Traipsing through underwhelment; some mini-reviews of films.

Miss Lovely (2012 originally/2014 wider release) - I know, I know, this doesn't belong here, but I had to be honest about this. I love a lot of things about this movie; Nawazuddin Siddiqui is number two, while number one is the excellent cinematography. This camera knows where it wants to be, and creates a very interesting visual world for the film, complemented by fantastic period setting and accompanying art direction. Superb. Everything else, though? Plot, characters? I could take them or leave them. The depiction of the sleazy-yet-honest world of the A rating was fantastic, but I was never sucked in, fascinated by what was happening. Was it good? Yes, definitely. But I didn't love it.

Special Chabbis (2014) - I've tried to finish the last hour of this movie for about five to six times now, and I've failed each time. I can't figure it out. This got good reviews, I dig the cast a lot, there's things happening and yet I'm just like, "wow, this is .. something .. I'm going to go do dishes". For a heist movie, that's really bad. But I may be completely alone in this, admittedly. If something amazing happens during the final third of this movie, harass me about this, otherwise, I'm sorry but I tried.

Ishkq in Paris (2013) - This wasn't such a bad movie if it weren't for the fact that it managed to remind me why the film industry is such a rotten business, and it did all of this in a merciful 90 or so minutes. It's a simple enough romcom about two strangers meeting serendipitiously, spending a magical night talking and getting to know each other, only to depart with the intention of never seeing each other again. And yet.. The sound mix is writing cheques (emotional cues and comical effects) the writing of the film can't cash, which makes the film seem like a bad parody of a romantic film. Then there's the absolute tragedy of Preity Zinta, a tragedy too great to cover in such a small amount of space. This movie broke my heart, and I'm still recovering.

Chitrangada (2012) -  I bought this Rituparno Gosh film from Kolkata, as the plot description sounded deliciously ambitious - exploring themes of gender identity, the Chitrangada myth, love and dance all at once. Instead, when I finally sat down to watch this, I found it a slog to get even half-way through. A story about a choreographer (played by the director himself) falling for a drug addicted musician, the film plods along but I didn't connect to the characters, nor did I feel like it was saying anything very substantive. The musician character Partha is just plain unlikable and an obvious mess from the get-go, making the love story difficult to understand or root for. I get the sense that this was an intensely personal film for the late director, but I just felt very detached from it.

Ivan Veramathiri (2013) - I must stress that none of the films I'm covering here are awful, not even Ishqkqkqkq. It's just that thing where a movie fails to hook you in and keep you there for its duration. I saw ads for this Tamil flick while in Chennai and it looked okay enough, and the fact is, it is okay enough - the romance track is a little inane perhaps but Vikram Prabhu is alright and everything else works, yet I just didn't care? Now, a few months separated from the experience, I struggle to remember anything that happened in it, apart from the main points of the plot, and the heroine holding a gold fish in a plastic bag for the hero. I suppose that's something.

Naduvula Konjam Pakkatha Kaanom - wait, what happened?

Bugs, Saras and Bhaji have a problem - their friend, Prem, fell over while playing cricket the day before his wedding, and as result of a concussion, now fails to recall events that happened up to a year ago. Since Prem shows no signs of having a miraculous recovery, the three friends are forced to keep up the charade throughout his wedding day, making sure the marriage goes through, even when Prem fails to recall his bride, much less what happened six minutes ago.

I have to confess I was more charmed by Naduvula Konjam Pakkatha Kaanom (A few pages missing in between, 2012) than I actually enjoyed the experience of watching it. The low-fi aesthetic demonstrates the smaller budget, and in some ways it's very clear that this is the first directorial venture of Balaji Tharaneetharan, who found his story from actual events that happened to his friend (the film's cinematographer, C. Prem Kumar). This is, in many ways, the little film that could, and I really like that about it - a small budget venture that became a cult classic.

With that said, I'm not sure most of the comedy carried over through the translation process. The conceit of the film is to be repetitive - Prem repeats certain things as he instantly forgets what he said, or what has been told to him, and it can be hard to make the same lines gain meaning or comedy through repetition. At times, there's a scene where they succeed in this, and the situational comedy is fantastic because of it - mostly on the latter half of the film. But for the most part, the repetitiveness of both the dialogue and the reaction shots can get a bit dull, and I wonder whether this is where being a native Tamil speaker would've helped. The only subtitles I could find, in a perfect demonstration of how unavailable Tamil films can be to outsiders, were fan-made, but as such, they weren't exactly flawless.

