Rabble Rousing Random Ramblings

October 07, 2003

Movies

Once again, a long delay in updating the blog. This one is about some movies we've seen over the last few weeks.

Boyz - Its the kind of movie where you leave your brain behind outside the theatre and just enjoy the movie and timepass the ~ 3 hours. There're a few risque dialogues/references, but if the censors thought it fit to go past [for an idea how the censors work, see Thiruda Thiruda below], then obviously it isnt worth worrying about! The movie is about a group of 5 friends, just out of school and possibly in 1st/2nd year of college. The movie shows them do basically nothing but dream and sing of girls, about wanting girlfriends etc. I'm not going to write a review here. Essentially the movie seems inspired by "That Thing You Do!" and the girl-band Viva which broke up in less time than it took for Channel [V] to find them. The movie even features the hero running nude on Mount Road to prove his love. (Ed: Indian cinema has truly come a long way. I remember the times in the late 80s when you were banned from singing 'Ek do teen' and 'Jumma chumma de de' on the roads on the grounds that they encouraged eve-teasing. As an aside, I wonder why none of the hit movies nowadays rely on those fabulous gimmickry of the 80s/90s like the songs with jhankaar beats in the 2nd version of audio tapes as well as including a new song after the movie became a hit [Aaj na chodoonga tujhe from Dil]). Anyway, back to Boyz. Hero and heroine wed when they're still in college [at most 1st or 2nd year!] and walk out on their families. All da boyz get thrown out of their houses, they decide to use their musical talents for food, clothing & shelter and come up with a religious songs album which sells like hot bajjis. Then they get arrested [not past night, silly! Thats only for ministers!] under POTA for writing seditious lyrics in their next album which is for what turns out to be a naxalite group. Then they're released but find they're thrown out of college. They try to impress the Sony Music head honcho with an impromptu recital at a cricket match. They get signed up but in the celebration thanni party, hero and heroine break up. Sony guy says "No female voice, give me advance money back". Guhrl's parents strike a deal. Daughter will sing if she is divorced. Hero agrees for the sake of his friends [one of them had died in a bus accident while trying to locate a call-girl who would attest to hero's virginity] and they end up winning dozens of MTv awards and all in the well that ends in the well. The plus points of the movie are the great songs, picturisation. The minus points are the total lack of a plot and logic.

Thiruda Thiridi - Its the kind of movie you should never ever bother to see. Total lack of a plot, storyline. Hopeless music [except the major hit "Manmatha raasa" number], non-existent acting, comedy etc. The only reasons you may want to see this movie are if you're totally jobless or if there're no other movies in town or if you're following Dhanush's career. This is a totally different role from the one in Kaadhal Konden. This is a proper masala hero. I wonder how the "Vandarkuzhali" number got past the censors when the female voice says 'Idhukku munaadi irundha idam Sonagachi da'

Kaakka Kaakka - The best movie we've seen in the last few months. We couldn't catch this on the big screen, so relied on a pirated VCD version. So we had to make do with a substandard print, poor audio quality, read errors on the CD and the pirate playing censor by snipping off a song 'Thoodhu varuma' and a few scenes before burning the CD. There've not been too many good cop movies in Tamil as far as I can remember. Kurudhipunal was certainly a cut above the rest. I tend to not like 'loud' cop movies, I prefer the understated ones. While movies like 'Walter Vetrivel' and 'Moondru Mugam' were no doubt enjoyable, they bordered on being deafeningly 'loud' [you know what I mean!]. Kaakka Kaakka is about the story of the crime branch of Tamil Nadu police, where there're four friends who've basically been together throughout their cop careers. They're portrayed as trigger-happy "encounter" specialists and mainly deal with the drug mafia. Hero Surya (Anbuselvan) meets heroine Jyothika (Maya) and they slowly fall in love. Anbuselvan is a restrained kind of chap while Maya is vibrant and outgoing. The way they're shown to fall in love is very nice and dignified (they dont run around trees ... well actually they do, but its nothing compared to what you see in other movies). Then the main drug mafiosi in Madras is eliminated in an encounter by the foursome and his brother swears revenge. There're shades of Kurudhipunal in the way the vulnerability of cops to pressure when the family is concerned is shown in the case of Anbuselvan's friend who replaces a loaded revolver with a blank one before Anbuselvan leaves for his wedding, in order to ensure that his captive wife isnt harmed by the villains. Most of the story is narrated as a flashback, as the close-to-death Anbuselvan lies on the banks of the lake a day after his marriage, after the villain & his men attack him and kidnap Maya. The end is pretty predictable, even Maya's death in captivity. But overall it is quite a good picture, worth a dekko or two. The songs are good, the picturisation is also good. Harris Jayaraj could however have been a little more original instead of shamelessly copying his own composition 'Dilko tumse pyaar hai' from the Hindi remake of "Minnale", Rehnaa Hai Tere Dil Mein as "Ondra renda aasaigal". Incidentally, all the movies (Minnale, RHTDM & KK) having the same director-music director combo. Good connect question eh?

Labels: movies, review

Rambled @ 5:57 PM

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