Maestro's magic in Neethaane En Ponvasantham

Plum indha padathukku andha purandhara das-e RR pottaalum seri, Pritam pottaalum disconnect irukkum. Content is so vapid and lifeless. It is simply not interesting. Vehemently disagree. City elite urban hipster baadu solluvaan disconnect, vision lottu losukku nu.
Well, nothing against rahman but for that demographic, they can always go to elay keechaan peechaan kayya vechaan

Thinking back, as individual packages, the songs work for the situation. nInga ellAm(padam pAkkaDahvanga) ippO kooda Oliyum oliyum pArththA flat aayiduvInga. If you havent seen the movie, a trailer of the songs will definitely intrigue you and take you to the movie hall. In that sense, Menon hasn't let down Raja.

Think about it - most of the recent hits can be appreciated only at that level no?

This is in contrast to VTV, where the songs were picturised so-so(Simbu dancing with backup dancers, WTF?) but some of the songs integrated well into the screenplay and although the BGM was actually disappointing, the film hit the bulls eye as a whole and made up for it.

Here, the songs individually are decently well picturised, and the BGM is actually quite evocative. Only problem is for the movie to evoke adi pOLi reactions, Raja had to dumb himself down which he obviously didn't.

Bala - long and short of it is if the BGM had been dumbed down to HJ levels(A guitar strum here, riff there) it might have worked and connected to the youththu. The problem is lack of dumbing down. IR musicalA vaLarththu vutta audience illai ippO.

My problem is I can't appreciate this movie like I appreciate a Moonam Pakkam or a Avathaaram. I can watch those alone and they speak to me individually. For this movie to work, there has to be mass appreciation. Youth has to love it and fall for it - only then would it work for me individually too. Anything short of that - even if the fault lies with the youth for not upgrading themselves in rasanai - and it fails for me too.
I mean, I can still enjoy this one if I had the college audience around me reacted appropriately to Pudikkala mAmu(get on the aisles and dance), feel heavily for saRRu munbu and so on...but they won't. They want anjala instead of peNgaL endrAl poiyA. A rockish song like that expressing pain cannot be appreciated when there is a whole theatre of vitality-filled youth laying back goggle-eyed, unable to connect.


I am not getting my articulation right...

BTW, I didn't find anything wrong in Jiiwa or Samantha. Acting sodhaffal nu ellam solla mudiyaadhu

Yeah, it is like that abused phrasing "Whole is less than the sum of its parts".
I still think Nani would have done better than thiruvAththAn, though. He is not convincing as a thayir saadham(not a thayir saadham thayir saadham, but a Menon thayir saadham, if you see what I mean)

plum wrote:Bala - long and short of it is if the BGM had been dumbed down to HJ levels(A guitar strum here, riff there) it might have worked and connected to the youththu. The problem is lack of dumbing down. IR musicalA vaLarththu vutta audience illai ippO.
My problem is I can't appreciate this movie like I appreciate a Moonam Pakkam or a Avathaaram. I can watch those alone and they speak to me individually. For this movie to work, there has to be mass appreciation. Youth has to love it and fall for it - only then would it work for me individually too. Anything short of that - even if the fault lies with the youth for not upgrading themselves in rasanai - and it fails for me too.
I mean, I can still enjoy this one if I had the college audience around me reacted appropriately to Pudikkala mAmu(get on the aisles and dance), feel heavily for saRRu munbu and so on...but they won't. They want anjala instead of peNgaL endrAl poiyA. A rockish song like that expressing pain cannot be appreciated when there is a whole theatre of vitality-filled youth laying back goggle-eyed, unable to connect.


I am not getting my articulation right...

Got you. My point is this: Raaja has made content like dung immaterial by his RR a lot of times throughout his life. Here, I didn't care what he was doing with the BGM because it didn't matter anymore. Vaanam mella eduthukkuvom. Uyirai urunji edukkum andha chorus prelude lerndhu start aagudhu andha child episode. Vlaada varla kochikkaraanga cut panraan, vera edho pesaraanga, idhe loop. Totally not into it. 3 padam, andha ponnu debut direction, and extremely decent and passionate attempt that - I found THAT uninteresting!