I'm forced to give this a very lukewarm recommendation. I didn't dislike it, but I fear the praise I'd read for it online was so high, it failed to meet it. Still, I'm very happy that alongside bombastic big budget films, Tamil cinema can also produce these smaller, indie gems. 

Soodhu Kavvum - just watch it. Watch it now.

We can only make farcical cinema, as far as politics is considered because politics is farce in our country. Either we can make farce or we can make (it) very dark because there is no middle road.  - Vishal Bhardwaj, TBIP interview

Dark comedies as a genre rely on the audience's ability to laugh at the very things in society that shouldn't make us laugh in the first place, be it death or the immorality of man, or the failure of societal institutions to do what they're supposed to. At times, the label seems to get applied to films that aren't quite as funny as they're perhaps meant to be, but where they fail in comedy, they succeed in some semblance of social commentary, and so the label "dark comedy" gets stamped on them, almost as a cop-out. At its best, though, the genre is genuinely funny, and the comedy emerges from the commentary itself.

Soodhu Kavvum ("Evil engulfs", though according to my DVD, "deceit is addictive") is such a film, a 2013 Tamil comedy that is as side-splittingly funny as it is perceptive about society and morals in society. The film came with high recommendations, but I luckily hadn't heard much about the plot itself, so I could discover every aspect of the movie at its own pace. And it is so good.

The story follows three young losers (Ashok Selvan, Bobby Simha and Ramesh Thilak, pictured above) who live and fail to work in Chennai, until the day they accidentally come upon Das (Vijay Sethupathi), a middle-aged guy with a flourishing career in mid-level kidnapping and extortion and an imaginary girlfriend named Shalu (Sanchita Shetty), who only he himself can see or hear. Two and eventually all three of the guys join this budding entrepreneurial venture, and things are going well, until they decide to chase a bigger payday by kidnapping the wastrel son (Karunakaran) of a morally upright minister.

The script is amazingly funny, and the type of comedy that magically carries over to the decent English subtitle translations in a way that made me laugh out loud constantly. There is an interesting central idea to the film that makes everything fall together in a splendid way - everybody in this film is a crook, apart from the villain, and it is weirdly liberating to laugh at the weird ways in which the world favours the morally loose, corrupt or just plain lazy. The first scene in which we meet Arumai, the minister's son, is one such scene. This guy is an absolute waste of space, so naturally, in this world, he triumphs.

I mean, just look at him. Ugh, go away. (Seriously, though, great performance by Karunakaran.)

Shalu, the sole female character, is of course imaginary, in an (I hope) intentional bit of meta-commentary for Tamil films, where women tend to be eye candy, rather than important characters. Das doesn't treat her particularly well, and while I could find this disturbing in a misogynist manner (you imagined yourself a girlfriend you don't even like? what?), I mostly just find it incredibly hilarious. And the chemistry between them is about what you could hope for, between a weird, semi-drunkard man and his imaginary girlfriend.

"Can we keep him?" she asks, about the child they've just kidnapped. I'm weak with laughter, I love it.

The kidnapping scenes each have so much potential to be genuinely dark and unfunny, and yet they all turn out so comical that they're a delight. Das' rules for humanitarian kidnappings, not extorting big sums but just enough that the one being extorted can afford to pay rent next month, lends the whole thing such an oddball comedic vibe, that it's hard to find them off-putting.

The film was also a constant source of discoveries when it came to the cast, as well. Bobby Simha, who I may have seen before, was incredibly effective, particularly in a scene where he is being appraised as a future film hero by a rowdy who's turned to movie making.

Witness, the next Suriya.

Then there's Vijay Sethupathi, who plays Das.

Guh.

I mean, uhh, he's okay I guess.

That aside, it's just really great to see a Tamil movie that gets it right in every way. It's been a while since that has happened, and as I don't get to see all that many Tamil films, due to scarce availability and lack of subtitles on a lot of DVDs, it's always a joy to find a great film I immediately fall in love with, that introduces me to a whole bunch of new talent, that has a joyous soundtrack, and a fantastic script that is definitely rooted in Indian/Tamil society but also translates to a foreigner such as myself in an effortless manner. Props to the subtitle staff at AP/Ayngaran Anak, who produced the DVD.

