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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!!

I watched this film in theater three times during my school days One time recently. Lovely film!

V_Sji

Couldn't resist waiting for a better print (since I luvvd ஆதலால்) so watched Jeeva in an OKish online copy. Found it very inconsistent.

Granted - Susee hasnt made a perfect film. And all the 3 great films of his (ஆதலால், வென்னில, நா.ம.அ.) has at least a few scenes that make the viewers go 'dafuq was that'. This one is peculiar, as in it is very difficult to slot it. We can't just move on branding it as a mokkai (ala அழகர்சாமி) or be awed like in case of ஆதலால். The total number of brilliant moments = the number of facepalm moments. More or less.

The film starts with a bang. The whole childhood episode was superbly done. Typical Susee, effortlessly creating characters and moments that stay with us long after the film is over. Right from the first scene all the way to the punch line 'ஷூ வாங்கிக்கட்டாப்பா'. It was just perfect.

But once the boy grows up and becomes Vishnu (one word to describe this guy is 'wimpy') problems start. The guy can't act for God's sake and the biggest compliment I can give him is he has got the skill to enact a cricket player character. Romance track was long and pointless in fact. And like in every other film I don't think there was a need for it, especially since they use this track for an age old trope. Now, the whole romance track wasn't intolerable. The girl did her part really well but like I mentioned before it was inconsistent. While the school scenes were good, the college scenes were very, very unimaginative. And that song after interval was plain irritating. 

Susee usually gets full-marks in the supporting cast department, both in sketching the characters and extracting good performances from them, but in this film, its 50-50. While the 'family' worked, the friends sucked so bad. Vishnu's relationship with Ranjith (and the gang) did not make an impression. I think the problem is we don't spend enough time with them to invest in their relatioship. The film just has too many people fighting for screentime and we really do not 'get' any of them. 

And the much talked about tambrahm angle, though the intentions were good, was shoddily executed. Again started very well, 'தட்டிக் குடுக்குறார்ன்னு நினைச்சேன் ஆனா தடவிப் பாக்குறார்ன்னு அப்போ புரியலை.' But quickly turned too loud and 'in your face' for my liking. With bad acting to boot. Whatever happened to the subtlety employed in other parts of the film. 

Finally, the cricket they played, I don't think any other film has captured the sport so well in a movie. 

But, Susee is one filmmaker who is totally agnostic of my (our) expectations on him. He just does what he knows. His kind of films does not aim for anything. Thats what sets him apart. Sometimes they work, sometimes they don't. For us, that is.

haven't seen the philm, have played(still play) a fair bit of local leagues so my thoughts on this

And the much talked about tambrahm angle, though the intentions were good, was shoddily executed. Again started very well, 'தட்டிக் குடுக்குறார்ன்னு நினைச்சேன் ஆனா தடவிப் பாக்குறார்ன்னு அப்போ புரியலை.' But quickly turned too loud and 'in your face' for my liking.

anyone who had played in TNCA local leagues will vouch that cream will always reach the top given the sheer number
of teams that play in leagues and none of the team owners would want their chances dented. yes, the number of crossbelts playing/admin/coach
is grossly dis-appropriate to their population but I wouldn't put this down to some evil scheme
by crossbelts just that so many of them play professional cricket from school and the selection is mostly on old boy
network and it is very very difficult for outsiders(even for crossbelts outside of Sennai)to permeate.
what makes it even more perplexing is that it was nagarathars who patronized(still do)cricket in Madras from the beginning and
still own sizable teams in local leagues.

Wizz,

I don't know how it works. I personally have only played for a local club in Trichy and did not even go to the district selections.

In the film, Vishnu (and the annakkodi guy) play for a top club. The club owner/coach is the good type (read non-Brahm) and he even hints them about the politics at the Ranji level. Their club reaches the finals of the tournament. Finals is against, as you would imagine, the defending champions. The champions' club owner is a tambrahm and he is also the head of the Ranji selection team. You get the drift.

The duo get selected for TN ranji, but are reduced to carrying drinks. They do get the odd oppurtunity but the owner sacks them owing to 'bad average'.

I seriously don't think Susee took pains in 'researching' about this 'issue' but as an outsider he sees 14/16 TN players who played for India are Brahms (now I don't even know if this is accurate) and spun a story around this. Anyway its just one of the motifs in the film.

I personally have only played for a local club in Trichy and did not even go to the district selections.

cool, do you still play?

