Kumki by Prabu Solomon (Review)

Story: Village love story of an Elephant trainer and a Tribe woman. Usual first sight love but brought up in a very rural background. But elephant was an important aspect of the movie. touched on love for animals and preservation of ancient culture. A very simple story with lengthy plot.

Cast: Vikram Prabhu (Son of actor prabhu) as Bomman, the elephant trainer of a tame elephant named Manikam. This is his first movie and it was a good step stone. For a newcomer he performed very well. He was deep into the character. Lakshmi Menon of Sundarapandian fame as the lead lady. she played Alli the tribal leaders daughter. A bubbly character and sweet approach. She did her part very well. And then we have Thambi Ramaiah to handle the comedy. He is the king of humour. He will make us laugh just with one liner. And Ashwin Raja as supporting role. Not forgetting the elephant the main character in the movie. 

Screenplay: Of course story was good but the director was buying time with songs to make us anticipate the grand climax. But the climax is not as grand as anticipated and an open ended climax. The comedy of Thambi Ramaiah worth watching. it was awesome. But towards the second half the movie suppose to come to an end but prolonged with songs. Songs visual was good. Good choice of location, the beauty of nature will capture your heart. The cinematography is good, the shading especially. At a point it seems like the director was rushing to end.

Music: The music is by D.Imman, already a chart buster. The songs made the movie more smooth and romantic. The BGM was awesome.

Plus Point: Cinematography, Comedy, Music

Minus Point: Plotting, Climax.

Verdict: Can be watched only once in cinema.

Neethane En Ponvasantham by Gautham Vasudev Menon (Review)

Story: A well portrayed realistic romantic drama. Love and hustle bustle of life. A very good story and resembles a lot about a male and a female differences in defining love. The movie is musical. The story goes along with music throughout the movie. Sweet and soft dialogues, Gautham at his best after Vinnaithandi Varuvaya. Definitely a good benchmark for upcoming movies.

Cast: Jiiva as Varun and hero of the movie. Of course he is the best in his work. He played a good chocolate boy look. Just that he didn’t look so school boy at first, but his act from being college student till end was marvellous. Great gesture and body language extracted the romance out of him. Emotions when acting as a responsible son was his highlight act. Samantha as Nithiya, cute and cuddly. All her appearance suits her from school girl to an adult woman.  She portrayed her role as a girl who’s not good in making important decisions in life. We can see the maturity grows throughout the movie. Santhanam as Prakaash and a good choice to tickle our bones throughout his presence. An important role and kept the momentum of the movie going with his comedy. 

Screenplay: First thing to notice is the cinematography. First class work. The camera angles and rotation were awesome. Second is the dialogues, Gautham Menon is the man of the match. A lot of striking one liner which will get your attention. The beauty of the movie is that making it as realistic as possible. There were couple of scenes which was taken in one shot to create the hype of the situation. And the most important highlight of the movie is our Maestro Illayaraja’s Music. This movie is more towards musical. The BGM really created a good mood throughout the movie. There was a scene which dragged the movie but the climax will be a trade off since it had a really good ending. Some new romantic elements but some were common. But overall it was great way of showing love. Some scenes had this usual Gautham touch, nothing new.

Music: The music is by Maestro Illaiyaraja and a very good plus point for the movie. All the songs were attached with movie very well.

Plus Point: Cinematography, Music, Dialogues, Story, Screenplay

Minus Point: Lengthy at a point, some stereotype element of Gautham Menon.

Verdict: A movie worth watching with your loved ones. Sure to extract the romance in you.

Naduvulle konjam pakkatha kaanom by Balaji Dharanidharan (Review)

Story: A comedy and thriller story based on true story. Since it is based on true story the story was realistic. 3 days event and a group of friends get things done accordingly. Quite a lot friendship elements included. Eventhough the director tried on Comedy but the suspense and thriller dominated the movie a lot more. Still there'll be a lot of scenes that will tickle your bones. 

