Recently Watched

Watched the 1993 film Aathma for the first time. The first 20 minutes interested and I thought this could be a fine film that went unappreciated. Couldn't have gone more wrong in my assessment. Interesting concept all right, borrowed from a novel, but absolutely horrendously executed piece of mind numbingly bull shit cinema. Only saving grace was Raaja's (and Karthik Raaja's) music and a few outstanding songs gone waste. The only sore point of the music was Mano singing a film version of Kamakshi Karuna Vilaasini and killing it with his soulless rendition  Why Raaja? Why?

I thought this could be a fine film that went unappreciated

if anything the movie had quite a following at that time, remember AV giving a glowing review. movie hasn't aged well, rajtv prints just kills it.

Wizzy wrote:

I thought this could be a fine film that went unappreciated

if anything the movie had quite a following at that time, remember AV giving a glowing review. movie hasn't aged well, rajtv prints just kills it.

Oh. News to me. I doubt it could have been considered a finely executed film even then. Interesting concept, not run-of-the-mill yes. But execution looks very silly today and seriously doubt it would have looked better 20 years back too.

Couldn't find a better thread to post this in. Thank me later.

Watched ThalaimuraigaL. Disappointing for a major part. There are a few good/touching scenes. But those are too few amidst a barrage of poorly executed amateurish scenes. Many scenes are redundantly repetitive and the film is a drag. Would anyone believe me if I said that for this 105 minute film? Second half nadula padamE thoongiduchOnu thONichu. And that wouldn't be a problem if the maker had an artistic hold through the film. inga adhuvum illa. sodhappal stuff from BM. Sadly, he does look past his prime in film making.

PS: Fring, sorry youtube says now that the video doesn't exist. What film was it? Athma'vEdhAnA?

drunkenmunk wrote:PS: Fring, sorry youtube says now that the video doesn't exist. What film was it? Athma'vEdhAnA?

Arghh. Saw this only today. Adhu movie lAm illa boss. Likely the most epic comedy scene from an unknown underground kannada movie from the 80s, seemingly with all English dialogues. Looks like the characters are all pidgin english speaking Anglo-indians (how do they dream up these scenarios?). What wouldn't I give to get hold of the full movie. You need to watch and rewatch a few times to "get" the whole thing. Earlier video had several tens of thousands of views and many LOL comments. Anyway here is the newly uploaded one.

About a couple of films I saw lately.

Kalyana Samayal Sadham - What started out excellently became a laborious exercise towards the end. Really liked the character arcs in the first half. The twist and the jokes surrounding it worked wonderfully well. Not even a bit of drama except may be that coffee shop scene with the F-I-L. 

They kept the tone / light-hearted for most parts of the first half. And with that conflict, which was well executed no doubt, they changed the tone of the film. And from then on it went downhill. In the last few minutes they made caricatures out of the parents essentially taking off whatever they built with that conflict. I mean did they two fight because of this dunces? If the tone had been kept light-hearted throughout may be I would not have minded the last 5 minutes. On second thoughts, that was ridiculously stupid whichever way one looks at it. And the less said about the drama in that whole kidnap episode, the better. 

Except the leads, stereotypes and cliches everywhere. That NRI dude, the suttramum, natpum etc. மொத்தத்துல சுமாரான படம்.


இதற்குத் தானே ஆசைப்பட்டாய் பாலகுமாரா - ஏதோ ட்ரை பண்ணிருக்காங்க, ஆனா சிப்பே வரலையே..

rAnjhanA...
Waste of time...but it is ok because it was for the sake of a fellow IRF (with the name Dhanush).

Of course, didn't waste money on it (Dearborn Public Library DVD)

பண்ணையாரும் பத்மினியும் ...சுப்பர் அப்பு! அருமையான படம்!
Naturally funny, lovable characters, delightful rural backdrop, feel-good scenes with right amount of emotional situations too.
எங்க ஊரு வண்டி எங்க ஊரு வண்டி ... வழி விடு வழி விடு!
Car sentiment and possessiveness! 
Loved first  tractor- cycle race scene and Pannaiyar car driving lessons scenes.  Peedai scenes are good.
Everybody has done a good & natural work.
  
Small budget regional films are charming!

Watched Kumki (Vijay TV's youtube channel ubayam, HD quality)...

The director / cinematographer duo definitely deserve some praises.

Imman has recycled rAsA in a successful way (some 70's like adi peNNE / muLLum malarum / pagalil oru iravu, some early 80's, chithram maLayALam movie, julie ganapathy's minmini pArvaigaL - many such uL vAngalkaL - but very effective with keyboard stuff)...one way I'm glad that the alternate "new wave" stuff is proved unworthy even in 2012, though this kicked NEPV movie out of BO...

