Balaji's Thots

Reviews for Odippolaamaa, Rasikkum Seemaane, Theeraadha Vilaiyaattu Pillai, and Vinnai Thaandi Varuvaayaa are now online at the reviews site.

With our big stars opting almost exclusively for masala and actions films, the only full-length romances we get these days seem to be ones with new actors. Odippolaamaa, which sees actress Sangeetha’s brother Parimal debut as hero, is the latest such romance. Parimal has some distance to go before being a successful romantic hero but the film is an enjoyable, breezy entertainer with a good mix of romance, comedy and sentiments.

Visu(Parimal), a playful, college-going guy, falls in love with Anjali(Sandhya) and manages to move to the same apartment complex that she lives in. When he finally gathers the courage to express his love to her, she turns down his proposal since his studies aren’t going all that great. That makes Visu hit the books with a vengeance and pass his exams. But Anjali, who wants to put an end to the enmity between her dad and her uncle, decides that marrying the uncle’s son is the way to achieve that. Meanwhile, Anjali’s father(Kota) also fixes her wedding with a boy of his choice.

Odippolaamaa’s story arc bears many resemblances to the storyline of Kutty. In both movies, we have a hero who falls in love with a girl who has already set her mind on marrying another guy but that isn’t enough for him to give up hope. Plot developments in both films allow the hero to spend some time alone with the girl and the climaxes in both movies take place at weddings. But while Kutty became quite serious in the second half, Odippolaamaa manages to keep things light-hearted throughout. That, along with the better characterization of the supporting characters(the heroine’s suitor, the parents on both sides, etc.) makes this a more entertaining affair overall.

The film doesn’t break any new ground as far as romance goes but the predictable situations do unfold in an interesting manner. This is mainly because all the characters are fleshed out well. The lead pair is familiar but taking a leaf out of Vikraman’s book, the director fashions likeable supporting characters who are well-intentioned even if their approach is not always right. Most impressively, even the heroine’s suitors, who are usually painted as caricatures to make her choice easier, fall into this category. This leads to a few small surprises that keep the story moving and some nice scenes(like Sandhya’s wedding day) that are effectively sentimental in a feel-good rather than a melodramatic way.

The trajectory of love isn’t particularly smooth here but the film keeps things light and never gets bogged down in sentiments. While the more overtly humorous sequences(like Parimal’s friend’s encounter with Kota) and the funny one-liners(Parimal’s response to the passenger in the bus about his eloping is hilarious) do their job, the funny lines that dispel the seriousness of potentially emotional scenes(like Parimal’s comment about his future after Sandhya turns him down) work even better because they are rather unexpected. This non-serious take on things continues right upto the end with Parimal’s frustrated comment making even the predictable climax more enjoyable than usual.

Parimal gets by since the movie casts him as a lovesick, loveable loser rather than a stud but his woodenness does rob his character of some of its charm. Sandhya makes up for it somewhat with a solid performance but doesn’t have as much to do as Parimal. Kota plays the dad with his usual style but is more impressive when he softens up. Another common factor between such low-profile romances (Pudichirukku was another one) is that they have good music and Imman maintains that trend. Ading Ading… is a lot of fun inspite of being the familiar hero+friends group song. Ragalakkaara Maman… is another very enjoyable number with Imman’s voice giving it a nice touch. Aruvi Pola… is a nice melodious number. Poochaandi… is one of the worst instances of an item number as it pops up out of the blue with no connection to the story.

The last weekend saw the weather take a break from the rain and the storms with a couple of warm and  sunny spring-like days. So we headed out to San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park after lunch. The first stop was a pretty lake where the kids had fun walking among the large number of birds on the lakeshore.

Then we went to the Tulip Garden which is located near the west end of the park. We parked a short distance away but the walk to the garden was scenic with bright green meadows and some pretty flowers.

The Tulip Garden was located at the base of a towering Dutch windmill. The tulips had not all bloomed yet but the garden was cute and pretty. There was a wedding taking place there too.

After some hot tea and snacks, we headed back with a brief stop at another nice lake. The bonus here was a small but very pretty waterfall and a nice stroll along the small creek that led to the waterfall. This was another fun area for the kids as they jumped on the rocks and walked by the creek.

This first outing of 2010 was a fun way to spend half a day and it was hopefully just the first of many more trips this year.

Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin were another set of hosts that made us wish Billy Crystal came back to hosting duties. They were both likeable and they took the usual shots at actors, movies, Hollywood, L.A, etc. but there were very few zingers in their routine. So they felt even more redundant than last year’s host Hugh Jackman.

