Naan Mahan Alla Movie Review

Banner: Studio Green
Cast: Karthi, Kajal Agarwal
Direction: Suseendran
Production: K E Gnanavel Raja
Music: Yuvan Shankar Raja

Expectations were literally bigger than before as Susindran and Karthi joined hands together. These personalities share a common history of success in film industry and together they have outmatched their previous films now. ‘Naan Mahaan Alla’ top notches on every arenas as it holds a powerful theme and technicians glistering at their best. The film creates a lump in your throats with its serious subject and you’ll walk out of theatres with an intense emotion.

What starts as a passable entertainer turns into a gripping crime-thriller during second half. Hats off to entire team as they deserve praises for their earnest efforts and brilliancies.

The film focalizes on the increasing crimes in Chennai and how it disturbs the lives of innocuous people leading a peaceful life.

Jeeva (Karthi) has a picture perfect life with caring parents (Jayaprakash, ‘Eeram’ fame Lakshmi), affectionate sister (Priya of ‘Singam’ fame) and supportive friends. His life is filled with absolute happiness when Priya (Kajal Agarwal) comes across his life. Marked by abrupt transitions, Jeeva’s life undergoes a wild change as the dark-crude side of Chennai has other plans for him. The emotions and perplexities are now on hi s playing cards. Jeeva is now forced to handle the situations, in a way he never expected. On the pragmatic contexts, the film touches the increasing crime rates in Metropolitan City of Chennai.

Karthi showcases ne plus ultra performance and gets under the skin of his characterization. It’s a relief for those, who felt his role was incisively exaggerated in ‘Paiyya’. What is sure to surprise you is the fact that it doesn’t boast of any stunts till the climax. For the first 100minutes, the film strides with spanking narration of fun, frolic and romance. However, Susindran makes sure that audiences are provided with a clue right on the prologue about what this film is all about. The point of conjunction by involving Karthi’s character has been well designed by the filmmaker.

The most highlighting attribute of this film is the crisp and crystal-clear narration. Susindran makes sure the audiences are not dragged back and forth with fluctuating tempos. The 130mins of drama keeps you adhered to screens.

Karthi excels with his charismatic appeal and deserves special mention for his stunning performance in action sequences. Even his hilarious mannerisms during first half are enjoyable. Kajal Agarwal looks bubbly, cherubic and shares a great chemistry with Karthi. Jayaprakash continues striking gold at his performance level while Lakshmi deserves same praises for her acting. 4 youngsters (one of them looks identical as younger boy, who played Suriya’s role in ‘Nandha’) are excellent on their part.

Technically, Yuvan Shankar Raja’s musical score is the biggest asset as his Midas touch on background score enhances the visuals canned by Mathi. The cinematographer has completely changed his pattern from ‘Paiyya’ and emblazons the screens with different touch. Kasi Viswanathan’s editing is sleek and neat.

Stunts choreographed by Anal Arasu are far beyond excellence. The action sequences moves you to the edge of seats. It’s nice and realistic to see the baddies being more dominant than an ordinary guy in these stunts.

As on whole, ‘Naan Mahaan Alla’ isn’t just an entertaining film, but a hardcore reality that has been prevailing amongst the people in contemporaneous city of Chennai.

We wish Susindran to keep his thumbs up and producers are sure to take a cake walk. It’s yet another precious stud in Karthi’s career.

What works: Almost everything, the plot and screenplay, performances, technical panoramas

What doesn’t work: Missing a duet song ‘Oru Maalai Neram’ from Yuvan’s bank

Verdict: Just outstanding. Must watch it

Banner: Studio Green Films, Cloud Nine Productions

Production: K.E. Gnanavel Raja, Dayanidhi Azhagiri

Direction: Susindran

Actors: Karthi, Kajal Agarwal, Jaya Prakash and others

Dialogues: Bhaskar Sakthi

Music: Yuvan Shankar Raja

Camera: Mathi

Editing: Kasi Viswanathan

Lyrics: Na. Muthukumar, Yuga Bharathy, Francis

Stunt: Anal Arasu

Art: Rajeevan

Choreography: Sabeena Khan, Baba Bhaskar

'Khatta Meetha' Movie Review

When Priyadarshan and Akshay Kumar join hands, you expect the cineplex to reverberate with laughter. Let's not forget, the team has regaled us with some terrific entertainers in the past. Naturally then, you expect KHATTA MEETHA to take the legacy forward.