And if this sounded at all like your thing, the dark comedy, the farce and the morally ambiguous protagonists, the imaginary heroine and all the rest of it, do give it a go. I mean the film, not kidnapping.

Sorry, "kednaping", of course. 

A month in India, part 6: Biriyani.

It's quite rare that a film that takes inspiration from another film actually references the film it was inspired by, so I was surprised to see Biriyani actually have its characters watch a few scenes of The Hangover, while at a party. Best friends Sugan (Karthi) and Parasuram (Premgi Amaren) wake up one morning, with a hangover, and only flashes of memories about the events that took place after they ran into a beautiful lady while getting late night biriyani. Turns out, during the course of the evening, they've become inadvertently involved in something big, and now they have to run from the authorities, all while trying to figure out precisely what happened during the evening, and who's at fault.

Of course, before any of this unfolds, we have to sit through scenes of their friendship and dynamic, in which Sugan is in incorrigible womanizing asshole, despite having a beautiful, sweet girlfriend in Priyanka (Hansika Motwani), who Parasuram also likes quite a bit. Parasuram is, in a word, a total loser, and Sugan is the go-getter, aided by his good looks and easy nature at every turn. They're not the most lovable bunch, and even though there is some comedy in their antics together, these are not characters you necessarily root for in such a way that when the plot turns serious and full of conspiracy theories, you actually care about what happens to them. Character development is slim.

The saving grace of the film is probably the catchy soundtrack - Ilayaraja's 200th, in fact. But otherwise, the list of flaws is a mile long, despite the fact that when I was watching, I wasn't too bothered by them. In retrospect, though, the film starts out merely okay and gets messier and messier towards the end. The final frame of the film makes absolutely no goddamn sense, even when I poked my movie companion and Twitter friend Bala, a native Tamizhan, to explain things to me.

Later on, during my brief time in Chennai, I enjoyed both an intense hangover and a meal of biriyani, and enjoyed the latter almost as much as I did not enjoy the former. All's well ends well, I suppose.

Remake-mania or manic remakes? Rowdy Rathore and Siruthai.

Both based on the Telugu hit Vikramarkudu, I watched Rowdy Rathore and Siruthai in conjunction with one another, and not by accident. It just so happened that I didn't have the luxury of working subtitles for the Tamil version (Siruthai). After watching Rowdy, I figured I could follow the gist of the story and compare the performances, and began watching. Even without having seen the Telugu original, it was interesting to see both of the remakes that followed it. 

I'm not one to discourage Indian film industries from remaking each other's films, as its a tried-and-tested formula, and gives interesting, new stories different audiences, and bigger audiences. I do wonder though, are some of these remakes perhaps even too fateful to the originals? It seemed as if these movies shared absolutely everything - the highlights as well as the low points. 

The plot kicks off with our hero, Shiva in the Hindi version (played by Akshay Kumar), a thief, stealing things and falling in love with our heroine Paro (Sonakshi Sinha). Eventually a young girl emerges, who insists that Shiva is her father, and from there the story snowballs into an action masala one, filled with horrifying villains, dance numbers, gory violence and duplicates. 

The comedic sidekick in the Hindi version isn't very funny and thus the beginning feels like it's lagging desperately. The romantic comedy portion of Shiva and Paro falling in love isn't quite as amusing as I would've liked, either, and so I was just waiting for the film to get going. Eventually it does, in quite a spectacular manner, and the backstory gives good pay-off as well, but I just never felt like I was too in love with the film. And trust me, I really wanted to be. I mean, Akshay doing an action role with Prabhudeva in the director's seat? Yes, please, more.

Yet something just didn't click with me. It's certainly a passable entertainer, down to great fight choreography (though be warned for gory violence) and fantastic song numbers, in which the music, for whatever reason, reminded me of 90's Bollywood. And in my books, that's only a good thing. There were also a number of delicious cameos in the songs, which I enjoyed a ton. Still, I can't help but feel a bit disappointed. Maybe there's some room for improvement in Sonakshi's acting? I like her, but Akshay definitely outperformed her here, and while the heroine role in the story is a pretty thankless one, she just didn't impress me, so I never felt their chemistry as much as I'd have liked.