Neither the presenters nor the winners shook things up either. Though there were a few speeches that were dignified and some that were heartfelt, not a single one was really interesting. This was mainly because the actors who traditionally make things interesting were absent. None of the seniors like Nicholson, Pacino, De Niro and Eastwood were to be seen and the actors(like Johny Depp, Jack Black, Jim Carrey or Whoopi Goldberg) who could’ve added some irreverence to the proceedings weren’t around either. Even the usually controversial actors like Sean Penn were subdued. The lone bright spot was Ben Stiller whose Navi makeup and lines were a riot.

There was not much to hold our interest apart from the actual awards either. There was no musical pieces barring one weak show that combined the songs competing for Best Original Song. The montage of horror films over the years led to some “Spot the movie” moments but not much more. The ‘In Memory’ segment was tastefully done as usual with the special homage to John Hughes teaching me a few things about the famous director.

The Oscars are never about awarding the best and a lot of factors – politics, relative popularity of the contenders, their history of awards, to name a few – come into play in deciding the winners. So as long one is well-read, one doesn’t even have to have watched all the nominees to be able to guess who would get the award in a particular category. I was able to guess all the major awards(Supporting actor/actress, Best original/adapted screenplay, Best Actor/Actress, etc.) though I had watched only a small fraction of the films that were nominated. That made the awards rather predictable and when it comes to award shows predictable equates to boring.

The other aspect that made the function boring was that there were no emotions involved. Last year was ofcourse special with the presence of Slumdog Millionaire and A.R.Rahman. But even in other years, there were movies I liked more than others; movies I rooted for; movies I cheered for when they won. But this year I liked both Avatar and The Hurt Locker, the two top favorites, equally. While I loved the large-scale entertainment offered by the former, I loved the non-stop intensity of the latter. So while the David vs Goliath nature of the clash inspired lots of newsprint, I was rather detached during the awards that featured those two films and would’ve been just as happy if Avatar and Cameron had nabbed the Big 2 awards.

The Oscars have always been the one surefire night of appointment TV during the year. But I’m not sure how long that’s gonna last if they continue to be as lackluster as yesterday’s show.

Even when he helmed cop stories and thrillers, Gautham Menon populated his movies with strong, distinctive romantic tracks that were nicely interwoven into the main tracks. He retains that strength and distinctiveness in Vinnaithaandi Varuvaayaa, his triumphant return to the romance genre after his debut Minnale. With a memorable lead pair, a mature screenplay and a terrific ending, the film is a wonderful ode to love and the best sign yet of Gautham’s growth as a director.

Karthik(Simbhu), a Mechanical engineer-turned-aspiring filmmaker, is trying to get his foot in the door of the film industry. Its love at first sight when he lays eyes on Jessie(Trisha), a programmer-analyst, who ends up being his house owner’s daughter. While Karthik pursues Jessie relentlessly, Jessie tries to keep him at arm’s length since she is convinced that her family will never approve of him.

VTV’s romance has all the obstacles that Tamil cinema romances face as Simbhu and Trisha are separated by religion, age and social issues. It is characterized by all the familiar cliches like love at first sight and familiar characters like a wisecracking sister, a protective brother and feuding parents. But Gautham manages to push all those to the backburner by focusing on the couple’s hearts. So the biggest barrier between the two becomes who they are, which is reflected in their attitudes towards their problems and their perspectives on the issues. And that manages to make one of the oldest stories seem fresh and completely new.

Gautham is able to do this because his lead pair is characterized so beautifully. Simbhu is an idealist and an optimist who plunges into things with hope in place of a plan and faces the consequences as they come. Whether its going to Kerala without Trisha’s address or agreeing to be friends with her, he knows what he wants and is positive he will get it even if he has no idea how. Trisha, on the other hand, is never sure what she wants. As a phenomenal scene in the train shows, she is someone who is pulled in several different directions and is constantly trying to decide if she should go with her heart or her brain. Sometimes, as at the intermission point, her heart wins; at other times, logic prevails. And it is this confusion that drives the movie forward.

With such a pair, its no surprise that the romance between them is consistently involving. As Trisha vacillates between bringing Simbhu closer and pushing him away, Simbhu himself experiences cycles of hope and frustration. Sure its repetitive but its also natural as the two try to convince each other of their respective positions. Gautham manages to fashion scenes, like the sequence where Trisha tells Simbhu something we’ve known all along, that are romantic, cute and sentimental all at the same time.

