#CelluloidCritic

Urumi (2012) Director: Santosh Sivan Casts: Prithvraj, Prabhu Deva, Genelia, Nithya Menon, Vidya Balan Music: Deepak Dev Language: Malayalam (Tamil Dubbed) Genre: Period Fantasy India’s leading cinematographer, Santosh Sivan has an envious collection of movies containing breath-taking visuals who also knows how to translate his directorial ventures, having a sharp eye in visual storytelling. His name got even bigger when he earned a place in the prestigious American Society of Cinematographers (ASC) members list.   With big casting line up and an epic setting, have Urumi followed up to his previous records? Urumi is a fictional period drama about the events which could have taken place if Vasco Da Gama have turned into India.   Despite a fantasy, the accuracy of that period is not deviated at many instances which make the film quite educative (e.g famous interview between the Zamorin of Calicut and Vasco da Gama in 1498, etc. ) The film follo

Ishtam (2012) Director: Prem Nizar Casts: Vimal, Nisha Aggarwal, Santhanam Music: Thaman Language: Tamil Genre: Romantic Comedy Ishtam, a remake of Telugu super hit film ‘Yemaindi Ee Vela’ have emerged a good set of pre talks as the music album went to become a chartbuster. The anticipation was also raised with Kajal Agarwal’s sister Nisha making her debut in Tamil and the image makeover of Vimal from a village look to a stylistic urban youth. On top of all this, the comically edited trailer flexed the strength of Santhanam’s witty one liners. So does Ishtam lives up to its expectations? Firstly, it is not wrong to remake a successful movie from other language but sometimes certain themes are sensitive and have a ‘hit or miss’ label sticking to it. Ishtam is such. The film starts off in a urban setting where Saravanan (Vimal) is seeking to get married with a bride arranged by his parents and on the other end Sandhya (Nisha) also gets engaged with a groom a

Kalakalapu (Masala Café) (2012) Director: Sundar.C Casts: Vimal, Shiva, Anjali, Oviya Music: Vijay Ebenezer Language: Tamil Genre: Comedy After a 7 years break from directing, Sundar.C who created a new dimension in comedy is back with a typical comedy film with his stamp impressed hard. Kalakalapu makes up for the missed years by offering non-stop tickle to the funny bone. The plot of Kalakalapu is simple and straightforward but what makes the simple plot sparkle is the dialogues and performances. The first half focuses on the struggle of the brothers to revamp the glories of their Masala Café left by their ancestors. The opposite character traits of the brothers makes the events more interesting and this ‘chemistry’ flows through the entire film. The second half of the screenplay marks the entry of Santhanam’s character and from there it is non-stop ‘intense’ comedy. The film then escalates with many plots crossing with each other and many characte

Vazhaku En 18/9 (2012) There are countless of film makers in the industry who add commercial values to different degrees of extent which includes exaggerating reality. But there are only few gems in the list who show reality as it is and Balaji Sakthivel is one if the prominent gem. If ‘Samurai’ was thought provoking, ‘Kadhal’ was hard hitting. If ‘Kaloori’ was soulful, ‘Vazhaku En 18/9’ is a perfect combination of all these aspects.     *First of all, I would not call this a review as I felt very inferior to review a film with such a calibre; therefore, I will be expressing my appreciation to this quality cinema. Quick Synopsis:   The film starts off with the investigation of an attempt murder case. Vel is brought into the custody for investigation by police inspector Mathuravan (Kumaravel). Vel (Sri) is a fun loving youngster who works in a platform food store. The film then travels in a flashback mode, revealing that Vel falls in love with a village gi