Another way to explain my reaction to the movie: See if this works for you Bala;

Today, I was watching Kilukkam in the evening. I have seen quite a few times before, and though Malayalees worship it like we worship MMKR and Northies worship AApnaApna etc, it is not something that you can appreciate multiple times over. But I wanted to watch it along with my wife and share the jokes with her.

In today's watching, it would have worked for me only if it worked for my wife.

adhu mAdhiri, NEPV(in terms of movie-music connection, not the movie as a whole) didnt work for me because it didn't work for the youththu but it didnt work for the youtthu only because they weren't me...puriyudhA?

Plum
Mela post la sonna madhiri, totally get what you mean here

Vaanam mella eduthukkuvom. Uyirai urunji edukkum andha chorus prelude lerndhu start aagudhu andha child episode. Vlaada varla kochikkaraanga cut panraan, vera edho pesaraanga, idhe loop

nInga solRadhum vAsthavamA dhAN irukku...ipdi sollum bOdhE Suthish Comet accusation corroborate Agudhu illaiyA? adhu dhAn orE confusionA irukku....need to process this further before putting together something articulate.

nAn orE kuzhapputhula vAzhndhukittirukkEn chettiyAr madher

Though the film justifies with valid reasons why Varun and Nithya part ways at regular intervals, it appears corny. In one particular scene, for example, Varun parts ways citing the urge to do an MBA, to only reunite with Nithya after few years. Ridiculous! If Menon wanted to tell his audience how hackneyed most relationships in reality are, then probably he may be right. But, who would want to pay money, spend a few hours and be told something so banal?

Bala - from some review. I think indhALu correctA noolai pudichuttEn. idhaiyE thAn nAnum sonnEn -

He is true to his self here. This is self-indulgence. Likeable even for that aspect. But to what avail?

paatthaach...
songs thavira vaera onnumae illa padatthula...
remba pointless'a poittu irunch.. only the last half an hour was engaging... i dono if its only in the cinema i watched... there is not much of BGM in the first half... only dialogues... nee kondu vandhirukka montages'ku idhuvae jaasthi pO'nu soltaaplayaa?? kadasi half hour dhaan BGM irundhadhu.. songs were too good to listen in the theatre... not much trouble for me with the song situations... vaanam mella range'ku romba saadharana montages... apram the ennodu vaa vaa... i thot samantha is back in loving ways with jeeva and jus showing some jerk... her reactions were completely misleading... apram paatthaa avinga seralayaam... jeevas family is a total comedy... samantha'ku family irundhadhae enakku kadaseela dhaan therinjadhu... pudikkala maamu wanted something like a 'yaetthi yaetthi' picturasation atleast... theruvula erakki aada vitrukkanum...

Loved it.

Sincere, self-indulgent, subtle and undramatic. I mean not even a single scene was larger-than-life. But unfortunately that translates to 'boring' for most thamizh moviegoers and I completely understand that. One of those 'mood' films this. I mean you can simply sit and heckle or get drenched in the proceedings. The movie is sort of a failed attempt at making a Balu Mahendra-esque film. What GVM lacks is style, signature and control. And experience too may be.

I, for one liked all the conflicts. Most of them are silly yes, but felt so 'real' if you know what I mean. Nothing was exaggerated for the 'effect'. Jiiva was earnest but was very uncharismatic. Naani would have been better surely. Samantha was well very pretty and was good in the acting department too. Pwns Jesse who felt so artificial. Body language dhaan konjam, but that made her more believable and vulnerable. Santhanam was excellent. Genuinely funny after a long time.

Dint like Jiiva's family at all. Horribly acted bunch. And absolutely hated the role played by his dad in the climax. Sam's family OTOH (who appear only in the climax) was nice. Jeeva's monologue to the daddy was very effective.

Raaja, almost no scope for BGM, but the songs served the movie so well. This works as a better 'musical' than vtv. And am I the only one who heard a slightly modified version of the idhayam BGM in a couple of places? Biggest disappointment was the absence of a love theme. Various versions / portions of saainthu was played instead. And we got to listen to Raaja's version of the VTV-Lite too. There was an instantly catchy fun song.