The brief separation the pair encounters helps us see Trisha’s predicament in a new light. The phone call when Simbhu is away and their conversation after he returns are set up wonderfully as the catalysts for Trisha understanding her heart and finally setting her heart on what to do. The perfunctory manner in which Simbhu’s ‘promotion’ is handled is a little disappointing but we soon realize that it is more a means to an end.

And a wonderful end it is. The best part of the final portions is not that they are surprising or even that they take us on a roller-coaster of emotions as they evokes joy, sorrow, suspense and a myriad other feelings. It is that they are completely logical as things unfold exactly as they should considering the characters of Simbhu and Trisha. The beautifully-developed and presented finish provides the final, most convincing attestation about their characters.

Gautham takes a dig at the accusation that he employs a lot of English dialogs in his movies but that doesn’t stop him from doing the same here. The setting and characters ensure that the liberal use of English doesn’t seem as incongruous as it did in Vaaranam Aayiram but it isn’t always a smooth fit either. For instance, it isn’t easy to accept that for a guy who describes the onset of love as “kaadhal poattu thaakkudhu”, the line that pops into mind when he is sad over his lover is “she is just a one-way ticket to heartbreak city“!

Doing a full-fledged romance was a courageous move for Simbhu but it isn’t a wrong move. He relies a bit too much on some hand gestures(running them through his hair, arching them over his eyes, etc.) but the subtleness be brings to his expressions and dialog delivery is a pleasant surprise. And he really nails the monologue in Central Park, which is delivered just perfectly. Trisha is quite the revelation. She conveys the indecision of her character brilliantly and in a way that makes it seem natural without being irritating. Ganesh brings some variety to the otherwise stock role of the wisecracking friend who looks out for Simbhu and has a few funny one-liners.

Gautham doesn’t do anything memorable or extraordinary with the songs but the locales and the cinematography give the song sequences a rich sheen. Omana Penne… is the most disappointing of the lot as the bare-chested, foreign dancers just don’t gel with the melodious number. Kannukkul Kannai…, on the other hand, works since the lyrics fit the situation. Hosanna… and Anbil Avan… work as the lead-ins, particularly in the latter, take us into the songs on a high. The title song and Aaromale… work better on screen as the slow tunes and heartfelt lyrics fit in well with the movie’s tone. Manoj Paramahamsa’s camera feasts on the gorgeous locales outdoors and does equally well as it moves in close to capture the emotions between Trisha and Simbhu.

This film is worth crossing the skies for…

The line-up of big, event movies sees another anticipated entry tomorrow with Vinnai Thaandi Varuvaayaa. With Gautham Menon returning to romance, Simbhu trying out a full-fledged romantic role and A.R.Rahman scoring his first Tamil film since he won the Oscars, the movie is coming with a lot expectations attached to it. The fact that it is getting a 2-theater release(San Jose and Fremont) here in the Bay Area is proof enough of that.

Gautham Menon launched his career with a romance Minnale but then switched tracks to make a series of action films (Kaakka Kaakka, Pachaikkili Muthucharam, Vettaiyaadu Vilaiyaadu). But even in those films, especially the latter two, the romances were wonderfully done. They were a nice mix of sweetness and maturity and were naturally and subtly developed. So it seems like a good thing that after his most personal and ambitious film Vaaranam Aayiram, he is going back to making a romance. With Simbhu as an assistant director and Trisha as a Malayali-Christian, VTV looks like it is a love story that has both religion and career in the background and it will be interesting to see what spin Gautham puts on it.

VTV’s biggest surprise is its hero Simbhu. Considering that he was firmly following the masala route and seemed to be sinking more into the masala quicksand with each new film, I would’ve put him second – Vijay being first – on the list of actors most likely to act in a romantic film. So his announcement that he had decided to act only in soft, romantic flicks and his following up those words by actually signing up a film like VTV were pleasant surprises. He appears to have cleaned up well to look the part and it’ll be interesting to see the newly-christened Young Superstar(since he felt he had outgrown the ‘Little’ prefix) without his trademark punch dialogs and loud finger swishes. Trisha seems to be spending a lot more time in Andhra and had only 1 Tamil film, Sarvam, in 2009. She looks really beautiful here and should have a good role, considering that Gautham gives his heroines strong, author-backed roles.