Rowdy Rathore is a film I'd recommend for a viewing (if you're into Southie remake action masalas), but wouldn't list among my favourites of last year. It's a shame, because I really wanted to like it more. 

Siruthai had a lot of things going for it (the Paiyaa coupling Karthi-Tamanna as the leads, and everybody's favourite new Tamil comedian, Santhanam as the comedic sidekick) but in the end my thoughts on this film are largely similar to that about Rowdy Rathore. The plot points are replicated so loyally that in Siruthai, the beginning moves slowly as well, and it feels as if the film only really gets going about an hour in.

Of course, the sad thing about not having subtitles for this film was that it made me miss out on the comedy of Santhanam, who I've really grown to like as of late. While some comedians are pretty physical, or very expressive in their faces, making the comedy translate even when there's no subtitled translation or if the subtitles are very unclear. Santhanam's comedy tends to lean towards the more verbal side, however, and having no familiarity with the Tamil language, I was forced to miss out. It's a shame, because in every role I've seen him in thus far, I've really enjoyed him in.

Now, this was my first taste of Karthi in full on masala mode. Paiyaa was masala, too, but his character in it was a rather stern, serious type, whereas Siruthai features some broad comedy besides the action and the romance. I'm not yet sold on the guy - he seems to have the bright-eyed charm of his brother Surya, but he's not quite there yet for me in terms of really selling it. He was merely okay in here, and while I won't mind watching him in the future, I doubt I'll be rushing to get more of his films.

Tamanna was once again a charming presence in a rather flimsy role. She continues to be one of my favourite actresses making a career in the Southern industries (ironic, since much like my former Southie favourite, Jothika, Tamanna is also a Northern girl - she hails from Mumbai). As sadly often in Southie films, it feels like she was there for a bit of romcom and then for the songs, which is a shame, since it's clear she's capable of more substantial roles as well. Regardless, the songs are fun, if fairly forgettable.

In some ways, the near-carbon copy-like remakes the different industries churn out are a commendable effort. Why change a winning formula? I certainly didn't want the Tamil remake of 3 Idiots to alter the plot, because the plot and writing was so good as it was. Of course, you run the risk of replicating the problems, too, as I feel like happened with these two remakes - I've read reviews where people complained the original had a slow beginning as well. But maybe rather that than trying to fix issues and failing to do so, just do the best job you can, replicating the original - it seems that's what both the Hindi and Tamil remakes did here.

Thaandavam - true action is blind.

The biggest joy of watching the Tamil action flick Thaandavam was probably seeing it with stimpy, an old friend and a fellow Vikram fan. With her I could simply chuckle at the ludicrous bits of the plot, and also laugh at the genuinely funny intended comedy (with Santhanam playing a hapless cabbie). Still, the overall take-away from the film was still that it did not quite work. 

Vikram plays Kenny, a blind man who plays piano at a London church. His paths cross with Sara (Amy Jackson), a British-Tamil beauty queen, who quickly falls in love. Meanwhile, a detective (Nasser) is trying to hunt down a killer who kills seemingly random targets, and afterwards always seems to leave behind his driver, the completely foolish Tamilan cab driver (Santhanam), who is not of much help with the investigation...

The first problem with the film is what I described above is only half the story, and in an 90 minute flashback we get to see the majority of the story - Vikram's character's past, and the scheme that lead him to where he is now. This part of the story is genuinely quite gripping, though perhaps suffers from a plot hole or two. It also adds to the cast the hugely likable Anushka Shetty, who also acted alongside Vikram in the splendid Deiva Thirumagal (review here). This all improves the film, but it takes quite a while to get to the backstory, leaving the beginning of the film to feel hopelessly slow. 

Vikram's action sequences as a blind man are pretty impressive and nicely choreographed, but I wish they were surrounded by a better movie. The plot holes really start to stack up towards the end, and when the film ends you're left with more questions than got answered during the film. It's not a good sign when whatever you can't figure out on your own (ie that isn't completely predictable) is just very confusing. While I appreciate that the villains here aren't your usual terrorists, it would've been nice to see a more coherent story around them.