Unfortunately, KHATTA MEETHA is noise [the actors scream a lot in this movie], more noise [the great promotion] and only noise, while the content takes a complete backseat. Although KHATTA MEETHA shouldn't be compared to this combo's earlier works, since this one's a satire, I have to add that this is their weakest film to date.

The first question I asked myself once the movie got over was, what's the story? Okay, okay, neither did Priyadarshan's last few films had a story to tell, but when you attempt a satire, when one talks of the hardships faced by the common man, when one talks of corruption in society, there HAS to be a story in place. That goes without saying!

KHATTA MEETHA raises a finger at the corruption in government establishments, but what it tries to say, or expose, has been witnessed over and over again. In fact, it's the writing -- sorry, the absence of it -- that makes matters worse. The beginning is good, the middle falters and the end is exasperating.

Final word? This one's far from being meetha. It's a khatta experience!

Struggling road construction contractor Sachin Tichkule [Akshay Kumar] is doomed. There is no chance that his dreams will ever come true, simply because he has no money to bribe. To make matters worse, the new Municipal Commissioner turns out to be his ex girl friend [Trisha], who now hates him.

The film reveals the extent of corruption and bribery rampant in the system and the ingenious means you have to adopt if you want to survive in today's times.

KHATTA MEETHA attempts to say a lot many things in those 2.40 hours. Oh yes, its running time is a problem, more so because the narrative lacks the power to keep you hooked to the proceedings. Okay, coming back to what I wanted to say, KHATTA MEETHA is more of a collage of isolated incidents encompassed in those 2.40 hours. The collapse of the bridge, the consequent murder of Tinnu Anand, the constant bickering in the house, the tu-tu-main-main between Akshay and Trisha, the sister's track, the corrupt netas and government babus, the payment issue of workers... several sequences are a repeat of what's you watched barely minutes ago or an hour ago.

While the romantic track is the weakest link [half-baked; the songs are forced down your throats, without valid situations whatsoever], the flashback portions, depicting Akshay Kumar as a college student [!!!], is just hard to digest. Even the end is worn out and doesn't give the feel of contentment that one expects at the conclusion of a film.

Priyadarshan's handling of the comic sequences is noteworthy, especially in the first half of the film. The repair-and-paint sequence at Asrani's mansion is sure to bring the house down. Ditto for the conversation that Asrani has with multiple people, in person and also on phone. Also, the road roller sequence is a laugh-riot and prior to that Johny Lever's sequence of repairing the road roller is truly funny. But a few isolated sequences aren't enough. The veteran storyteller ought to know the importance of a watertight screenplay by now.

Cinematographer V. Manikandan's lens captures the exteriors with flourish. Pritam's music is easy on the ears and at least two songs are extremely popular as well, but the placement of songs in the narrative acts as a roadblock. Dialogues are funny at times, especially the one-liners.

Akshay Kumar plays the common man with gusto. He looks his part and more importantly, not once do you feel that he's repeating himself. However, he goes over the top in a few sequences. Trisha carries the Plain Jane look well, but fails as an actress. The fiery attitude, so vital when you're enacting the role of the Municipal Commissioner, is missing. Rajpal Yadav is in terrific form yet again. What a splendid actor!

Urvashi Sharma is awkward. Makrand Deshpande is wasted. Tinnu Anand is hardly there. Even Aroona Irani is sidelined. Kulbhushan Kharbanda is first-rate. Asrani is excellent. Manoj Joshi screams so much. Ditto for Neeraj Vora. Milind Gunaji is okay. The actor playing the role of Urvashi's husband does a good job.

