#CelluloidCritic

Aravaan (2012)     Director: Vasanthabalan Casts: Aadhi, Pasupathy, Dhansika, Archana Kavi Music: Karthik Language: Tamil Genre: Period Drama   Vasantha Balan’s Aravaan is a period piece set in the 18th century, surrounding the life of society who robs for living. Interesting premise with cleverly etched characters is supported heavily by polished details in the setting and costumes. The film starts off with an engrossing first half, but fails to keep that momentum at the second half, only to pick its pace at the climax. Technically, cinematographer Siddharth have managed to bring the ancient feel to it by his earthy tones and Karthik’s musical debut is above average, but fumbles occasionally with repetitive tones of re-recording. Art Director Aadhi and Pasupathy’s performance acts as a major strength of the film, literally saving the film’s middling screenplay at the second half. Dhanishka looks out of place with urban body language jar...

Muppozhudum Un Karpanaigal (2012) Director: Elfred Kumar Casts: Adharva, Amala Paul Music: G.V. Prakash Kumar Language: Tamil Genre: Romantic Thriller   From the trailer of MUK, one can simply guess that the film is a sleekly made thriller about an obsessive lover. Yes it is but the actual film suffers the same ‘Style over Substance’ fate where breath-taking cinematography, mesmerising music and dashing lead pairs are thrown into a half-baked content. The film’s starts off very abruptly and till the interval, moves quite fast. In fact the first half’s set up seems to be relatively interesting only to make way for feeble pay offs at the second half. The suspense they tried to anticipate at the first half is very predictable and unfortunately, the whole film travels in same old foreseeable format. Ram killing and slashing people as he likes is an amateurish thought and the police forgiving him is more painstaking to watch. The flash back is quite ...

Kadhalil Sothapuvadhu Eppadi (2012) Director: Balaji Mohan Casts: Siddarth, Amala Paul, Suresh Music: S. Thaman Language: Tamil Genre: Romance/Mockumentary   Debutant Balaji Mohan has made an impressive debut with KSY with such a strong grip on the audiences with an engaging screenplay. Personally I would say, 'Two hours pass so fast and it have never felt so worth it and light." It can be boldly defined as one of the best ‘battle of the sexes’ story of the decade. Even if the premise is a tested one, what makes KSY unique is the way the protagonist interacts with the camera once in a while giving a mockumentary feel which is really interesting to watch especially when it is a romantic tale. The director has crafted an appealing line up of characters in the film and have weaved in a message that ‘Love can only be learned together with the blunders which comes with it’. He have not only used young love track to stamp it but also uses a love track be t...

Ekk Deewana Tha (2012) Director: Gautham Vasudev Menon Casts: Prateik Babbar, Amy Jackson, Manu Rishi Music: A.R. Rahman Language: Hindi Genre: Romance Two years back, Tamil cinema got a classic love story through the visionary director, Gautham Vasudev Menon. His decision to remake the film in Hindi was a bold one but something which raised the expectation bar to t he highest. So does the film meet the expectations? Does it have the same effect of VTV? In other words, same passion? Ekk Deewana Tha is a scene by scene remake of VTV with Javid Akthar penning the dialogues and Gautham handing the direction and screenplay. The film starts and 30 minutes into the film, one can might fail to feel the empathy or the chemistry for the characters. A shocking feeling for a Gautham’s film, but the lack of romance surfaces throughout the film. Dialogues do shine at many instances but other negatives such as casting and performance make a huge hindrance to recog...

Dhoni (2012) Director: Prakash Raj Casts: Prakash Raj Music: Ilayaraja Language: Tamil Genre: Drama Dhoni is the directorial debut of a fine actor, Prakash Raj and eventually he excels giving a well thought noble film. The main objective of the film is very clear from the start and Prakash Raj weaves it with interesting line up of characters.  Dhoni has a good message for the academically demanding education system. It never gets deviated from the focus of the film which is rare to see these days. Prakash Raj carries the film with his great acting skills.    However the downside of the film is the generic second half. It eventually becomes very cliché towards the end. After you have watched the film, you might feel like Prakash Raj have been trapped in time, thanks to the melodramatic climax.   Technically the film doe not offer much too. K.V. Guhan's smooth cinematography gives a feel good factor to the film. Editor Kishore's cu...

Marina (2012)   Director: Pandiraj Casts: Siva Karthigeyan, Oviya, 'Pakkoda' Pandi  Music: Girishh Language: Tamil Genre: Comedy Drama   National Award winner, Pandiraj’s Marina is one of the most anticipated film, which marks the debut of famous TV anchor Sivakarthigeyan. As we watch Marina, it clearly can be felt that it was heavily inspired by ‘Saalam Bombay’ and its noble theme of portraying the lives of the poor kids in India. It throws a light on the lives of the people in Marina beach, the second largest beach in the world.    The film takes its time to establish the life of the people in a non-cinematic way. The film has a bunch of interesting character which unfolds as the film runs. The realistic approach must be commendable.    However, the director seems to have lost the treatment he wanted to achieve as the film gets lingered in a documentary format and also a fictional film format. It gives a feeling t...

Vettai (2012) Director: Lingusamy Casts: Madhavan, Aarya, Sameera Reddy, Amala Paul Music: Yuvan Shankar Raja Language: Tamil Genre: Action If ‘Anandham’ evoked the spines of family sentiments, ‘Run’ created a new trend in action genre. When ‘SandaiKozhi’ was loaded with bloodshed of violence, ‘Paiyya’ brought us a fresh genre of road trip of natural humour and love. With ‘Vettai’, Lingusamy have tried to combine all of those values in it and have relatively passed. Now to review. From the looks of the trailer, anyone could have guessed the story of the film. And yes, it is old has a hill. Thirumoorthy (Madhavan) and Gurumoorthy (Arya) are brothers. The latter has a cowardly character which makes his young brother defending him since young. When their father who is a police officer, passes away, Thirumoorthy takes up his job and as usual, his brother defends him and how they take over the criminals together is the story. In words it looks like a dull stere...