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ippO pesungayya pisaasu paththi @drunkenmunk @nerd et al

Drunkenmunk wrote:A few thoughts on Pisaasu:

http://t.co/vX6PIlNTrj

Insights from Just Another Film Buff, Dagalti (P_R), Equanimus linked with my thoughts. Spoilers abound. So, read if you've watched. If not, go watch!

@ Plum: all my points are in that twitlonger. adhulayE you can find links to Equa's soudcloud podcast, dagalti and JAFB's twitlongers. Cheers!

Surprised no thread on Uthama Villain yet.

Intensely personal film from Kamal. Some places kaNgal panithana.

Complicateur's excellent post: http://t.co/Mtj0HG4Fzj

My comments on that blog, which I've been making everywhere since yesterday, some here, some there. All condensed into a twitlonger: http://www.twitlonger.com/show/n_1sm28ig

Thanks for sharing DM and great post by Compli. I really loved the film and the way Kamal handled a very unique script. It is so difficult to make such a film.

It's completely agreeable, that some people not liking the film and expressing their feeling of disappointment. But it's disheartening when people put time and effort to analyze the film, while others easily ridicule their analysis (others join them to have more fun). On top of it, giving advise to Kamal on how to make a better film. Wow!!

after long time watched the movie @ Devi with unit members, that was a experience in itself 
as against ezhavu vidu Lord maidansque Sathyam 

now onto the movie, with so much anecdotes from his real/reel life it was really like peeping to his room
which makes you to squirm in the seat.

off the bat the editing was woeful, pacing was on the dot wrt Manoranjan but the entire 'Uttaman' part just didn't fit in the movie,
whether it is CG/dialogues save for couple of wisecracks or the acting by Pussa/Prof were straight out of plays by amateur nadagargal.
makes you wonder why he ventured into that period setup in such a hackneyed way given the budget contraints, 
except for the Theyyam part he could have moved the trolley forward with just the villupaatu
which again would have been chopped off by Lingu&co in its entirety 
 I watched over the movie over entire week with different edit each time    

bits about only KH possible
-entire villupattu breaking into Uttaman intro, it was an expression a sec
-first meetup with Jacob/Manonmani, brilliantly executed
-sibling fight

Mdeii was mentioning yesterday about the whole snake bite was a hattip to Rajni.

interesting, given Rajini failed love with princess of Ramnad and Devar magan links via KH(all credits to Plum ) in Manonmani/ chettiar manager/director in SPM/Rajini wanting KB to do a movie after his illness in 80s, maximum cover pannitaen 

on a different tangle, remember KH talking about Mrityunjay tale in a Jaya TV interview in early 2000s, it has taken good part of a decade to
spin a screenplay only for Ramesh Aravind to feck it up :banghead:

+1 on almost everything Wizz, especially the period film part. Reposting what I posted on twitter immediately after watching the film:

================================

I almost gave this film a miss. That would have been a big mistake. This film has Haasar returning to form and how. 

I am going to save the Uthama Villain that KB makes in this film for last. There were several characters in the film and Haasar has carefully constructed each one of them. Even the ones that appear for just one scene, like his car driver. Now that's something he last did in the 90s and its so heartening to see the writer in him at the top of his game.

I don't remember the last time a film portrayed relationships [be it father-son or father-dauther or man-lover] so brilliantly. The louu relationships did invoke Woody Allen for some reason. And Kamal's detailing was amazing too. Parvathy has a short hair for a reason. Those two letters and the way they get read, especially the second one with Haasan removing make-up. The quirks of various characters. You will love every single character their behavior and the actions they do not withstanding. 

And the casting, never knew that I would be convinced by Andrea's performance in a film ever. I mean the last time we saw her was in the same Kamal written Vishwaroopam where her character provided absolutely zero value to the story. Here everyone did extremely well and was critical in moving the story forward. The best performance by an ensemble cast in quite a while. Kamal was fabulous. There were so many close-ups he was just magnetic. Thoroughly arresting performance. KB invoked Nagesh and the meta'ness was too much. I think this will be a very very personal film for Kamal and his fans.

Now to the most boring film that KB makes in this film - Gawd, that was awful. If you liked the mokkai comedy of Manmathan Ambu [last 20 minutes], you will hate this. If you hated that, this will be unbearable. I did understand the connect with the present day story but those episodes were too long, extremely boring and very unfunny. And very unimaginative too, that he had to resort to toilet humour. This was such a major irritant for me in the film. If only he had made 'that' film a little interesting this would have been an outright classic. And hated Pooja. She was annoying. Can't fault her since Kamal was probably smoking weed when he wrote 'that' uthama villain script. Badly acted, poorly staged and the vfx did not help either. And perhaps with a better composer those scenes might have worked. Ghib's music was boring.