I also emphatically question the casting choice of Amy Jackson, a white British girl, in a film that is strongly about Tamil pride (every Indian in Thaandavam's London happens to speak Tamil, amusingly enough). Kollywood film makers (and Bollywood, Tollywood etc film makers), you can't have it both ways - you can't be about nationalistic or linguistic cultural pride and loudly proclaim that Tamil is best, Tamils are the smartest, and then go and cast a white girl from the model school of acting, clearly picked not because of her acting prowess but because of her looks. We all know the problem with promoting white beauty as the standard in non-white countries; harmless skin-lightening products and the works. I'm not against white actors in films when their casting makes sense (like in English Vinglish, or Rang De Basanti) or when they're actually good actors (I wouldn't tell Kalki Koechlin to hit the road). When the case is neither, I'm just annoyed. Sorry, Miss Jackson, I understand you're just getting work where you can - it's the producers and directors I'm blaming, primarily.

But back to the film: even the soundtrack was pretty uninspiring. Still, I suppose it's worth seeing if you like Vikram, like Anushka and don't mind a bit of Nasser and Santhanam, either (their scenes together are pretty hilarious). Vikram's career post-Raavan/an has been pretty sparse, but seeing as how I enjoyed both Rajapattai and Deiva Thirumagal, I don't really mind the fact that Thaandavam flopped (for me, at least). It's also streaming on the US version of Netflix, so you can easily catch it there if you're a subscriber!

Poovellam Kettupar! Talk to the flowers, because the hand.. er.

It makes perfect sense that in this frothy little Tamil romcom-cum-family drama, the first song includes the lovely Jyothika dancing among flowers. (The title, Poovellam Kettuppar, apparently means "talk to the flowers". Presumably, to hear what they have to say.)

Whatever, I'm into it, epecially knowing that this was one of the first films she did with future-husband Surya. Exciting!

However, it turns out that crux of this tale revolves around the fathers of the protagonists, who are both composers and used to work as a duo. They went their separate ways after a furious argument and have been mortal enemies ever since. 

This is his father.

This is hers. 

Inconveniently for MouchoPrema, for which I watched this film, neither of them have a moustache! I love you, Nassar, but come on, give a girl a 'stache..

But allow our younglings to meet up anyway, unaware of their fathers' enmity towards one another. Wait, didn't Shakespeare write a story like this, once? 

You know, whenever two characters you just know are going to end up together meet on-screen, in my family, we would often comment at the TV, "Those two are going to get married!"

In this case, it would literally be true, and while by no means unique, I always enjoyed the Surya-Jothika coupling. They've had excellent chemistry in pretty much all of their joint ventures, and they seem pretty happy in real life, too. What's not to like?

This is from a scene where she spills a drink on his shirt to try and get rid of him sitting next to her, only he counters by taking his shirt off, and then putting a clean one on. Sad to say, this was one of the better comedy scenes in the movie.

As the film went on, I quickly discovered that the reason I hadn't been recommended this film despite my love for its stars, wasn't that it was crap - it's more that it's just not all that special. It's just your standard romcom with moments of cute and the occasional hilarity, but also some very grating comedy, and a pretty mediocre soundtrack to carry you through these scenes.

Though I will never, ever forget Surya listing 100 flower names.

Because he. Literally. Lists. One hundred. Flower types.

To her.

And this is ..romance, I guess? (Look, I'll just say it now: I think Surya looks weird with a moustache. At least this one.)

Our young couple naturally figure out that their fathers hate each other, and thus their options are eloping or making the fathers see the errors of their ways. For the sake of comedy, they choose the latter option.

She poses as a nurse to his mother, and he on the other hand takes a job as her father's chauffeur. Comedy hijinks a-plenty!

Again, it's not that the leads are bad - they're not - or that the film is boring. It's just in that bland, merely okay category, where I'm not sure I'd rewatch, apart from the songs, and even then only to see how young and cute the leads were in the early 2000's.

Oh, I almost forgot. There's this character, a director, who appears to be the only other significant mooche in the film. How ..disappointing. 

And that's Poovellam Kettuppaar for you. Good enough for a watch, certainly, especially if you're like me and refuse to get over Jothika's departure from Tamil films (she was my favourite heroine! why did you leaaaaave - oh yeah, you married a hot guy and didn't want to work anymore, I guess that's fair enough..) and also love Surya.

Could you remember 100 names for various flowers?

Ayan: an utter Thamizh delight.