Ramya NSK and Satru munbu in the climox, fantastic. Kaatrai Konjam was evanO oruvan vaasikkiraan lite. Beautifully conceived and shot. Koosepumps when Ramya goes naannannaannnaaa in the 2nd interlude coinciding with Jiiva spotting Samantha. Saainthu was picturized well too. And Gautham has actually gone to the extent of naming a minibus as 'Raaja'. Thank you sir for the respect given to Raaja and the songs on screen.

PS: Woip asingama thittittaanga, she dint like it at all.

me an my wife were of the uniform opinion that the movie needed a better dialogue writer.
Agreed that Menon wants to bring in some amount of 'natural' (seen and heard) feel to the movie - however
if the lead characters dont have any memorable lines - the drama falls flat. I dont mean punch line - but something
striking - like the "adhukku munnaadi" that Geetha says to raguman in pudhu pudhu arthangal - that makes the
entire fight memorable (a tad demonizing in some frightening way - but still..)

I also thought that the first person narrative style was not properly done . Sometimes it is off and suddenly in climax
Jiiva was narrating and that got me confused a little. The story however was a gold mine. I remember a couple in my college years
where the guy was madly in love and the girl was going along - however the girl cut the boy off towards final year and did her GRE
while the guy was polambing around abt the girl - net result girl flew off to US to study and settle and the guy was in the weak job market
of 1998 - 1999 before settling for some eno thaano job. This stuff is real - just that instead of eulogizing this if it had been done a little
tongue in cheek like Balaji Mohan in KSY - the net result would have been continuously engaging. Big opportunity missed and Raaja too has not done full justice - paatte poadhumnu nenachitaaro ennavo..

Some interesting observations..
There was tribute/nod not just to Alai payudhe and mani, but to Bala's pithamagan too - The trio on bicycle - classic nod to a classic shot by Bala..

NEPV can rival 'Ted' for worst movie of the year, what was GVM thinking, thisn't 80s to piggyback on music,
just lazy writing without a single event/dialogue or a shot worth munching on after the movie.
thank god for small mercies(Songs/Santhanam) else even viewing this would have been a laborious effort.
in hindsight GVM might pheel casting Jiiva was a mistake, inspite of his urban makeover he still suffers from E/TASMAC/north madras hangover, was hoping he would break into galeej mode after heartbreak. that might not been a bad option given his
firm grounding.

Liked it. Might love it more during revisits.

NiRaiya vishayangaL Nerd sollittAr. (Sooperb write-up!)

SPOILERS

The audience never tried to understand the emotional intelligence of the couple involved, me thinks. The stretch from meeting as college guys, family situation, break-up, 3 year gap, meeting again and going apart - those 40 odd minutes was excellent. That made the film. Before that and after that it was all downhill. Esp, the last 30 minutes was unbearable.

Guys being mad-romantic, girls being practical - turn the table around, Gautham scores there itself. Again making Nithya loveable (like how Jessi was - not Thrisa) - scores again. The way she declares her love and intelligence at the thaNNi tank scene - even her gestures before all that - and she growing into the tsunami colony teacher - her outburst saying this was *not* because of *him* - everything was just perfect.

And this is *definitely* a lovely tribute to Raja. Unabashed love declaration in two scenes vERa. Whatever BGM was served, was nice. And there was no need to go for BGM with all these eight songs. Pudikkala mAmu was totally unnecessary. sOlO violin la title song kEttu pullarichchu. Songs were well placed - except Vaanam Mella. I think both Raaja and Gautham didn't plan that episode well. (Wait, *now* you know why ennOdu vA vA sounded so appealing to kids)

Film belongs to Samantha. She was inconsistent, body language a bit overdone, all said and done - she tried and she was gorgeous.

More later.

AravindMano wrote:The stretch from meeting as college guys, family situation, break-up, 3 year gap, meeting again and going apart - those 40 odd minutes was excellent. That made the film.