Ever since Minnale, Gautham’s movies have been looked forward to for another reason – their music. Gautham introduced Harris Jayaraj to Tamil cinema and the music director thanked him by producing his best work for the director. After hitting their peak with Vaaranam Aayiram, the duo split and Gautham went with A.R.Rahman for VTV, which is now ARR’s first Tamil soundtrack since his double Oscar.  ARR’s Tamil soundtracks have been massy and populistic and this might be the first album where his experimentation and exploration, hitherto restricted to Hindi film music, have been allowed to creep into Tamil too. None of the songs, whether the incredibly catchy Anbil Avan… , the melodious Omana Penne… or the hard rock-like Aaromale…, follow the traditional structure we’ve been used to in our songs. Hosanna…, with its catchy middle section bookended between a deceptively slow start and finish and the fast and racy Kannukkul Kannai… are guaranteed chartbusters. Gautham has been rather unpredictable in his song picturization, giving us both the weird group dancers of Uyirin Uyire… and the casual, classy Adiye Kolludhe…. Hope he does justice to Rahman’s numbers and makes him do more Tamil films.

VTV had a clever marketing strategy that created buzz about it even before everything about it was revealed. With a series of movie posters that recreated instantly-recognizable scenes from other movies(I remember Minsaara Kanavu, Alaipaayudhe, Idhayathai Thirudaadhe, Kaakka Kaakka, Vettaiyaadu Vilaiyaadu and what I believe was Vaali) but didn’t contain any more information about the cast or crew, the movie stirred up a lot of excitement in the days leading upto its launch. And once the list of people involved in it was revealed, further marketing became unnecessary!

While we’ve already had several big movies hit the screens in 2010 so far, only a couple of them have met their pre-release expectations. Let’s hope VTV also adds itself to that list…

Vijay, who at one point was primarily known as a romantic hero, took the masala route when he encountered a string of flops with his romantic movies. Vishal appears to be taking the opposite route as the actor who was shaping up as an action hero, tries his hand at romance after two big flops in Sathyam and Thoranai. But its a half-hearted effort as neither Vishal nor the director is able to turn their backs on action and Vishal’s image completely. So Theeraadha Vilaiyaattu Pillai ends up stuck between being a wishy-washy romance and a weak actioner.

Karthik(Vishal) wants to always have the best in life and he ensures that by analyzing several options before making his choice. He extends the same policy to the woman he is going to spend the rest of his life with and so decides to select three women to fall in love with and then pick one to wed. His choices are Jyoti(Tanushree Datta), a man-hater, Priya(Sara-Jane Dias), an idealist who wants to fall in love once with the right man and marry him, and Tejaswini(Neetu Chandra), the heiress to an enormous fortune. Karthik follows different approaches to woo them and succeeds in making all 3 women fall for him.

The film avoids painting Vishal as a playboy by giving him a reason – a policy – for carrying on multiple romances at the same time. But that doesn’t translate to his character having any more depth as he shows no seriousness and spends no time in picking the 3 contenders for the woman he is going to spend the rest of his life with. We never understand what exactly he wants in the woman of his dreams since the three women have nothing in common and his selection just seems arbitrary. It doesn’t come as a big surprise that the three women Vishal chooses fare even worse. We know only enough about them as required for the story to move forward and the little we do get to know isn’t too flattering.

With such poorly-developed characters, its no wonder that Vishal’s acts and lies to win the three girls’ love barely evoke our interest. The film quickly becomes repetitive as we get a scene of Vishal with his three friends followed by one scene each of him impressing each of the heroines and this sequence is repeated for a while. And the proclamation of Vishal that three North Indian heroines were chosen to maintain the suspense about who he will eventually end up with is quickly proved song since it is pretty clear who he will pick, from the first time we see the three women.

From a romantic comedy, the movie suddenly morphs into a different genre as Vishal is pitted against one of the women. While this does relieve us from the tedium of watching 3 uninspired romances, the fighting doesn’t make things any more interesting than the romancing. The woman’s plans are complicated and feeble and inspite of a few surprising moments, there are no sparks when Vishal and her go up against each other. Vishal’s challenges and gloats also sound chauvinistic, especially when he rationalizes his actions with some lame reasons.

The climax is overly sentimental but does scale it back a bit at the end. But every movie that features a hero with a roving eye finishes with a cameo by a popular actress and TVP too does the same.

