one of the most commercialized film and that happened to be a movie on brothers. CCV is again playing to the gallery film, but in Mani Ratnam’s way. He beautifully builds the drama. The scene where Lakshmi (Sena

Cast: Vikram, Aishwarya Rajesh, Keerthy Suresh, Bobby Simha Music: Devi Sri Prasad Direction: Hari Saamy, Hari’s second film and one of the best masala films ever made has its sequel after 14 years. Saamy2 (Saamy Square) is a proper sequel with a continuing from where the first film left.   This film opens with the story of first film, replacing the Trisha, the lead of first film, by Aishwarya Rajesh (who does not even fit to the role). I appreciate Hari for connecting the first part story to second part story logically. Before I talk about what I dint like about Saamy2, I would like to tell what worked for me. Vikram as Aarusaamy and Ramasaamy is flawless, carrying the whole film on his shoulders. I was convinced by the way he tries to justify the dialogue “Naan saamy illa, bootham” (I am not Saamy, Ghost). Bobby Simha is amazing as antagonist and another reason this passable film was entertaining. But his name is Ravana Pichai and I was like why should one alwa

Cast: Harish Kalyan, Raiza Wilson Music: Yuvan Shankar Raja Direction: Elan Pyaar Prema Kaadhal is a regular rom-com film that comes every year, but there is something that makes this film an enjoyable watching experience. That's direction. Elan, the director, shows the regular scene in an interesting way. Look at the opening scene where Sree's( Played by Harish Kalyan) parents are registering him for a matrimony site. Her mother is curious to know whether the girl registering for them is married or not. When she asks, the girl replies love marriage. Elan establishes Sree's mother is against love in just one shot. He portrays the dramatic scenes, more subtly. The scene that comes in later half, where Sree and Sindhuja (played by Raiza Wilson) breaks up is beautifully staged during a dance show. The parallel of their story and stage dance with Yuvan Shankar Raja music makes the scene beautiful. Yuvan Shankar Raja’s background score enhances Elan’s directi

Cast: Nayanthara, Atharva, Anurag Kashyap, Raashi Khanna Music: Hip Hop Thamizha Direction: Ajay Gnanamuthu Ajay gnanamuthu’s debut film ‘Demonte Colony’ was a brilliant horror film that happens inside a small house. That film did not have any flavor of AR Murugadoss, with whom he worked as assistant director. His second and the discussed film, ‘Imaikka Nodigal’ has a few flavors which is similar to Murugadoss’s films. Let’s start with the antagonist’s characterization. Here it’s Rudra (played by Anurag Kashyap). He loves killing (though he has other motives) as similar to Murugadoss’s Spyder antagonist, Sudalai. Ajay’s screenplay is well written with twists as Murugadoss’ screenplay. AR Murugadoss film usually will be logical and suddenly we start questioning the logic. Imaikka Nodigal had the same problem. The title Imaikka Nodigal, meaning blink less eye, is beautifully justified in the story. The film is well written. Rudra narrates a story to Anjali (pla

Cast: Prithiviraj Sukumaran, Nazriya Fahadh, Parvathy Music: M. Jayachandran, Raghu Dixit Direction: Anjali Menon Anjali Menon’s Koode (Meaning With) revolves around Joshua (played by Prithiviraj Sukumaran) and his emotional journey he experiences. Anjali Menon’s ‘Bangalore Days’ and her written film ‘Ustad Hotel’ gave an emotional experience and Koode is nothing short of that experience. The bond between each character in the movie is amazingly portrayed. Malayalam cinema always uses the characters effectively. Even in Koode, Joshua’s grandmother who has two scenes will create an impact. The movie starts with Joshua, who is working at Gulf, receives a phone call from his father and we see him travelling to Kerala. The film cuts to the childhood of Joshua, where he picks up a nest that is fallen and places it carefully on the tree. Joshua is the caring person, who loves his family. This attribute is established in one scene mentioned above. In his childhood Josh

C ast: Kamal Hassan, Pooja Kumar, Andrea, Rahul Bose Music: Ghibran Direction: Kamal Hassan Kamal Hassan written and directed spy thriller, Vishwaroopam was released in 2013. The film appealed to me at the first watch, and repeated watching made me fall in love with the writing and direction of the film. The sequel of it has finally released after five years. Is this five years matter? Unfortunately yes. The film was on and off in production due to financial problems, which is very well reflected on screen. To start with, the graphics in this is poor, very poor to Kamal Hassan’s standards. Many screens are shot in green mat and it’s so evident to us. It aches to see such a poor visual effects in Kamal’s movie. The music for the first film was Shankar Ehsaan Loy and this sequel is by Ghibran. The songs are good, but the background score seems to be rushed or under used. Let set aside the visual effects and background score, the writing is itself suffers after