Casting: Vijay Sethupathi of Pizza fame played the lead who loss his memory 2 days before his wedding. He was so good at his role. Repeating same things he said with same gestures. That was awesome. 3 of his friends stuck in trouble due to that incident played by newcomers bhagavathi perumal, rajkumar and vigneswaran. They were one funny group of friends stuck up don't know how to handle their memory loss friends who always forgets what he said a few minutes before. Gayatri also a newcomer played Vijay's lady love.
 
Screenplay: It has well planned plot. Yet the first half was too slow. The way the director bring up the movie was good because there are a lot of twist that will make us think how will they manage the situation. The comedy was good. Just the comedies were not continuous. So there were ample of space for drama and thriller. Since this is first movie for director, it was good actually. But putting the promo song of the movie in between the movie was a bad idea.

Music: The music was composed Ved shankar. The song is not a good highlight in the movie

Plus Point: story, screenplay , comedy and cinematography
Minus Point: Music, first half

Verdict: An average entertainer which can be watched once in cinema. 

Poda Podi by Vignesh Shivan (Review)

Story: A romance comedy. A flow of story from love to marriage for the lead. Good comedy,romance and drama. But the story gets a little bit inconsistent in certain portion. Added some moral value. Definitely not a movie for kids, it needs certain extend of maturity to accept things in the movie. Cute and funny from the beginning till the end.

Casting: Simbhu as Arjun the hero of the movie. He plays an orthodox man, particular about Indian Culture. Simbhu was just at his usual gesture. Not much of makeover or transformation in terms of role and performance. Maybe in terms of appearance he looked better than any of previous movie of course. Varalaxmi daughter of actor Sarathkumar debut in this movie as heroine. She is a Salsa dancer and one who used to western culture  Hot babe at most portion of the movie and some part she was fat. Good starter for her. She played her role very well. She would gain your attention through her dance, appearance and gestures. Supporting role played by VTV Ganesh as Simbhu's Chtapa, Shobana as Varu's Guardian. VTV Ganesh well handled the humour in this Movie as well. Since the movie revolves around the 2 main characters not much actors in the movie.
 
Screenplay: The movie had a good screenplay eventhough the story was just an average narration. Good mix of romance and comedy almost 80% of the movie. 10% was Drama and other 10 % was musical. Good choreography for song sequence, well picturized. The movie length was just nice. Only 2 hours. One scene might touch the hearts of many, about Varu giving Birth. But the movie is a very simple movie and not much of added value. There were some inconsistency in the appearance of both Simbhu and Varu due to time line of shooting. There were conflict between first half and second half plotting but it wont be that significant.

Music: The music was composed by Dharan and the songs are chartbuster. Superb music was an advantage especially the BGM.

Plus Point: Music, Comedy, Duration, Choreography. Screenplay

Minus Point: Inconsistency in appearance, no added value in story

Verdict: A movie meant for those who loves sweet and simple romance comedy movie like Leelai, Maid in Manhattan and P.S. I Love You. Those who want some comedy entertainer can try watching as well.

Thuppakki by A.R Murugadoss (Review)

Story: A tribute to Indian Army. Well planned script and good mixture of action,thriller,romance,comedy and patriotism. Director made quite a lot of homework on modus operandi of an army and Sleepers cell. The story could narrate a good and action packed fight against terrorism. Maybe the romance was not a highlight but it kept the commercial elements alive in the movie to avoid the script to remain serious. A little different from usual Tamil movie.

Casting: Vijay plays Captain Jagadish an Indian Army officer and Defense Intelligence Agency agent. It was a huge makeover for Vijay in terms of character. He was shown as a true professional in his field. Not much of his usual talking and more into action. We can see a different avatar in Vijay after so long. He was seen as one who can handle things in a smart way. Kajal Agarwal as Nisha his lady love. Hot and Pretty. All and all commercial heroine. Just a commercial appearance as a hero's companion. Not much essence to talk about. She will be there most of the time to fill up the gaps between every serious scenes. Vidyut Jamwal played a bad-ass villain in this movie. Had much more role compared to Billa 2. Hats off to him he made the movie to remain its momentum. Can be seen as fair fight for the protagonist. And we have some important supporting role, Sathyan as a police officer friend of vijay, Jayaram to handle the comedy as senior of Vijay in army and many more.
 