Sometimes the blessed Kollywood just gets it right. Ayan is all of the following:

1. a really good Surya film, that makes most people wish they woke up as Jothika tomorrow morning

2. a terrifically solid action entertainer

3. probably the BEST film where the main character is actively involved with pirating films

4. a film so good that I could easily encourage you to get the DVD without even thinking about pirating it!


Surya plays Deva, who smuggles whatever Dass (Prabhu Ganesan, pictured here on the left, also known as That Guy From A Lot Of Tamil Films) needs, be it diamonds from Namibia or pre-release pirated DVDs. The plot is fairly standard, but it's the execution that counts here, and the fact it throws a couple of twists on the way you might've seen coming, but enjoy nonetheless.


Chitti (played by Jagan), Deva's partner-in-crime and friend, is not only the brother of the heroine Yamuna (Tamanna) but also pretty integral to the plot and all its happenings, but I won't say more as to not spoil it.


Basically what this provides is simple, good masala, including fights on Namibian rooftops, awesome song picturizations, cutesy romantic comedy and well, Surya looking really good.



And angry and shirtless.


But mostly just really attractive. There's even a special, adorable little shout out to his wife Jothika, which made me all gleeful.


And the songs are all fun and gorgeous!


And there's even some slightly questionable comedy with women sexually harassing Surya!

Actually, speaking of questionable elements, there's a couple. As can be expected, the portrayal of Namibia and its warlords is pretty brutal, and negative. How much of this is based on reality and how much of it is based on prejudice, it's hard to say, not being an expect on the subject. There is a picturization shot in Namibia, where Surya briefly sports a bizarre curly wig that could be considered a little racist..? But with Indian films you've sometimes got to be grateful that things aren't as offensive as they could be: at least there's no blackface here. There's also the slightly odd "hippie" picturization (first picture of this post) but it didn't bother me that much.


On the whole, this is a gorgeous, fun little film. It's maybe coloured a little over the edges, but it's a good film and one I'd definitely recommend.

I can't handle this amount of cool.

Southie award ceremonies (I'm guessing) - when they seat all your favourites in one row, and Prakash Raaj still somehow manages to be the coolest one in the picture.

Or: my brain goes dhdfkjghkjdfg.

Everything I didn't know to ask for: Ko.

I'd heard the Tamil political thriller Ko (translates Leader according to Wikipedia) was good, but had no idea just how good until I sat down to watch it. Immediately the film was engrossing - the story unfolds quickly, contains a couple of interesting twists and is accompanied by fun songs. It's just a great watch, and simultaneously entertains and makes one think about the establishment of politics, the corruptive nature of power, and the cynicism in all of this.

A photographer (Jiiva) and a journalist (Karthika) begin to uncover the corruption and immoral behaviour of both the opposition and the government, and also discover a new political party rising from obscurity into inspiring masses of people, both young and old. As the story progresses, the two also fall in love - this romantic strand of the plot is probably the film's absolute weakest link, but lends itself to some really gorgeous songs, so I can't fault it too much.

The biggest find of the film was its lead Jiiva (or Jeeva, if you prefer). The young star is well-cast into the role of the brave but idealist photographer, and he's not a bad dancer, either. I've only seen him in this and in the 3 Idiots remake Nanban, but I anticipate watching more of him, as I hear he's also done some rather off-beat roles.

The second delightful thing was just the clever way the story unfolds. It starts off with a bang - an action scene where Jiiva chases down some bankrobbers to snap pictures of them for the cops, and then retreats to the main story. Journalists once again get to be heroes, which interests me. In some other contexts, it seems that journalists would be the villains - anybody who has followed the United Kingdom's phone hacking scandal and the Leveson inquiry into press ethics and behaviour that followed the scandal would know the way in which journalists will occasionally do anything to get the inside scoop.

In  here, the journalists go rather far sometimes, but it's all for a good cause, and they don't break the law or anything. However, the politicians themselves will stop at no length to get what they want - to cast their opponent in horrible light, or to gain more votes. The corruptness of the politicians is almost comical here.

Ajmal (or Ajmal Ameer) plays a young idealist graduate who begins his own party and movement called Wings to counter the two corrupt main parties in the upcoming election. Due to certain events, the Wings party gains followers who are inspired by the goodness and the change that this new movement entails.