To be honest, I did not think Kamal could pull of such a thing at this stage of his career. Virumaandi was more than a decade back and didnt like any other film of his after that, save for flashes of brilliance in the much maligned manmathan ambu. But what he has done in the present day portions of Uththama Villain is as good as any of his best ever. That's obviously saying a lot but I am not exaggerating. I was putting my money on the new wave like Vetri or Bala or Mysskin and this was Kamal saying 'தள்ளிப் போயி விளையாடுங்க'. Bring it on Haasar. Time's running out.

manjappai - in 5,6 installments (our 9 year old liked the movie, so had to keep watching - she even identified that the heroini is from kumki / pANdiya nAdu)...

Vikraman kind of movie (totally predictable). 

Of course, Raj Kiran adds reasonable value. Otherwise it would have been too unsahikkable.

Well, the producers seemed to have made some money and are now investing in a Vikram Prabhu movie (with rAsA music)...

Now to the most boring film that KB makes in this film..

timing was simply amiss, sample Uttaman getting introduced to Muthaarsan, from makeup to use of props, it was all clumsy.
BGM on its part made things worst, Ghibran struggled to saddle between comedy/comic 
we can safely pass all the muck on KB  

OTOH surprised that Brangan didn't raise a stink on how tambrahms were depicted in the movie or did it get muddled in the comments section?
given their recent leanings, I have earmarked one of Badri Seshadri/Brangan to be in CBFC with a paunch and a poonal up their placket ala S.Vee Shekar

Burma - double crossing noir genre films realized in chennai background. Very 'no-nonsense', laid back
narration. It wears its own smartness too in a lazy way - shorn of any earth shattering nature. Liked it totally.
Hero guy is smart and Sampath raj gets a good role.Atul Kulkarni is wasted, definitely good watch(it is smart on clock
too).

Komban - yet another madurai-ramanadhapuram movie which totally closes its eye to the significant others in villages.
Accepting this trend for the sake of enderdainmend - this movie is good timepass - largely thanks to Acting by Rajkiran and Karthi.
I loved the scene where the panchayat president post was auctioned . It is sad but a reflection of how feudal India will treat a nuanced institution
like democracy. That one scene makes up for all the unnecessary screenplay gimmicks to setup final climax.

Nanbenda - After reading brangar review, imagined it to be a vulgar comedy movie, but it was right out of a lolly sabha episode.
total timepass. 50% of jokes worked and that is enough. But his review was an eye opener - what a condescension!! elitism hits the roof.

On the whole puli episode I was thinking of Gounder's கொட்டை எடுத்ததா எடுக்காததா? and giggling   God that was an awful scene.

2 Rajinikanth / AVM / SPM masAlAs hitherto unseen...

murattukkALai & Mr Bharath...

Together oru 30 minutes thERum...(out of which some 12 starting minutes of murattukkALai, awesome. Then some Sumalatha scenes.)

Surprised to see one extra song in murattukkALai (I was wondering why they showed PS name in the titles, there's a 5th song in the movie - don't remember hearing this or even knowing this song before).

Funny to see the song showing "kizhinju pOna" oru big drum (shows Rathi coming out of it). 

So pathetic AVM production values were those days. (A stunt follows the song on movie when this drum and many others get ransacked. Possibly the song was shot AFTER the stunt scenes got shot  and they possibly managed the kizhiyal by showing Rathi coming out of it  UGLY)

Here is the youtube of that "kOdAnu kOdi" song PS/MV :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sQAXIwtH_AE

Demonte colony - not bad.

eli - VV is immensely talented  However, the movie is boring.

36V - mildly preachy drama - with some humor here and there. Tolerable.

Also, the "message" is OK because preaching was not directed towards me
(already a promoter of all those, so no issues there)

One major irritation is presidenttu telling 'namastE' - nonsense !

Sivakumar / Sooryar to be blamed, andha ALu 'vaNakkam' sollakkoodAdhA? 

Got very irritated!

app_engine wrote:eli - VV is immensely talented  However, the movie is boring.

36V - mildly preachy drama - with some humor here and there. Tolerable.

Also, the "message" is OK because preaching was not directed towards me
(already a promoter of all those, so no issues there)

One major irritation is presidenttu telling 'namastE' - nonsense !

Sivakumar / Sooryar to be blamed, andha ALu 'vaNakkam' sollakkoodAdhA? 

Got very irritated!

nIng malayalam original pAkkuRadhu nalam. indha mAdhiri padam pAkkum mun kEttutu pArung. Jodhi akka vs Manju warrier. No contest

kAkkA muttai - excellent!

Initial portions felt a little slow (may be familiarity with the details made them a little bit boring ; for someone totally unfamiliar to such surroundings it could have been fascinating). Once pizza comes into the story, there's no thoyvu!

Every actor did extremely good! I simply love the boys!

vAzhga director! (Dhanush / Vetrimaran should be praised for producing this movie!)

I should have stopped the weekend with that crow's egg

vettiththanamA started watching Sankar production "kappal"

kuppai

The movie has the COMPLETE ooru vittu ooru vandhu song (simply replayed, not remixed. It's the original that gets played and got picturized).

vElai illA pattadhAri - Dhanush (25th movie it says) / Anirudh

Entertaining first half & so-so second half. 

