Pachaikili Muthucharam - very different

All of us know Gautam Menon's film making capabilities and he has just added another feather to his cap with Pachaikili Muthucharam. Before watching the movie, I heard mixed reactions from friends - some saying that the movie is excellent and some saying its crap. I could sense that the movie's opening hasn't been great, but there is something different about the movie which has made people pass extremely opposite judgements. This made me so open about the movie and I watched it with clarity without any bias.

The movie wasn't anything great as hyped, but definitely very different and made me watch with awe. It wasn't slow as some suggested. It was not fast, but brilliantly paced for such a story. Its not a love story, not an action movie, isn't a thriller - but a good movie worth watching at the theatres. Nothing is overdone, but I wonder how a few unparliamentary words escaped the censor. Harris' songs are mellifluous as you would expect. Aravind Krishna's camera should be one of the top highlights of the movie. Inspite of giving us a lot of close-ups, he doesn't hurt us in the eye. People have been shown so real, adding a huge tinge to their performances.

Venkatesh leads a happy and contended life with his wife Kalyani and a school-going son, Nanda. He isn't too ambitious and works for a pharmaceutical company and is stuck to Chennai and even avoids promotions to stay back there. Suddenly, the couple face a huge setback when their son is diagonised with diabetes and he has to take insulin injections daily. Venkatesh, though worried inside, is brave enough to continue the life confidently while Kalyani is downhearted and the beauty of their lives is thrown out of the window. This is when, Venkatesh meets Geetha and their friendship grows, though he is a bit guilty about the friendship. Before the relationship could shape up into an affair, he faces another blow and he loses all the money he had saved all these years. Gautam has moved the play exceedingly well as the hero uncovers some mystery and gains back all that he lost.

All these years, Sarathkumar does well either with a gun in his hand or some grey hairs on his head. Gautam has brought out the best in him without the gun or the grey hair, though he wields the gun towards the end. His skills come to the fore in many scenes like travelling in the call taxi with Jothika, finding his son and giving him an injection (starting scene), pleading with Andrea and many more. Andrea as Kalyani is not a let down. She does well when she is unable to forgive her husband and also later when she forgives and probably forgets. Jothika, I read, was the best part of the movie - but I have to disagree. The director has to be appreciated, yet again, for moving Jothika out of her usual stereotyped roles. But, Jothika was nowhere near the best she can normally deliver. She wasn't looking very pretty too - may be a deliberate attempt to portray her character. Milind Soman doesn't have much to do and one thing Gautam should stop is dubbing for the villain. Its too predictable and not at all gratified. Larger-than-life heroism is absent in the movie which makes you feel like watching the happenings next door and another good aspect of the ending is that the boy's disorder doesn't disappear cinematically.

All in all, I wonder why some people don't like the movie as its definitely a very different and bold movie which has been rendered extremely well by Gautam Menon with the help of Sarathkumar and Aravind Krishna. Though not a great movie superficially, don't miss it as the handling makes it a distinguished one.

Vettaiyaadu Vilayaadu - a definite disappointment

Caught up with Gautam Menon's Vettaiyaadu Vilayaadu (VV) on the second day after its release at Albert cinemas. Heavy rush as you would expect and it took a long time to get a parking space for my two-wheeler. The tickets were ready the previous day itself and so I was delighted to watch VV so early.

The start and the Karka karka... song along with the titles were very striking and I was happy again that I was inside the theatre watching them all. The movie seemed to move fast as a girl (d/o Prakashraj & Rajashree) is kidnapped and one of her fingers is sent to her house later. DCP Raghavan (Kamal) comes into the scene to investigate and figures out that she has been raped, murdered and buried. This happens in Keeranur in Tamilnadu. The DCP vows to catch the crook, though the motives are unknown. After 6 months, the girl's parents move to New York for want of peace of mind and soon they are murdered too in the foreign land, but not buried by the killer.

Now, the movie takes a different turn with Kamal going to New York. The most significant turn is that it gets slower and boring. Probably, Gautam Menon was so overwhelmed by Kamal, thought his presence would do wonders and didn't bother to handle the screenplay better. You even press that button in your watch to check the time and the interval is not there yet. There is a flashback which shows Kamal's bond with Prakashraj (who is also a police officer) and more importantly you also hear the excellent Paartha Mudhal... song. Kamalini Mukherjee appears just for the song and is killed by the villain immediately, who is later encountered to death by Kamal. As Kayalvizhi, Kamalini looks very cute, but too little time on screen to pass any judgement on her skills. As you would expect, there is no finding fault with Kamal's acting - romance, action, grief - his versatility is underlined every now and then. How could a man of his age look so jaunty and fit into any role? To me, he is the greatest ever actor and I don't even want to talk about any doubts. With such a genius at his disposal, Gautam has let everyone down with this product, especially after the Kaakha Kaakha success.

In New York, Kamal saves Aradhana (Jothika) who tries to commit suicide and gets to know that she has had a bitter broken marriage. Later, he accepts Jo and her 11-month old daughter as any hero does. He also investigates the murders along with a NYPD officer, played by Lev Gorn. Both of them find more buried dead bodies, all females - raped and murdered in similar styles to the one found in Keeranur. Now you think, "Oh ok, there's something here and it should be a nice suspense until the hero eventually grabs them by the collar". This is when the greatest disappointment shows. The culprits are shown to us and they kill two policemen as we get the much-awaited snacks break.

Soon after the break, Kamal & Lev zero in on them and enter their locked house. The culprits also come home later and during the confrontation, they accept all their misdoings, but aren't willing to give up. This completely results in tortoising the movie. Then, the villain's justifications, not-so-unusual hero-villain challenges, kidnapping the heroine, chases, some fighting and shooting and finally the villain is killed.

Harris Jeyaraj, somehow has the knack of giving very good tunes for Gautam and has not disappointed. The background scores are laudable and the songs are very good too. New York has been visualized beautifully. Other than that, not many positives to drive home about - atleast nothing that comes to my mind right now. Worthy of waiting for the DVD instead of rushing to the theatres.