Screenplay: Beauty of the screenplay is the action sequence. Not so much of wire stunts. a lot more realistic stunts, Gunshots and free hand combats. It was obvious Vijay got some mild training to handle the fight scene. Don't have his KURUVI stunts. The cinematography of Santosh Sivan is the main highlight of the movie. The movie will have a very good projection of colours, shades and angles. The best of all was the Modus Operandi of Vijay as an Intelligence officer was remarkable. But still it has some "Typical Vijay Elements" such as too many songs especially his typical intro song and extraordinary elements in climax. The viewer can see a repetition of Ghillie scene in the climax. The song was well picturized but too many songs in the movie just pops up for every Kajal-Vijay scenes. The movie was lengthy due to the song. Surprisingly advantage of the movie is that they made Vijay act smarter in most circumstances which made him look like a professional. For an example small details like solving Rubik's Cube when thinking and his speech throughout the movie. The dialogues were superb. It was realistic and instant.

Music: The music was composed by Harris Jeyaraj, just average. The choreography for Alaika and Antartica song was good. Google Google song was average.

Plus Point: Stunts, Cinematography,Dialogues, the plot of the movie, 

Minus Point: Too many Song sequences, Lengthy

Verdict: An entertaining movie for all. Can be watched more than once.

Maattrraan by K.V.Anand (Review)

Spoiler Alert!!

Story: A very strong script with a lot of family value, Drama, Thriller and a little bit of Science fiction. It is quite different from any other K.V. Anand movies. But this director has a poor romance sense. None of his movie has good romance but always becomes a trade off for other elements. Same goes for this movie. But major portion of the story was misleaded from the promoted theme. A very emotional notation on blood relationship and public concern.

Casting: Suriya plays Agilan and Vimalan the conjoined twin. Two different entities with 2 different tastes. Vimalan is more of a subtle type with some justice and poetry in Mind while Agilan an energetic must try everything in the world character. Of course there is a benchmark for suriya to differentiate both characters. But unfortunately suriya failed to portray Agilan's character as it suppose to be. But yet he is a winner in Vimalan character, sweet, respective and revolutionary. Kajal Agarwal as the lead lady. She is hot and pretty in this movie.she didn't have much scope to perform because she just plays a regular woman. No added value in her character except for her ability to speak and understand Russian language. But definitely the chemistry between suriya and her didn't go that well. She looked older to him. Sachin Khedekar as father of the twins. a very important character. Well-played as scientist and a successful businessman and also the antagonist of this movie. And Tara played the twins mother. Nice portrayal of motherly love from the beginning till the end. Dr. Ravi Prakaash played an important bad-ass villain in the movie. Quite a lot of Russian casts as supporting characters.
 
Screenplay: Talking about the screenplay we should look from the broader view of the movie especially the technical aspects. the CGI used is known as motion capture tech, as we can see there were a few flaws in it. First thing is Vimalans head coordination and details. Most of the scene were obvious that it is a CG work. But some were unidentifiable. Should have been consistent. But suriya's body coordination was good. Can see some hard work there. The intro was super good as in the birth of the twins but after the intro songs the movie was a bit average due to poor romance scene. Humour was good as usual the comedy dialogues were natural. But most part of the movie resembled  7am Arivu due to some similarities such as genetics subject, dangerous disease, billions of peoples life at stake and the hope on hero to find the solution. Due to that the story diverted from the original theme of conjoined twins to something else. so you wont feel the purpose of having conjoined twins subject. The movie can be divide into 4 parts. the first part you will find the movie is draggy for having unnecessary romance, second part you will feel the value of family and blood relationship, Third part the thriller which gains your curiosity and it gets draggy again and last part is father son relationship and justice. Another weakness in the movie is the stunt work. Most fight scenes involves wire tricks which is so not K.V. Anand style except the twins fighting scene which was quite good. And Climax  action was poor. Too much tiny illogical acts becomes a flaws in the movie. For example showing Mankatha and Nanban showing at cinema at same time, the climax gun shoot scene, Father keeping the evidence rather than destroying it and a few more. But K.V Anand had a trade off for all that with valuable messages.