Overall, OK - definitely deserved the success it had.

While his mAmanAr had broken the common belief that one had to be fair-skinned to be a successful TF hero, Dhanush had gone one step ahead. 

i.e. One need not have even a "sharp-looking-face" (that Rajini definitely had) to be a successful TF hero - let alone fair skin biz! 

That is quite something! From that PoV, he is fantastic!

Vasuvum Saravananum onnA padichchavanga...

Watchable, despite some irritability here and there. 
(I did  for the Taj Mahal joke and also the cameo portions done by Vishal)

D Imman music but he cleverly plays other people's songs (mainly IR's) and at times IR's popular BGM pieces to keep the viewers' interest. (Yes, the famous "appu" theme of AS and IIRC, heard the nAyagan theme as well).

Perhaps the funniest use of 'kEttELE ingE adhappAththELA angE' song

Is there some sort of block on internet reviews of Vethalam?  Can hardly find any, which is surprising since there are plenty of reviews of Thoongavanam.  Anyway, had to watch it to meet some family obligations and it was quite terrible.  After an hour or so of foreplay, the action started and thereafter was like one never ending WWF match shown on the big screen.  No real story and what story there was had plenty of loose ends which they didn't bother to tie up.  But more 'interesting' was there wasn't even an attempt to 'validate' the protagonist's actions a la the old AB films where he is forced into a life of violence by circumstances.  Once the picture becomes clear in the second half, it turns out only a select few people are privy to his 'good side', otherwise he's an out and out baddie.  This shouldn't by itself be a problem since I have in the past criticised MR's attempts to glorify the underworld don in Nayagan.  But the way Vethalam is structured, one is actually supposed to cheer for this villainous protagonist as he bashes up fellow gangsters.  It is like making Amjad Khan the hero of Sholay.  And the best part is, I saw a bunch of people actually doing so, giving whistle and all, in the theatre where I watched it.  So the one interesting aspect of this excruciatingly boring and noisy film for me was it offered a glimpse into what entertainment actually means to the masses today.  Violence in movies has crept up over the years to the point where the love angle, the duets, the moments of pathos are now a mere sideshow and the adi-dhadi is the main course.  Any attempt at plot construction actually interferes with the tempo of the action.  Like Tamil music, the Tamil masala movie has also become a pure entertainment capsule which will deliver a specific purpose for the duration it lasts and will be found to be utterly unmemorable thereafter.  The crowds come to destress, to possibly imagine what it would be like to bash up their bad boss or co-worker the way Ajith does and give vent to their pent up frustration by yelling with him.  It becomes difficult to reconcile this state of mass tamil cinema with the exciting forays made by films like Soodhu Kavvum or Onaayum Aatkuttiyum.

Commiserations CK on the ordeal of watching this movie that too in a theater which I wouldn't even wish upon on my sworn enemy.
yam still perplexed by Brangan's review of this movie and his idea of being entertained with this pos, was he scared of MM gang which distributed this movie.
nothing else can explain his posture.

I think we have seen in the past that he can be politically correct and handle these big budget films with kid gloves.  That's part of writing professional reviews; I mean a professional reviewer sitting and bashing all the films that the masses like will come across as elitist.  He didn't like it when I said so but most likely that's what it is.  I don't believe he sincerely likes the film; he himself admitted to not being happy about the trend.  But he apparently doesn't want to take a strong position against such a trend.  Movie was totally unsahikable even accounting for Ajith's star charisma and all.

Kirumi - a very low profile movie with all nonentity actors except Charlie , for whom this must have been the movie of his lifetime. What started off in the most irritating manner with hero and his friends "sarakku" adichufying in a Tasmaac shop, soon turned out to be a unique, interesting plot about the thankless , menial, but extremely dangerous informer lives. The dynamics between the police attached to different stations, the law evading bar owners , vested interest groups, lowly informers are shown in a stark, chilling way. K's music is noteworthy with lots of heavy metal guitars in the background scores. There is also a very groovy song sounding like Yuvan . I am not counting those GAnA BAlA songs here.

nAnum rowdy dhAn - there are some good moments and some boring ones. 

Overall, watchable

I liked the 'thangamE' song (some IR-like solo violin seconds)

Unusual experience going to theater on thanksgiving day with family / relatives

inji iduppazhagi

I was told it's a comedy and agreed to go with the gumbal and never verified details about the movie (which were looked up by my nephew on the web & it was he who got the tickets).

Only after the movie started did we realize that it was the Telugu version of the movie ("size zero") 

That way, for the first time in life, watched a Telugu movie in theater!

(BTW, the movie titles say "Thank you" to Ilayaraja - they've used inji iduppazhagi & Om namahA songs - of course Telugu versions in the show I watched)

It was fun to watch Alaya maNi, sitting with appA and ammA
(ammA was singing along for all the songs  )

Nice movie, giving allowance for the time factor
(Not many movies of that time period can be as enjoyable IMHO...not much boring moments at all...NT goes overboard on many scenes but that was possibly demanded / required from him those days  )