Paruthi Veeran

Can’t remember the last Tamil movie that had such perfection painted all over it! And what a powerful and mature performance by Karthi(k) Sivakumar and Priya Mani.  Ameer impresses in every aspect of the movie, the simplicity of his script, the meticulous attention to regional flavour and most importantly, his handling of both seasoned and untested actors with a testy script.

Beauty, pixel deep

The guys who turn everyday Trishas 60% fairer have taken their trade to the next level. Digital skin grafting – the secret to Rajnikanth’s fair complexion [via] in Sivaji (and how a British girl had to match Rajni’s every single move).

To begin with, we (Indian artists) did an in-depth study of the European complexion. We found that white skin reflects more light and has less shadow when compared to dark skin and is translucent in some areas. Therefore a simple color correction of the hero’s skin would not achieve the desired effect.

For the shoot a London based young white lady with a fresh complexion and flushed cheeks was chosen and with the help of Cinematographer Mr. K.V.Anand every single shot of the hero was repeated with her because lighting conditions change in every shot.

Sivaji – BOSSa Overa Sodhapitanda Shankar

By Shankar’s own admission, the hype for Sivaji had gone out of his control. To keep up with such an enormous burden, he had to fire on all cylinders and hold on to his grip steady. Somewhere in the second half, he runs out of gas, freaks out and loses his control over the script and any semblance of direction. I kept rubbing my eyes in disbelief! Was this Shankar at his worst! His letdown was worser than what the Indian team pulled off in the world cup.

Rajnikanth delivers his best effort in recent time – the style, the punch-lines; the works. Blame for the letdown squarely lies on Shankar for screwing up such a great chance. A dashing version of the Superstar that everyone’s been waiting for (and not just his fans) has everyone spell-bound. His sheer appearance invites deafening roars from the audience (first day first show’na summava), which itself is worth the ticket. All I wanted was the storyline to back him. Unfortunately, Shankar tanks and takes the movie down with him.

Here are five reasons I left the theater disappointed with the movie:

1. The Script – Agreed! A story with Rajni playing the lead can’t stray too far to offend his fans; it comes with a bunch of clichés and time-tested formula. For Sivaji, Shankar pulls the proverbial dead horse out of the ground and flogs it to the bone. To me, the story was over within 15 minutes after the “Intermission”. Sivaji gets even with Adhiseshan almost too easily, so you’ve drained all the emotions/adrenaline that you were pumping up when you settled down with your interval popcorn. What goes on beyond that is one excuse after another for stretching the movie for the sake of your ticket.

Maya Kannadi

At the heart of Mayakannadi, you could see through Cheran’s sermonizing loud and clear, but unlike his recent hits, the creativity in the screenplay is sorely missing. Mayakannadi is definitely above average, but not captivating or moving. The movie’s clean, music’s great, acting top class, yet this script should have consumed not more than 30 minutes of our lives.

One fine day, Cheran strikes on this amazing idea that he should people should stick to a job that they love and not be swayed by temptations; he decides to make a movie. He comes up with a brilliant 15 minute exposition (the very talented Radha Ravi going with limited edits) that will round off the movie. Now, he’s got to build up another 2 hours worth of story that will lead to this speech. Two hours to transform a person totally out of touch with reality, to the ground. Given Cheran’s talent, it shouldn’t have seemed too long. What do you know?

Chennai 600028

Gully cricket in Madras ranks somewhere above religion. Kudos to S P Charan and Venkat Prabhu (in that order) for daring to dream about making a movie that has its storyline weaving through this version of the game. Credit must also go to Venkat for getting in so many fresh faces and getting them to look and sound natural. Venkat does a decent job with Chennai – 28, but I wished he’d done better than this.

As a movie trying to define a new genre in Tamil, it is neither here nor there. Promising characters are introduced, but not explored beyond the first few frames. The plot seems all too familiar and the game is captured without enthusiasm. I’ll get to each one of those.