Music: The music was composed by Harris Jeyaraj, all the songs were well picturized. the transitions are better than Ko.

Plus Point: Story, Brotherhood relationship, The twins fight scene, Songs

Minus Point: CGI, Diverted second half, action scenes, romance, Lengthy

Verdict: An average entertainer, if you watch without expectation you will enjoy the movie. But definitely not K.V. Anand's Best

Mugamoodi by Mysskin (Review)

Story: A superhero movie in Tamil with good story unlike Ra One. Might have usual same elements as how a superhero was born but with the mixture of Tamil commercial elements and sentiments. Rich story with good connection of Kung Fu Martial art. Good action, different for a tamil movie to have Kung Fu as a Primary action tool. Nice romance and comedy. There should be 2 type of comparison for this movie, one with it's own nation movie Ra One and the other is with International movie such as Batman and others. Definitely in terms of good story line Ra One is far behind this movie. Will further explain in Screenplay.

Casting: Jiiva plays Bruce Lee the protagonist of the movie. He is also known as mugamoodi when he wears his suit. An awesome choice of casting for this character. He really knows what he's doing. He was well prepared with Kung Fu martial art and rocked the action sequence. He and his temper, body language and expressions are the plus point of the movie. Then we have Narain playing the villain named Dragon or Angamuthu. Well he was a bad choice of villain of course. Could have got someone like Vidyut Jamwal to play the role. His performance was not as convincing as his appearance. His makeover might look like a bad ass but the body language and acting was poor. The lead lady is Pooja Hegde. Pretty, Sweet and had a good intro as someone who fights for justice. But as the movie goes on she does not have much scope to perform. But she is the core reason how mugamoodi was born. Naseer played an intelligent cop who investigates the robberies done by villain's group. He is also the father of Heroine. As a veteran, he played his role very well. And then There are a supporting role, Girish Karnad played Jiiva's grandfather and one of the man behind the formation of Mugamoodi's costume and mask.

Screenplay: The screenplay was good. Using Kung Fu as Primary subject is the highlight of the movie. The intro and action sequence were well choreographed. The intro was awesome. But as we compare the movie with Ra One, Maybe it was less grand especially in terms of casting and visual effects but it has richer story line on how the hero was born and obliged to save lives. But just like all Mysskin movies, it gets draggy in second half towards ending. could have made it shorter. But the movie portrayed a lot similarities with Batman such as his sneaky moves, the costume and the villain was trying to be Joker at climax scene. Maybe the sneaky moves shouldn't be applied in this movie, it was like total batman plagiarism. But adding Kung Fu as his main weapon was a good idea. Make sense how he could kick those bad guys ass. The villain was a failure. Narain having hammer good idea. The makeover was good. But Narain acting maniac towards end, not a good idea. He was trying to be Batman's Joker. The movie was lengthy, could have cut out some unnecessary scenes . Yet most scenes added value to the Movie. Climax was lame. The action sequence during the beginning was grand and audience would expect something big for climax. But the way Dragon died, ultimate lameness. Should have made action packed kung fu fight and some conflict there. But there were a lot of entertaining elements in this movie. Such as instant comedies.  Definitely a laughing delight. Kanthasamy is not even close to this movie. Mugamoodi is a real superhero with good skill and power. The Vayemoodi summa iru da song was well picturized. The investigation sequence was quite good as well.

Music: The music was composed by K. Vayamoodi Summa Iruda is a chartbuster, it was good. Bar anthem was picturized just like kanathaasan kaaraikudi. Other than that quite good BGM for a newcomer.

Plus Point: Story, Action, Jiiva's performance, Vayamoodi song, turning point

Minus Point: Bad villain, bad climax, draggy second half.

Verdict: An entertaining supehero movie. A good starterpack for tamil superhero movie. Worth watching at cinema.