Kadal by Mani Ratnam (Review)

Story: The story revolves around a character at a fisherman village. The theme was more towards a war between an angel and a devil. A hero centric movie and filled up with a lot of religious responsibility studies. Good mixture of Drama, Action, Romance and Thriller. Awesome storyline to enjoy every single rational behind it. Christianity was a backbone for the movie.

Cast: Gautham Karthik (son of yest year hero Karthik) played Thomas the lead man. An excellent performance for a beginner. His body language as an adolescent fisherman deserves credits. Good looking and he is prospective lead star. Thulasi Nair (Daughter of Yest year heroine Radha) Played Beatrice a childish and naive girl. But she did not have much scope to perform. Was just average looking girl with average performance. But her character was crucial. And then we have Arvind Swamy as Father Sam. Godfather of Thomas. a great comeback for him after years of break. he is still the best in terms of acting. proved he is always Mani's boy. Arjun in a totally different Shade. He is the Antagonist of the movie. It is good to see Arjun in this attire, you wont see usual Arjun in this movie. A character who claims himself as Satan. Meaningful supporting characters played by Ponvanan, Lakshmi Manchu, and many others. Lakshmi Manchu was there for a very short time but she was the turning point in the movie.

Screenplay: Mani is back with his cup of tea. Screenplay is the key word. The movie had an awesome screenplay. Seriously the Mani style is back. We didn't seem to get the same feel in Raavanan. A very important plus point was the dialogues & language usage. Simply superb. Every scene will gain your attention. The Intro scenes of the main character and the collage was artistic. But it was a bit musical when comes to romance. especially Adiye Song was not well picturized. And the editing of course was well aligned with screenplay. But there were glitches at the end when there is a big question mark what actually happened to Heroine in the climax. A very well taken scene was the climax fight scene. The sea storm scene looked so realistic. The message was clearly delivered. yet the very last scene was predictable. The BGM was a bid plus point to boost up the scene. 

Music: Composed by A R Rahman. 200% good.

Plus Point: Story, screenplay,cast,acting, editing, climax.

Minus Point: Adiye song, too musical romance scenes, small editing glitches.

Verdict: Awesome movie. Can be said Commercially good as well.. Worth watching more than once in cinema.

Vishwaroopam by Kamal Haasan (Review)

Story: A different genre story in Tamil cinema. Seriously it needs certain level of maturity to digest it. A terrorism based story with a lot of religious and family value. An action packed thriller with a lot of mature humour. A lot of research is done to make the movie as perfect as possible. The actual meaning of jihad is stressed in the movie. But the story to be left as a puzzle to its sequel.

Cast: Padmashree Dr. Kamal Haasan plays Vishwanathan a Kathak dancer with a mysterious background. He has another name but that would be a spoiler for the movie. No one can beat his acting. He plays a feminine character at first 20 minutes. That was the most convincing act ever to be played as a feminine guy. Contrast to that he was a real badass hero in subsequent scenes. Doing stunts at that age mind blowing. All credits to ulaganayagan. Pooja kumar is the lead lady. She plays Niroopama wife of Kamal in the movie. Now you know why the movie name is vishwaroopam. She is one hot lady. She looked so convincing in terms of speech eventhough she is not tamil literate. Awesome and cute acting. She added humour and romance in the movie. Rahul bose as the antagonist. The makeover was awesome. He looked really ferocious with his scars. Supporting characters by Andrea, Nassar, Shekar Kapur and many others. 

Screenplay: One of the best screenplay one will see in Indian film industry. Kamal made quite a lot of research to prepare a logic script. His preparation towards the movie, can be said best homework done by him. From kathak movement, pastho language, a terrorist modus operandi, nuclear science and car chasing scene. This movie had one of the best car chasing scene. His very first fight scene was well choreographed. An awesome intro for Kamal's heroism. A terrorist strategy to bomb new york city. One of it's kind. It's new how they planned to distract the cops. Editing was a zig zag where there were flashbacks fit in between. That would be slow runner but a meaningful one. The cinematography was awesome. They used a lot of 360 degrees rotation to give an action packed effect. And the CG was impressive. Never seen any Kamal movie given so much importance for CG. All the stunts were superb. Songs were along the movie so no time buying scenes. And fhe best is climax, giving hints on the sequel. It will sure raise your expectation for the sequel.

Music: Composed by Shankar-Ehsan-Loy. Good BGM's and the songs are already a chartbuster.

Plus Point: Story, screenplay,cast,acting, editing, stunts,CG, art direction.

Minus Point: Slow pace plot in flashbacks

Verdict: Ultimate movie and one of the best tamil movie in history. On par with hollywood movies. Can watch more than once at cinema.

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.