Hero is dumb (despite having NT as grandpA...Prabhu's son with no such indications on screen)...

Others have done a decent job.

I can relate to the mileau / geographical settings! Splendid!

That way, despite all the cinematic stuff, the film deserved to be the winner it proved to be!

Noting Kumki, App_eng! 

Nenjirukkum Varai... Sivaji and K.R.Vijaya in M.S.V's classical music.
I must have seen 60% of the movie, so far liking it  very much.  I think Nenjirukkum Varai may go in 'my Sivaji favorites...' along with Paarthal Pasi Theerum, Sumathi En Sundari & more.
Now only Muthuraman has entered, Vijaya aasaiyaa paarthu him!
She wants MR to give her thunai all the way to the end unlike She requested Sivaji to get going in his way after they passed the vetti-teasing fellows that hang around in their street!
I assume the film is going to be predictable, Sivaji sacrifices, MR sandhegappattu Sivaji-Vijaya, Sivaji will be Vittenna paaru unnai until you make my sister happy, K.R.V will be kanavane kan kanda deivam, you mind the business..   anyway... I will get back to it sometime this week!

Viswanathan delivered an eternal album!
Every composition is a gem!  There is a Janaki solo in this movie. Hurray!
Kannan Varum Neram idhu.....Susheela! 

Mann Karathey- para blade..would rival 'onbathula guru'( must watch for blade movie connoisseurs) for worst movie of the decade...SivaK is an conspiracy to defraud movie watching TN public..how does he manage to get work is beyond realms of any logic...ditto for Mirchi Shiva..Madam should start taxing philms which starr either of them

Hero is dumb (despite having NT as grandpA...Prabhu's son with no such indications on screen)...

boy isn't he fugly or what..genes/traits usually skip a generation but in this case

Pannaiyaarum Padminiyum is probably the 2nd best of 2013. And like AKS, its almost forgotten. Sad.


Anyway, இந்தப் படம் நல்லாயிருக்கும்னு தெரியும் ஆனா இவ்ளோ நல்லா இருக்குன்னு சத்தியமா எதிர்பார்க்கலை tbh.

So many things worked so well.


1. Eventhough on the surface it was கிராமத்தான்னா நல்லவென், there were at least a couple of instances in which they explored the other side very well. Pannaiyaar (the wifey particularly) thrusting money on Sneka’s hands to buy the car out. And how Vijay Sethupathi manipulates pannaiyaar into thinking that driving wasnt as easy albeit only briefly. And how he freely roams around in the car without the cognizance of the pannaiyaar.


2. The ‘pride’ factor. How the whole village had a sense of pride about the car was captured well but what struck me was that mechanic. I mean he could have been anybody, the writer could have lazily written a couple of witty one liners, but still they gave him a ‘character’. That’s the kind of detailing I really liked about this film. Another example was the ‘bus’. That was as much a character as the car.


3. The 5 year old was the closest to being ‘manipulative’ but the director knew when to stop. The kid does not die and he in fact has a happy ending. And the thulasi was that perfectly written character who would die exactly on their anniversary but she does not. And even that final race, thankfully they did not dramatize it, make the pannaiyaar win etc.


4. The heroyini only had a few scenes, one can argue she wasnt necessary at all, but still she wasnt useless or anything. Really liked the song videos featuring her.


5. Acting was wonderful throughout with Jayaprakash leading the pack. But thulasi went overboard on a few scenes.


6. Almost forgot to mention, the daughter character was uproarious. And the mappillai did not even have a single word to say in the entire film.


7. Peedai was such a lovely.


On the things that I did not like – several திரும்ப திரும்ப பேசுற நீ scenes to establish the louu for the car, the unspoken louu between the older couple and those oonjal/bare floor scenes which were sort of போதும் விட்றுங்கடா. And the music was AWFUL. Really.

Nerd, really glad you liked it. I did too.

Reposting my comment from dagalti's blogpost:

The ownership angle struck me as with everyone from the PaNNaiyAr to his daughter in the order of who needs/uses it wanting a piece of it. But you have gone ahead and argued beautifully on how it is also NOT everyone's. I found Neelima's character very interesting. All but 5 scenes but stands out. You have spoken enough on it. I found her husband's character even more interesting/intriguing. The film's core plot btw seems to be set in the late 90s when Shaktimaan made a TV appearance first. PaNNaiyAr's s-i-l seems to be watching only that every time he comes to his f-i-l's place. He also gets gently mocked at by Peedai for having a double chin/being chubby. Gives an impression of a kid innit, gently suggesting that his wife 'uses' her உரிமை with the PaNNaiyAr to satisfy his whims. Hypothetical leap of faith, yes. But those couple of snatches in this (deliberately?) underdeveloped character makes me muse.