On the whole, KHATTA MEETHA is a major letdown from the accomplished director. It's not a full-blown comedy. It's not a full-scale satire either. Hugely disappointing!

'THILLALANGADI' MOVIE REVIEW

To start off with, it’s yet another remake from the duo Raja-Ravi as their previous films of the same kind proved to be black horses at box office. Obviously, their previous films’ original versions were top-class entertainers while ‘Kick’ was just a passable show and doubtlessly its replication reproduces the same results.

Let’s not get along with comparisons and hitting straight onto the point of verdict, ‘Thillalangadi’ is an average entertainer that is 170mins of show time. However, the narrative aspects with enjoyable and gripping moments make it worth watching.

Jeyam Ravi’s experimental role in ‘Peranmai’ won him incredible laurels and this imitation job does land him on appreciative grounds. Raja’s ethical traits continue in this film as every shot goes the same way on narration and technical aspects.

The film opens in Malaysia with Nisha (Thamannah) unwillingly accepts to meet Krishna Kumar (Shaam), whom their parents want to them married. What starts as a conversation turns into unexpected twist as they share a commonality with the same person. Uh! The story shifts to flashback as Nisha shares about acerbate past life with her ex-boyfriend Krishna (Ravi). His very nature of being rigidly unique of wanting ‘Kick’ and ‘Risk’ in very acts makes her annoyed. Krishna’s attribute of hop-skipping jobs very often splits them up. When it’s his turn to uncover about a person, who has been making him restless, Krishna Kumar reveals that his mission is about hunting down a vicious thief in Chennai, who has flown down to Malaysia now. For a greater surprise, the smartest thief is none other than the same Krishna.

Guess what’s gonna happen next? The second half is all about the hide-and-seek games laced with humor, romance and unconditional sentiments with reasons behind Krishna’s new avatar.

Ravi as a cool chap-later- a challenging man attempts to score bigger over screen space. Of course, at few parts, he entertains the audiences with his funny liners and mannerisms. But he has to change his dancing style. Thamannah looks cherubic at places, but her overactive mannerisms make it quite odder. The prototyped costumes turn comical after certain extent. Vadivelu with his comedy oriented parts keeps the first half going with right momentum while Santhanam has been wasted. Prabhu’s performance is at his best while Suhasini doesn’t appear for more than 3 scenes. She has to choose some good roles as she deserves yet more challenging roles. Mansoor Ali Khan as a risible cop often troubled by Vadivelu tickles funny bones. Shaam need special mention for his astounding performance and it’s really appreciable if he chooses for certain roles to get himself over the top.

The songs aren’t really convincing as Yuvan Shankar Raja loses his best standards. Even the background score doesn’t enhances the visual quality and raciness in screenplay. Thanks to Thaman’s original background score as it has been reestablished finely over here. Cinematography is average and so is editing.

If there could be few reasons to mention about Raja – it is his casting of actors and dialogues. Of course, the basic plot, screenplay has its credits for Surendar Reddy. If Raja had trimmed the duration in second half, the film would have been yet more entertaining.

What works: Shaam, last 30mins and climax, Vadivelu

What doesn’t work: Longer duration, Music, Camera, performances…

Verdict: Passable show

Banner: Sun Pictures, Jeyam Company
Production: Editor Mohan, Kalanidhi Maaran
Direction: Jeyam Raja

Star-casts: Jeyam Ravi, Thamannah, Shyam, Vadivelu, Santhanam, Mansoor Ali Khan, Prabhu, Livingstone, Thyagu, Sathyan, Mayilsamy, Deepu, Suhasini, Nalini, Lakshmi, Latha Rao, Chandra Lakshman, John Vijay, Balaji, Jayaprakash and Raja
Music: Yuvan Shankar Raja
Lyrics: Vaali, Na.Muthukumar, Vivega
Cinematography: Rajashekar
Art: Milan
Action: Rocky Rajesh