Guys being mad-romantic, girls being practical - turn the table around, Gautham scores there itself. Again making Nithya loveable (like how Jessi was - not Thrisa) - scores again. The way she declares her love and intelligence at the thaNNi tank scene - even her gestures before all that - and she growing into the tsunami colony teacher - her outburst saying this was *not* because of *him* - everything was just perfect.

This. Well said sir. The break-up scene in mottai maadi >= that long lovely breakup scene in VTV after Simbhu returns from Goa.

Btw never thought the original-remix is part of the movie. Did Raaja himself do it? Sounded awesome. This is one reason to watch YVM to listen to the kaNmaNi remix.

My Telugu friends are praising Raja to the skies

Nerd - Thank you.

No, I don't think it is by Raaja. Chinmayi had tweeted during the teaser release saying that.

Rangar's take - http://baradwajrangan.wordpress.com/2012/12/17/neethane-en-ponvasantham-3455434576-7835/

-Nails how the lack of drama actually worked

-PSBB thayir saadham, imtiaz ali etc. on expected lines

I'm not reading any reviews as I plan to watch anyways

Gautam says women should watch it

இப்படம் குறித்து அறிக்கை ஒன்றை வெளியிட்டுள்ள இயக்குநர் கெளதம் மேனன், "பொதுவாக என் படங்களுக்கு பரவலாக எல்லோருடைய பாராட்டும் கிடைக்கும் , என்னுடைய 12 படங்களையும் இரு பாலினரும் ரசித்தாலும் ஆண் ரசிகர்களின் எண்ணிக்கை சற்றே கூடுதலாக இருக்கும. ஆனால் இது வரை 'நீதானே என் பொன்வசந்தம்' படம் பார்த்து விட்டு என்னையும் என் குழுவினரையும் பாராட்டுவோர் பெரும்பாலும் பெண்களாகவே உள்ளனர்.

அது இப்படத்தின் கதாநாயகி நித்யாவின் கதாபாத்திரத்தை நான் படைக்கும் போதே வந்த உணர்வுதான் என்றாலும், இந்த ஆதரவு என்னை மிகவும் உற்சாக மூட்டுகிறது. பொதுவாக காதல் படமென்றால் அது ஆண்களின் கண்ணோட்டத்தை சார்ந்தே இருக்கும் ஆனால் 'நீதானே என் பொன் வசந்தம் ' படம் ஆண் -பெண் இருவரின் கண்ணோட்டத்தையும் சார்ந்த படமாக உள்ளது. எனவே பெண்கள் பார்க்க வேண்டிய படம் இது. தயவு செய்து பார்த்து விடுங்கள்." என அந்த அறிக்கையில் கேட்டுக் கொண்டுள்ளார்.

teja, of the hub, says YVM is a hit in AP...

More news on YVM's success.
http://greatandhra.com/viewnews.php?...6&cat=1&scat=4

"Sources say with the kind of investment made on the film, this is a big hit in overseas and A centres looking at the figures. In Hyderabad main theatres like Sudarshan, the black market price is at Rs 200 per ticket. "

Been several years since Raja's film enjoyed this kind of success in Telugu. Sri Rama Rajyam was successful last year, but YVM is a much bigger hit.

http://charuonline.com/blog/?p=47

charu's review.. inthaalu enna psycho-vaa?? i like his consistency in trashing movies though...

Karthikeyan wrote:http://charuonline.com/blog/?p=47

charu's review.. inthaalu enna psycho-vaa?? i like his consistency in trashing movies though...

Apart from the fact that he has an agenda against IR (and would have bashed it even if he had seen it), here it's a reprint of some other pervert's vimarsanam.

He hadn't seen the movie it seems and still wanted to write about it. enna oru sincerity!

app_engine wrote:

Karthikeyan wrote:http://charuonline.com/blog/?p=47

charu's review.. inthaalu enna psycho-vaa?? i like his consistency in trashing movies though...

Apart from the fact that he has an agenda against IR (and would have bashed it even if he had seen it), here it's a reprint of some other pervert's vimarsanam.

He hadn't seen the movie it seems and still wanted to write about it. enna oru sincerity!

intha post mattum illa.. Kumki padatha thitturathukku oru post.. athulayum annan summa irukka maatraaru..

http://charuonline.com/blog/?p=36