I also liked how the car got an almost 'deity' status (of course everyone would want 'their' share of a God for themselves?) with a constant அர்ச்சனை of flowers everyday. It also got a name, completing its deification imo. Interesting because we don't know the PaNNaiyAr's name, do we? (does Shanmugam call the PaNNaiyAr by name via phone? If so, I didn't note). I also enjoyed how the plot points in the film (Shanmugam lending the car), Sneha coming back (to resolve that tension), death of Malar's relative (supposed to be tragic) lent itself to developing and indulging with the car and the characters. This continues till the end. And the interactions and developing of the characters was so feel-good and well executed. The plot becomes incidental here. All the more off a satisfying watch

Reg the music, I liked a couple of songs. Kadhal Vandhacho and Onakkaga Porandhene. Nalla uLvAngina mAri dhAn theriyudhu. But yeah, rest of the songs and BGM are best well left. Pretty unimpressive.

Nerd,
Super review as always  ippOthaan paarkurEn. I too liked the film. I understand the movie is all about car and their affection towards it, but I felt the plot is little unnatural in the sense, there is nothing more for the paNNaiyaar to do in his life, other than the car. They could have carried in a more natural way. Otherwise, it is a fine film.

Watched Thegidi. Nice film on crime investigation. I liked the story, except I can't believe a case like this ever happened in real life (because it should not happen that a film sets a wrong path and direction). A very different start to the movie. They kept the audience on the edge of the seat till the end. I guessed who could be 'that' person, still it didn't distract me or take me away from the movie. Second half could have been better as it almost ended without any dramatic twist except for the last phone call. Music is good. The way they carried the song yaar ezhuthiyathO movie with breaks and dialogues is a poetry. I loved each and every dialogue. Very simple, but effective. Background score is not bad at all for the first timer. No one went overboard in terms of acting. A welcome and a very refreshing movie. Will watch again.

V_S wrote:but I felt the plot is little unnatural in the sense, there is nothing more for the paNNaiyaar to do in his life, other than the car. They could have carried in a more natural way. Otherwise, it is a fine film.

Pannaiyaar job description appadi  may be him being 'vetti' is what director intended him to be.
vettiness leads to this inexplicable obsession to his car which even wedges past the daughter in his relationship pyramid.
also them living in some sort of exile with virtually no neighbors to turn to adds to the obsession.


Jigar- nice phlim let down by the director still so much to clasp/devour

good bits

-opening sequence was godawesome but the way it played out in the end
was a bit of a letdown, given the director's fetish for cheap thrills should
have seen it coming.

-patnul speaking/saree snatching heroine, is this a first in tamil cinema?

-tracking shot lives up to the hype.

-sambhar/blood sequence was staged brilliantly.

-Kuruvamma hallucination scene was a riot.

-Assualt Sethu's character needed someone with a towering screen presence so he could
bully/nudge his way through and do it to those before they do it to him.
given Simha is vertically challenged/slip ups in diction he just about holds his end up.

- VS bits as yoeng Sethu,  reminded so much of 'Subramaniapuram' must be those 80s collars.

- Silencer Sid sleep walks as usual, his friend Oorani completely overshadowed him.
given all the characters were trying to pull the rug under each other
wish Oorani had his pound of flesh by ratting out on Sid's location and gets caught in the process  

jarring bits

director tied himself up in knots by naming/basing Sid's character on himself, not only does it get pungent for the viewers but he makes
Sid to do things which seems odd for his character.

Sid from being characterized as callous/selfish aspiring director who will put himself through
risk of death/faking love/feigning friendship in the process to get close/know about his subject to making
a parody as his first philm so he could get one back up on Sethu seems rather silly.
doesn't sit right more so with Sanguli laying it bare about missed opportunities.

would have been more organic had peeps watching in theaters lapped it up as mockumentry of sorts
with Sethu playing himself without being handheld by the director with A.Kumar euphemisms and outtakes/ADRs bundles. Sethu's clown acts as Azhuguni Kumar sticks out thereby jarring the narration. doubt directors
of Anandha tholai/Yaaruku Yaaro set out to do a parody but those ended up being one thanks to their leads. here Sethu's anger is geared more towards
Sid for conning him rather than on peeps who have befallen for his clownship and refusing to take him seriously.
Had it been a mocument, Sethu would have had no place to hide/none to blame for his plight and acting(trying to) would have been
his only exit strategy from this mess.