*Spoiler ahead With Vishwaroopam 2 scheduled to release around this weekend (Hopefully, considering all Kamal films face release issues), I decided to write on the things that I loved in Vishwaroopam. Vishwaroopam 2 is a prequel as well as a sequel to the 2013 release Vishwaroopam. Kamal Hassan as a writer and director has always impressed me more than the actor. Vishwaroopam is a treat for someone like me who likes the writer Kamal Hassan. The story of Vishwaroopam starts with Nirupama (Pooja Kumar) talking to her counselor about her relationship with Vishwanath (Kamal Hassan) and her secret relationship with Deepak (her boss). Kamal Hassan’s writing is clever. See how Nirupama refers to him to her counselor, as Wiz, which is short from of his real name Wizam Ahmed Kasmiri also for his spy name Vishwanath. Only a very few actors have command over their body. Kamal Hassan has mastered it. The transformation scene, where he fights after being innocent works every tim

Cast: Vijay Sethupathy, Yogi Babu, Madonna Sebastian, Sayesha Music: Sidharth Vipin Direction: Gokul After ‘Itharku thane aasaipatai Balakumara’, Gokul is directing Vijay Sethupathy. In the later film, Vijay Sethupathy was a local goon and in Junga he is a don. In both the films, the character is note-worthy, but the film lacks the screenplay. The idea of stingy don is unique and interesting. Vijay Sethupathy nails his performance as a stingy don, Junga. The problem with Junga is that the idea is interesting, but Gokul fails to explore it both writing wise and direction. The film opens with a senior police officer ordering his junior to encounter Junga. Next, we see the junior police officer and a constable afraid to wake up Junga is prison. We get that Junga is don, for whom even the police fears. But, throughout the film he is not portrayed as a dreaded don rather a don with comic sense. The stingy don concept and along with Yogi Babu has bought a lot of hila

Cast: Tovino Thomas, Aishwarya Lekshmi, Illavarasu Year: 2017 Music: Rex Vijayan Direction: Aashiq Abu It took me hours to come out this film. Mayaanadhi is a type of film that traps you into its world and leaves you enthralled. In the opening sequence we hear Maathan (Tovino Thomas) taking about his future and we see sky as the visual. The future is vast and so far away like the sky. Mayaanadhi is a romantic thriller. The romance of Maathan and Aparna (Aishwarya Lekshmi) is just amazing and used wonderfully to the crime part of the film. Tovino as Maathan not only looks good but also his acting is brilliant. His small facial expressions like getting frustrated for a phone call or while motivating Aparna over call adds value to the character. Aishwarya Lekshmi as Aparna Ravi is also brilliant on screen. I loved the scene where she slaps Maathan, walks away fast, and then gradually slows down till she stops. One of the biggest things that Malayalam cinema doe

Cast: Shiva, Ishwarya Menon, Sathish Music: N Kannan Direction: C S Amudhan Tamil padam, a film which was released in 2010 was a path breaking film. It was a spoof of most iconic Tamil films released until then. C S Amudhan, the director, had started the second film named ‘Rendavadhu Padam’ which was dropped for various reasons. Now he has come up with the sequel of his first film. Tamil Padam 2 gives a lot more enjoyable spoofs than its prequel. The variety in the spoofs in unimaginable situations makes the movie entertaining. From the Agila Ulaga Super Star title card to end credits, there is non-stop spoofs. I was surprised to see a continuous spoof on Devar Magan. The death of Shiva’s wife is related to death of Sivaji Ganesan, there is a scene where the bridegroom runs away and Shiva steps up to marry her and finally the climax. This stood unique to me among the scattered spoofs. Another interesting spoof was of Iruthi Suttru, which was well sink with the lyric