Vishal seems as uncomfortable with comedy as he was in Sathyam and he isn’t all that smooth when it comes to romance either. He is fine when it comes to bashing up rowdies though. Neetu Chandra, looking very different from how she looked in Yaavarum Nalam, is the only actress who makes an impression. Tanushree Datta is more at ease sparring with Vishal than cozying up to him while Sara has a blank expression most of the time and her bad lip sync prevents her from conveying her emotions. Santhanam has the choicest lines among the three friends but Sathyan too gets a few laughs. En Jannal… is the pick of the songs as its music and lyrics change in each stanza to describe each of the 3 women. The title song is catchy and picturized eye-catchingly with bright colors and flashy costumes. Oru Punnagai Thaane… and En Aasai Edhiraaliye… feature some nice locales but the dancing, by Vishal in the former and by Neetu Chandra in the latter, take our attention away from the locales and not in a good way.

Long-due, big update to the reviews site. Reviews for Pugaippadam, Aayirathil Oruvan, Naanayam, Porkkalam, Kutty, Goa, Thamizh Padam and Asal are now online @ the reviews site.

When an actor-director team hits upon a winning formula in their first collaboration, it is pretty unlikely they will mess with it when they get back together again. So its no surprise that Dhanush and Mithran Jawahar, who previously gave us the hit Yaaradi Nee Mohini, are back with another light romance that is a remake of a Telugu film. The results are also the same as Kutty is also a light-hearted affair that manages to keep us entertained inspite of its familiar and predictable story.

The first time Kutty(Dhanush) sees Geetha(Shriya) is when she is accepting the love of Arjun(Sameer Dattani), who is madly in love with her and threatens suicide if she doesn’t reciprocate his affections. But that doesn’t stop Kutty from revealing his own love for her. Worried about losing Geetha, Arjun comes up with a plan and succeeds in making her hate Kutty. But Arjun and Geetha have to get Kutty’s help when their romance runs into trouble.

Kutty does have an interesting protagonist. While Dhanush’s eventual goal is the same as every other hero i.e. get the girl of his dreams, his approach is quite different. The way he reveals his feelings unmindful of either Shriya’s hesitation or Sameer’s anger is cute and unusual. Though some of his acts(like the way he tricks Sameer when going to visit Shriya in the hospital) are predictable, others(like the gift he gives Shriya at her birthday party) are not. Dhanush’s casual approach, Shriya’s confusion and Sameer’s exasperation make Dhanush’s wooing of his girl follow an interesting route.

While Dhanush’s characterization keeps things humorous, Sameer’s characterization ensures that there’s no real drama. Dhanush begins to woo Shriya after she accepts Sameer’s love but the film remains a Dhanush-Shriya love story rather than a love triangle because Sameer is poorly characterized. The way Shriya is coerced into declaring love for Sameer and Sameer’s actions(like the fact that he doesn’t mind embarassing Shriya in order to drive a wedge between her and Dhanush) guarantee that he is more a temporary obstacle in Dhanush’s path rather than a serious challenger to him. Sameer does show some signs of change later but its too little too late since Dhanush has also changed his MO by then.

The uniqueness of Dhanush’s character is lost and the movie becomes a regular love story once the three of them go on the run. There are a lot of contrivances with respect to Dhanush’s house and Sameer taking off leaving Dhanush and Shriya alone but its the familiarity of the proceedings as Dhanush takes care of Shriya that’s the biggest culprit. As Dhanush takes care of Shriya, there’s no doubt about where things are going and the subsequent attempts to introduce suspense don’t really work.

Dhanush manages to make the character his own with his usual brand of casual acting. He is likeable as the guy who takes everything easy but is also able to bring his love to the forefront in the second half. The heroine’s role here is a nice change of pace for Shriya. She is more sedate and less flashy than her usual personas and she is able to bring out the uncertainty her character faces almost right upto the end. Sameer’s character is a loser right from the word ‘go’ and the actor does what he can with it. Srinath evokes a few chuckles as he increases Sameer’s confusion with his comments about Dhanush and his words and actions. Devi Sriprasad has been constrained by the fact that its a romance but there are no duets and comes up with another average soundtrack.

Long-time readers know that cooking definitely doesn’t figure in my list of favorite activities. But so far, it doesn’t look like Karthik has inherited my cooking genes(or lack thereof!). He is an avid watcher whenever mom’s cooking and has apparently learned a lot just by observation since he is always the one to educate me about the different podis and the different paruppus on those rare occasions that I do venture into the kitchen. The other night, when he asked me why he and his sister never have rasam saadham for dinner when only dad was around, I said that I did not know how to make rasam. “It’s so easy appa!”, was his response. So I asked him how and here’s what I got.