The portrayal of the popular new movement is very interesting - it seems to harp back to other popular movements of recent history, like the Obama 2008 presidential campaign, which employed inspired volunteers and iconic campaign slogans (Yes We Can) very effectively. I won't discuss the Wings movement any further as to not spoil anything ... but it is highly interesting, and multi-faceted. Ajmal also does great in the role.

Karthika as the heroine could have been a fantastic role and performance. She's a capable young woman who is good and passionate about her job as a journalist. So how come she ends up being the thing I like the least about this film?

Well, first - look at those eye-brows. They're plucked and shaped to give her a permanently glowering look, which serves as no advantage when you're trying to play a character who shouldn't come off as a stroppy teenager. Even when she smiles, she looks slightly disdainful. As for acting, Karthika doesn't pour a lot of personality into the role. She's just there, pretty and a bit flirtatious at times, but mostly just there, a complete vacuum where a good performance should be.

The script doesn't help by giving the love story a slight love triangle flavour by having a friend and colleague (played by Piaa Bajpai) also have feelings for Jiiva's character. None of it really works as well as it should, and even though Jiiva tries to inject some acting and emotion into the whole thing, it's just something to serve as lead-in to some of the (admittedly really good) songs.

Such as this one.

Speaking of songs, they are really crisply shot and for the most part absolutely awesome - almost worth the DVD purchase alone. Whether filmed in gorgeous locations such as this one, or a club number with a bunch of Tamil star cameos (Surya, Karthi, Tamannah, even the composer Harris Jeyaraj himself!) they're worth rewatching. The only one I was irked by was the obligatory foreign locale song, with the equally obligatory awkward white dancers.

Oh, and Jiiva is thankfully a good dancer, joy of joys!

So if Tamil films are available to you at all, seek out Ko - it's a solid film where the pacing makes sure that three hours of film just fly by, and especially for anybody who is curious about political films in India. This is the best one that I've seen so far, and it's surprisingly thought-provoking for a mainstream film! 

A solid list of solidly okay films: Paiyaa, Bodyguard.

Paiyaa (2010) is your standard Tamil action entertainer with a bit of a twist: the story begins with Shiva (Karthi ie Surya's brother) pretending to be a driver to the girl of his dreams (Tamanna). Pretty soon it turns out she's in in a spot of trouble, and he offers to drive her wherever she needs to go. During the road trip, they learn things about one another, fall in love, and she discovers that - surprise surprise! - he's also got some goons coming after her.

It's a fun little film, but it's nothing amazing. I like Tamanna, and didn't dislike Karthi (this film introduced me to him) and the songs were quite sweet, but after the recommendation by the DVD store clerk, I think I expected something a bit more than an okay film. Regardless, it's a fine effort and probably one I'd have liked more, had my expectations been more reasonable. I think the interesting premise made me want the film to be better than it was, or maybe it was just that this one didn't quite click with me the right way.


The expression "made more money than God" always struck me as peculiar, as surely God's not that big into human capitalist pursuits? Isn't the whole point of religion to rise above materialist desires? Regardless of these logical flaws it's safe to say that Bodyguard made more money than God (if God was to make money .. yeah, I'll just drop this here). I watched it last December and of course completely forgot to review it.

True to Salman's new renaissance as the Southie hero who just happens to be making films in Hindi, this one is actually a remake of a 2010 Malayalam film of the same name. The plot is fairly simple - Lovely B. Singh (Salman) gets hired as bodyguard to protect Divya (Kareena Kapoor). Divya is annoyed by Lovely constantly tailing her, so she starts calling him to distract him from his duties, and pretends to be a girl called Chhaya. Through this little riff, the two fall in love - the film is essentially a romantic comedy wrapped in an action film shell, because there's no way Salman can *not* release a can of whoopass on some bad guys in his films these days.

But what really makes the film worth watching are the last twenty-thirty minutes or so..

I think it's curious that Bodyguard became such an unbelievably huge hit in all accounts. It's a solid film, no doubt, but to me it's not really as good as other similar recent Salman films, like Dabangg or Wanted, both of which I loved, and have rewatched many times. Maybe it's more that the success of the aforementioned films (alongside stuff like Ready which I wasn't a fan of) lead to this super-heightened moment of absolute Salman paagalpan across India. Regardless, it's certainly good enough for one viewing occasion - if only to try and see what made it such an absolute phenomenon.

Run, and how semi-nostalgia bites.