Cast: Jeyam Ravi, Nivetha Pethuraj, Aarav Ravi, Vincent Asokan, Jayaprakash Music: D.Imman Direction: Shakti Soundar Rajan A film on bank robbery next a film with a dog, then a film with zombies and now a space film. Shakti Soundar Rajan is trying out different packages for a similar commercial plot. If you had checked out the trailer, you would know the single line plot of it. For those who dint, check out the trailer. This simple plot is saved by screenplay and the visual effects. The screenplay is engaging enough and do not expect out of the box twists. I was not bored all through the film (I never minded the logical flaws as I considered this as a commercial film). Shakti’s previous film, Miruthan, was a disaster to me. The melody song when the characters are surrounded by hundreds of zombies was disgusting. I am thankful that this film does not have so bad commercial elements. Shakti sticks to the narration without any unwanted scenes. The visual effects a

Cast: Varun Dawan, Banita Sandhu, Gitanjali Rao Music: Shantanu Moitra Written by: Juhi Chaturvedi Direction: Shoojit Sircar Love, one of the trickiest emotion and often showed in a clichéd manner is so refreshing in this film. Juhi Chaturvedi has written a beautiful story about love and with Shoojith Sircar’s elegant direction, October is a heart-warming film. Danish Walia(played by Varun Dawan), called ‘Dan’, is a hotel management internee at a five star hotel.   His co-worker, Shiuli Iyer(played by Banita Sandhu), accidentally falls off from 30 feet height. Shiuli Iyer slips into coma and Dan’s character undergoes a transformation. Dan has temperament issues, while working as internee and later he becomes mature. Varun Dawan has completely transformed into Dan, as I could witness the character than the actor. Banita Sandhu’s performance emote the audience’s emotions. The scenes where she responds are heart-warming. The screenplay is well written and doesn

Cast: Rajini, Nana Patekar, Eashwari Rao, Huma Qureshi, Samuthirakani Music: Santhosh Narayanan Direction: Pa. Ranjith Pa. Ranjith’s films always talk about humanity and equality directly or in a subtle manner. Kaala talks about land acquisition from the people of Dharavi. Ranjith has his own share of screen to tell his ideologies, but the way he intertwined the ideologies with Rajini’s style and his screen presence has to be appreciated. He finally found the screenplay for his type of film and Rajini’s type of film, which he couldn’t in their previous film ‘Kabali’. Ranjith’s dialogues stand out really well. I really loved the dialogues when one of his sons decides to leave the house and the dialogues in later scene where his other sons also want to leave Dharavi. The whole Dharavi set is built beautifully and gives a realistic feel to us. The place is of Periyar statue, Ambedkar photos and Bhuddha temple. You even see a book named ‘Rama Kaaviyam’ (meaning Ram poe

Cast: Vishal, Arjun, Samantha, Robo Shankar Music: Yuvan Shankar Raja Direction: PS Mithran Irumbuthirai is translated as ‘Iron Curtain’. I was expecting it to be an analogy to something, but it was a direct meaning. Except this the whole film had satisfied my expectations. Irumbuthirai was like a small portion of cyber war. The way the characters are established followed by setting the main plot and finally the face off shows the clarity of PS Mithran. The film has only a few main characters and there is casting is perfect. My pick of the lot is definitely Arjun (plays Sathyamurthy aka White Devil). Arjun, who is fondly called as ‘Action King’ gets only one fight and he is the person who prefers intelligence over physical fight. In his limited screen time, he pulled off his character amazingly. The first half revolves around Kathiravan (Vishal) but also beefs up the character of White devil and Arjun sweeps off your feet since the interval. Kathiravan, a milit

Cast: Mahesh Babu, Kiara Advani, Prakash Raj, Sarath Kumar Music: Devi Sri Prasad Direction: Koratala Siva Bharat (Mahesh Babu), a five degree holder comes to India from London after hearing the news of his father’s demise. Raghava (Sarath Kumar) is Bharat’s father and the Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh. Varadaraj (Prakash Raj), a close friend of Raghava wants Bharat to be the next Chief Minister. He becomes the Chief Minister. In the first scene of the film, Bharat answering to the question why he has five degrees that he does not know many things and want to learn. That’s some solid writing by Koratala Siva. He takes up the CM post because he does not know anything about it, which he honestly admits at first day of his charge. Another well written and edited scene is when the young Bharat eats ice cream breaking his promise to his mother. The following advice on promise becomes Bharat’s life principle. The scene one expects someone saying Bharat has not eaten