If Sid wasn't named Karthik, the director would have had a but much more elbow room to operate. would have lot more fun had
Sid been 'not so good' director/writer which is only logical given Sid gets dinked by Nasser at the start. bad actor/'not so good' director would have been a total riot.then Sid seeking Sethu's hoodlums to armtwist VS to sign up for his next 'not so good' venture would have been lot more fun.

Nice and detail review Wizzy. I too watched last weekend. I should say I liked it, even as you mentioned there were some flaws. This is a new kind of film making, only possible in thamizh, others can only dream. I loved all the twists in the movie, especially how fast Sid was tracked by Sethu (The timing of interval is breath-taking) and how the second half fell totally unexpected and of course the climax twist. I loved every one of them. Even though it started off in a wary fashion and also they could have concentrated more on authenticity etc, but it never fell off the grip for me and I liked the whole theme of the movie. Yes, Sangili Murugan's forced narration about his failures did not invoke any kind of sympathy. The way Sid's lover sarcastically puts him in pressure is the highlight, I laughed like anything. There are lots of small moments like these which worked me the most. How an animal becomes a human is an often told one, but definitely not this way. How powerful cinema is, is another stunning viewpoint which I have not seen/heard told before.

After watching I also read P_R's thoughts on it, which makes it even more interesting. http://dagalti.blogspot.in/2014/08/the-jig.html

Looks like Jai didn't like it, lots of great points he mentioned on twitter.

Now looking forward to Nerd's views

Not that i dont like it. It is hyped way 2 much.
It is a film that tries to be 2 clever.

I don't know about the hype. Yes, it is a cleverly made film

Dhrishyam - new age mallu cinema hypeku madhdhiyil, worth the hype only. But lose-lose for Kamal. Prabhu podhume?

plum wrote: new age mallu cinema hype

Watched Bangalore Days with a co-worker's family last week (heavily hyped by them) and was struggling to control the doze mid way, not wanting to offend them

Mammootty's son, Fazil's son & daughter-in-law nadichcha padam.

Camera was good. One or two places evoked smile. avvaLavE...

Visiting some IR movies that had never been watched before...

Well, though I was prepared for a painful exercise, didn't imagine these could be so bad

1. Bhuvana oru kostin mark

Except some Rajini-Sumithra 1:1 (and may be a couple of Rajini-Sivakumar 1:1), the movie proved to be intolerable

Interestingly, one of the liked scenes was 'rAjA enbAr mandhiri enbAr' song. Though a shabbily directed movie, the whole Rajini-Sumithra interactions are poetic. Must have been very novel for the time of release and that's why the movie succeeded.

2. Dharmadurai

ayyO! 

The movie is so bad, even Rajini is so bad. Actually Gautami has better scenes / screen presence than the super natchaththiram

I'm shocked this movie ran very well in 1991

3. 24 maNi nEram

As expected, the only screen stealer in Sathyaraj (and thus started his terrific combo with Manivannan). All the scenes without him are unbearable!

I think the movie did only average biz when released and that is justified.

kizhakku vAsal

There are some badly made scenes / sequences.

There are also unnecessary stuff (like Karthik having two fights, possibly he was aspiring to be a big masAlA star in this time period and had "image build" business but such things are irritating now).

If we ignore those, it's an enjoyable movie!

Especially, almost all the Revathy scenes are terrific! (She looks too old / too mature in this movie but performs admirably and the writing is also nice for her scenes).

I didn't know anything about the story and found some thiruppangaL to be quite interesting
(I've posted on pachcha malappoovu in the IR song thread - when watching the song on youtube, I used to think that Karthik is singing to make a pregnant lady sleep )

Decent work by RVU!

(BTW, the title song - ada veettukku veettukku vAsappadi - alone is by Vaali. Rest all got penned by RVU and he had done a decent job there as well)

engEyO kEtta kural
(Rajini / Radha / Ambika / Panju A producer / SPM director)

The movie that came out at the same time of sakalakalA vallavan in 1982. If people who follow Kamal & Rajini only in the last two decades watch both these movies, they'll be stunned.

Especially this one!

I don't know how I missed this one - an IR movie with Rajini that came out during my college days

Also, I've never watched this one before

Feel ashamed that I've watched SKV but missed this excellent EKK!

Though I knew the outline of the story (and wasn't looking forward to anything interesting), I was pleasantly surprised to see the overall implementation! Especially Rajinikanth - WOW - other than the thiNichchified stunt scenes, it was a fantastic role for him and he did it effortlessly! (Made me happy because I always club him with M&M&KH and he coolly justifies that in this film).

A movie without duet for Rajini (like muLLum malarum). That itself should earn a special place for EKK.

If there are others who gave it a miss like me all these 30+ years, please watch!

Nice experience!!