The weirdest thing about watching a film from 2002 in 2012 is precisely that - when you're so used to thinking of early 2000s films as "current", "recent", even "modern", and then there's a very sudden realisation that no, actually a lot of these movies are getting rather old. Of course, old doesn't necessarily mean dated. In some instances, however, it does, at least in some aspects.

Run (2002) is a Tamil action romantic comedy about a guy (R. Madhavan at his absolute most adorable) who meets a girl (Meera Jasmine - ditto!), pursues her, and then gets into trouble for loving her. At the heart of this conflict is the girl's brother (Atul Kulkarni, who is awesome), who is a bit of a rowdy, and there is a cute b-plot where the boy doesn't like his brother-in-law. It was re-made in Hindi two years later starring Bhumika Chawla (remember her?) and Abhishek Bachchan.

Run is far from being a really good film, or even a good film. It's saved by the cuteness of its leads, and the strength of the Vidyasagar soundtrack, but that's about it - the story is unremarkable, the action is not the most engaging (whoever thought that Madhavan would make a convincing badass?) and overall it just has the feel of a very run-of-the-mill early 00's Tamil actioner.

Oh, and there's Vivek, playing Madhavan's friend in his own comedy b-plot, who is unsuccessful in locating his friend in the massive city of Chennai, but is very successful in getting himself into a world of trouble by behaving irresponsibly and carelessly.

The Vivek comedy in this was not incredibly but reminded me of why the guy is a favourite: his character is a terrible, selfish person, but his comeuppance for his bad behaviour is both hilarious and socially critical, as it points out the multiple ways in which people rip off, abuse and exploit other people. You feel bad for him, in some ways, but on the other hand, his misfortunes are caused by his own behaviour - if he just behaved like a decent human being, he might not land in so much trouble.

One aspect of the film is the relentless pursue of Meera Jasmine's character by Madhavan's character. Sadly this feature of the love story is not as dated as it should be - her no's (brought on by her knowledge of her brother's behaviour) go unheard by him, and eventually he is vindicated when she confesses she likes him, but would still rather they not see each other, because of her brother's anger. 

I do like some Indian films where stalking sadly gets vindication like here, but in Run, the love story is just kind of bland, and so it irked me that they included this. Of course, the story does also have the couple continuously running into each other, unintended, suggesting fate has its hand in their love, but the stalking does still feature.

So why did I still enjoy this film, despite its unremarkableness and some unlikable aspects of the story? It had its charm, particularly in the interactions between the leads, and the songs. The film goes out to have songs and picturizations that feel very much "of its time". We get not just on but two Swiss picturizations, which are so beautifully shot you suddenly remember why these song picturizations in a foreign country became a thing. Despite questionable fashion (those fake leather trousers, please never return to us!) the songs are just a delight - beautiful locations, fun dancing, very catchy, poppy tunes. 

For a good example, check out this song - and for a challenge, try not to hum the "duhh dooh duhh" tune afterwards.

What else? Well, Madhavan is really cute in this.

So cute!

Definitely.

Of course, not to be outdone by Meera Jasmine.

Precious! It's interesting that the only other film with these two that I've seen was Ayitha Ezhuthu (ie Tamil Yuva with the Best Cast Ever: Surya, Siddharth, Madhavan), where they play the characters Rani and Abhishek played in the Hindi version. If you know either film, you'll know those parts are a far cry from romantic fluff.

Other things I enjoyed...

Raghuvaran as Madhavan's brother-in-law. There is awkwardness between them, because the marriage took the sister Madhavan's character loved so much away from him. However, the two find common ground as the film goes along, and the subdued character Raghuvaran plays is just fantastic.

And Atul Kulkarni, who I'd gladly see more of, stole the scene whenever possible as the resident baddie. There's a certain subtle, razor-sharp edge to his acting that makes for really good villains, even if the writing doesn't give his character the complete badness that would make it a truly legendary villain.

And so there you go - a middle-of-the-road film that feels very much of its time, in both good and bad.

GRATEFUL NOTE: The DVD I have of this comes from Nina, who years and years ago sent me a bunch of DVD's she no longer had the need for. It's taking me a small forever to get through the films - I think I've still got at least three films to sit through, but I still appreciate her sending me movies, and will hold onto this DVD for whenever I feel like watching some young Madhavan in catchy songs. Thanks, Nina! (Assuming you're still following this blog!)