Cast: Prabhu Deva, Sananth Reddy, Indhuja Music: Santhosh Narayanan Direction: Karthik Subbaraj Karthik Subburaj’s Mercury starts unwrapping from the title card with animations and newspaper headlines about the tragedy of mercury poisoning. Karthik puts out things at first, which we will later come back to it in the film. We see five friends (hearing and speech impaired due to mercury poisoning) who are enjoying their togetherness with loud music which annoys their servant in the house. I felt this as an analogy to how Prabhu Deva gets annoyed by sound in later half. Karthik Subburaj’s writing is fantastic. The emotional story with mercury poisoning and it’s victims as backdrop is amazing. I really loved the way he gave importance to small items like iPod, a stop watch. The direction is brilliant with scenes bringing everyone to edge of the seat. One of my favourite scenes is when one character sees a broken egg in the nest and later we see a small chick limpin

Cast: Soubin Shahir, Samuel Abiola Robinson Music: Rex Vijayan, Shahabaz Aman Direction: Zakariya Samuel, the star player of ‘MYC   Accode’- a local 7s football team, is from Nigeria but everyone assumes that he is from Sudan and call him Sudani/ Sudu. The film opens with football commentary over the titles followed by a football match. We come to know the popularity of Sudani and think it’s about this player’s football journey. But it’s more an emotional journey with Sudani. Majid (played by Soubin Shahir) is the manager of ‘MYC Accode’ team, who pulls of a brilliant performance in this film. I really loved his performance in two scenes. One is the interval scene where he gets angry with Sudani. Another one is the later scene when he feels sorry for that. The scene where Majid and his friend bring alcohol for Sudani and breaks the bottle. Majid goes out of the room and comes back as a casual onlooker. It is one of the most hilarious scenes in the film. T

Cast: Jothika, G V Prakash Kumar, Ivana Music: Illayaraja Direction: Bala Fifteen minutes into the film you don’t feel like watching a Bala’s film. His films always have a strong content with a hard hitting narration. Naachiyar has a strong story but his narration is light hearted. The humour throughout the film is naturally staged and enjoyable. I loved the one liner when Naachiyar’s husband tells “moraikatha.. nee summa paathale moraikara mari than irukum” to Naachiyar (Jothika). The light hearted humour does not take away the impact that the director intends to create. The climax scene is something which one can experience only in a Bala’s film. There was some criticism like ‘How could Jothika use swear words?’ after teaser released. While watching the movie, one would think ‘Why did they mute it?’.   I loved the scene where Ivana boards a bus to Villupuram and constantly asks the bus conductor about the travel duration. The scene is funny and you also empathize

Cast: Jeeva, Jai, Mirchi Shiva, Nikki Galrani, Catherine Thressa Music: Hip hop Thamizha Direction: Sundar C The one line plot of Kalakalapu 2 or any Tamil comedy films is simple and the story always involves searching of as expensive item in the wrong person’s hands. Kalakalapu (the first one) had some emotions in the story (changing the hotel) along with comedy. But Kalakalapu 2 is just about comedy. This full length comedy story involves an ex-minister in search of his auditor, Jai in search of his ancestral house and Jeeva in search of someone. This film has a lot of characters and everyone is in search of someone/something. Sundar C has efficiently managed all the characters in a way that each character makes you laugh in at least one scene. Even with many characters the screenplay is not gripping. It’s like a wave with one great comedy followed by a mediocre comedy. I really loved the scenes of Radha Ravi with his assistant and a chase in second half. Aft

Cast: Suriya, Keerthy Suresh, Ramya Krishnan, Karthik Music: Anirudh Direction: Vignesh Shivn The wall posters of ‘Thillu mullu’, ‘Varumayin Neram Sivapu’ and other artefacts set the mood of the film to 1980s except Suriya’s costumes. The film opens with RJ Balaji in an interview getting rejected for job as he does not have money to bribe the selection officers. Simultaneously we see Tambi Ramaiya (who works as peon in CBI) requesting his higher officers to go easy on his son in his interview. HIs son is not RJ Balaji, its Suriya. Both end up getting rejected, but I could empathize with Rj Balaji’s character more than Suriya’s. Kalaiyarasan plays as Suriya’s friend who wants to be Police, but falls prey to corrupt section process. But I really loved his character and his story, which I enjoyed than whole film’s story. The reason why I could not empathize with Suriya is because he takes power into his hands and becomes Robin Hood. The film becomes heist genre but sti