I seriously don't think Susee took pains in 'researching' about this 'issue'

yep, looks like he has gone fishing and see if it sticks. same parallels can be drawn at national levels, at some
point in late 90s/00s other than Azhar rest were crossbelts(outlook even did a feature on the same).
will mark this down to cricket being a elite sport and been restricted to cities. though phenomenon
is changing rapidly in ROI except TN where state selection is mostly down to clubs in Sennai and that club secretary
being at good books of the power center.

he sees 14/16 TN players who played for India are Brahms (now I don't even know if this is accurate)

angaiyum there is a vaaika thakararu between nammams/pattais, where will it end?

Wizz - Used to play till the 00s, local leagues in the USA. Stopped and restarted this year, albeit in a tape ball tournament among colleagues. Did fairly well for someone playing after 5 years.

Remember reading the outlook article (was that week or outlook?). That's why I was interested to know what Susee has done with that in this film. But sadly, forget his 'take' and all that, the execution is bad. Just bad.

VIP
First half was just perfect. The setting, the dialogues, the tone everything worked like magic. It was like watching an extremely well written Suseendhran film. Did not mind the dramatic twist either.

And what started exceedingly well slowly turned into Shankarish, larger than life and finally into a Vijay film. HORROR!

And yeah, nadigar thilagam Dhanush. Guy is effervescent on screen. And Anirudh's amateurish music was a major irritant. I mean the music belonged to a Sivakarthikeyan film. The disconnect was much worse than even aadukalam. And in fact, Anirudh did very will in his first film. (Avan rangekku)

Nerd wrote:VIP
First half was just perfect. The setting, the dialogues, the tone everything worked like magic. It was like watching an extremely well written Suseendhran film. Did not mind the dramatic twist either.

And what started exceedingly well slowly turned into Shankarish, larger than life and finally into a Vijay film. HORROR!

And yeah, nadigar thilagam Dhanush. Guy is effervescent on screen. And Anirudh's amateurish music was a major irritant. I mean the music belonged to a Sivakarthikeyan film. The disconnect was much worse than even aadukalam. And in fact, Anirudh did very will in his first film. (Avan rangekku)

Ok I have seen only the songs and I have been thinking idhukku edhukku Dhanushai vAnalLAva pugazhaRAng. I also thought Sivakarthikeyanish role dhAnE..appO nejamAlume apdi illayA?

First time watched an Ilaya Thalaivali film from start to finish, that too in theatre (not counting his chocolate boy phase films like Kadhalukku Mariyadhai, Friends, Kannukul Nilavu etc).  Well, just a couple of days before, they were showing Jilla on TV and I thought the Hindi word Chilla would have been a more apt title.  With such abysmal expectations, I ended up finding Katthi not half bad.  Parts of it were pretty good.  For the rest, the useless love track was a major distraction.  And the real thalaivali was supplied by yen iniya Iyengar Thambi Anirudh's atrocious music.  Not one song was worth the digital bytes it was recorded on and all of them were forced into the film in situations where none were really required.  

I didn't expect to find Vijay so convincing.  He still has an effortless way around these over the top masala roles which Bolly guys almost feel embarrassed about enacting.  Suspension of disbelief is a must not only to enjoy watching a masala film but also to make it.  In spite of the parts that dragged, and dragged heavily, and in spite of plenty of totally unrealistic scenes, the film did entertain for its entire running length.  Not something I could say about the heavily overwrought remake of Agneepath which felt like an hour overlong.  That is interesting because Katthi did often feel like watching a 70s/80s angry AB film.  It's obviously very different not only because of the local nuances but also because it has to accommodate Murugadoss's Shankar-esque evangel (loaded with Marxist rhetoric in this case).  But the theme of big corporate goons looting villagers and one of their own, who happens to be educated, fighting for their cause is reminiscent of Agneepath (original).


The irony of it was that while in the film, Kathir criticises city-dwellers and the media for being more interested in cookery shows than the problems of hapless villagers, a film based on such a theme itself has to be made with a superstar in the lead to make it commercially viable.  It would also be equally easy to turn ARM's Marxist values on its head and ask if the money spent on making a Vijay film with useless Anirudh songs couldn't have been spent elsewhere on things that add more value to society.  And that's where Marxism and commercial cinema simply don't mix.  Ultimately, ARM is as much beholden to the rules of the marketplace as both the rural agriculturists and the corporates.   The sad thing is neither artists nor thinkers recognise that Austrian capitalism is, if anything, even more austere and even more subversive because it abhors the concept of a politburo or cabinet of wise men making merry while the poor toil and instead emphasises self determination.  Or maybe it's just too bland and real and lacks the more dramatically persuasive, if ultimately unrealistic, black and white scenarios of Marxist rhetoric.

Mr Peabody & Sherman at the elementary school of our 8 yr old

Very enjoyable!

Punch dialog : "If a boy can adopt a dog why can't a dog adopt a boy" 

There are any number of funny things - the top most of them being what happens to "villi" character in the end

Must watch!