Feb 25 2010
Coming Soon – Vinnai Thaandi Varuvaayaa
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…
19 responses so far
Watching the movie tomm. Initial response looks double positive. Breezy hosanna and omana penne are more catchy to me than the critical choice, aaromale…
Seems like it’s already receiving some good reviews. But I am still waiting for the movie review from bbthots
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VTV is dragging big time, folks in the theater want to walk out after 1st half. The movie have only handful of dialogue and it will just keep repeating till the end, after some time audience started saying all the dialogues before Simbu or Trisha. Initially it looked like the camera work was not good but it was better in the later part of the movie. Songs picturization is great and good to watch in big screen. Overall if you are looking for entertainment and not to get bored after few min of the movie, better to wait for the DVD.
Also as Balaji mentioned in one of his earlier article this is also a movie not to watch with kids. Yesterday found few folks in the theater again with small kids and closing the eyes of the kids when some scenes are shown, of course it is not violence or tragedy – it is romance
The movie started like a documentary, I never felt that it picked up and continued with boring scenes all the way until the end. There some sensible scenes here and there, appreciate the camera work particularly in the songs, from my point of view it is an average movie. May be if you are really a very very very romantic person there are chances that you might like the movie…
I saw the movie last night and found it to be quite good. Dragged a little in the second half but overall definetly worth a watch. I think this is the first film that Simbu has actually acted in and they make a cute and belivable couple. Gautum manages to make an age old movie fresh and entertaining, I think it will be a hit especially with young people. Good cinematograpy and Trisha looked very pretty as well.
“VTV” had a few scenes repeating here and there, Simbhu and Trisha are very cute couple and superb chemistry between them, it’s for them alone, cherish the entire experience of watching the movie, the songs are so beutifully shot, just want to watch one more time just for the music alone…well done Gautham, hope you do more romantic flicks like this, it’s truly an intense experience….Now i’m going to watch the telugu version also, just want to see how Gautham has presented it’s heroine Samantha on screen(she made a cameo in VTV also), songs picturization
(movie was produced on a higher budget) and it’s climax which is said to be in tune with the telugu audience…
though im a big fan of Gautham but hardly impressed with his climax & the 2nd half. Kakka Kakka clima was average & so is VV. Pachai kilimuthucharam was mediocre. so expecting a better 2nd half & riveting climax like what we saw in Jeans. Jeans climax was the one of the most surprising climax we’ve ever seen. the radhika’s outburst takes the movie to another level.
Anyway im a big fan of Gautham’s stories, screen play, editing & cinematography. I think Guatham should opt for more strong actors in Prithviraj, Siddharth, Madhavan & the new bright talent Ganesh venkatraman. Sarath Kumar was a terrible selection & i dont think he’’s suited for Directors like Gautham.
Also the narration of lead actors should be stopped as its hardly interesting.
Yeah, saw the film, it’s one of those films that rely heavily on character relation – but it worked for me. And if it does for you, it would probably be one of the better rated reviews of recent times.
Skandadeva, yes, Samantha’s really BEAUtiful
Must give the film a watch for her role.
And Reza, the best climax of recent times, imho, was Kandukondian Kandukondain – so heart warming, Rahman’s magic, Rajeev Menon’s screenplay and shots and Ajith’s last down to earth role. Vinnaithaandi Varuvaaya’s climax is also quite touching
I saw this in Telugu. quite liked it, except it was a bit slow. I mainly liked Nag Chaitanya, and I’m very surprised Simbu is doing a role like that. Didn’t expect it of him, finally he’s maturing, I think! I’d like to see his version, too (hopefully soon)
bart, I love anbil avan… except for the rather pedestrian lyrics.
Giri, not sure I’ll be able to catch it in theaters this weekend. so review may not be online for a while.
Gopal/Nanda, ur comments r quite contrarian to the reviews on the mainstream sites.
sindu/skanda, ur reviews r more in line with the majority reviews.
Reza, I’d say I’ve liked his finishes so far. KK was unexpectedly dark and VV pleasantly surprised us after all the suspense.
Prin, gotta think a li’l bit more for the best but KK’s was definitely memorable.
Nikitha, yeah Simbhu opting for this role was quite a surprise. and according to him, his next few movies r gonna be romances too!
Balaji, cant wait for your review, i want to hear about your views expecially about the climax scene, many people have like and dislike about it, it’s very different and ends the movie on a High or Low?, not very sure about it…But kind of liked it…It also opens scope for a sequel in the future, Hope Gautham is listening?
Gautham Menon is a great story teller but not a great script writer, all his films have thin storylines which can be summarized by a few lines, he escapes by creating memorable romantic tracks in his films which takes up a substantial amount of the movie time…i got irritated with the romantic track in “Vetaiyadu vilayadu” and “Kaakka kaakka”…was looking forward to a police thriller but ended up watching a romantic flick instead….”VTV” is definetely a classic romanttic movie, which is almost in the same league as “Mauna ragam”
I really wanted to like the movie..in fact really enjoyed the first half! But the last 30 mins was pure unadulterated torture. Trisha’s character, with which I was fascinated till then, turned out completely muddled with constant mood swings and sudden irrational changes of heart. Gautam Menon completely loses the plot (not that there was much to begin with) in the end for his desire to have a novel ending. On the positive side, the camera work was brilliant and justice is finally done to a Rahman soundtrack in Tamil.
VTV and Mouna Ragam in the same league?? you have got to be kidding me?!! That is as blasphemous as blasphemy can get!!
VTV minus Photography and music = Dragging…especially 2nd 1/2.
Balaji, already watched it twice and reviewed it in my blog, but just waiting to know what you write !
Do let me know what you thought about this movie !
sreekrishnan.wordpress.com/2010/02/26/vinnaithaandi/
bb, i really loved the movie…really enjoyed the romance in the first half, the measured performances and the drama of the 2nd half…have sent u the link to my review…hv a look when u find time…
Thot I might miss seeing it over the weekend but managed to watch it
skanda, I was looking for cop thrillers too but I loved the romantic tracks in both movies. and they gained so much importance that i was kinda clear where Gautham’s heart really was.
Kumar, I guess I felt the exact opposite!
sreekrishnan, review will be up tomorrow.
ram, will read it after I post my review.
The only thing different was the slightly innovative climax…
Stereotypical Hero
Confused Heroine
Adamant Father
Stupid Brother
Older Side-Kick for lighter moments
Great Songs (the first 2 esp. and Camera Work, to be expected of the masters behind them)
Need I say more?
The only thing good about the movie was the last 5 minutes for the nice twist
, it made the movie move from pathetic to below average…