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!)

30 Days of Film: Days 6 & 7.

6. Your favorite film from your favorite comedian

In the original version of this meme, when I took it from a blog where the person mainly watched English language films, Day 6 was "Favorite made for TV movie". To my knowledge, India doesn't really make films for TV, or at least I've never seen one, so I altered this a bit. If you're looking to do this meme for all cinema, feel free to change it back to its original form, or alter it again, I really don't mind.

Saamy is a nice Vikram action entertainer which also stars Trisha, but what really pushed it from an okay film I might enjoy rewatching to a film I knew I had to own, was the Vivek comedy track. In the film, he plays a priest that points of logical fallacies and superstitions of people that make no sense, or would be more beneficial to society if ceased. While I can't say I connect to any of these points as I'm not from the culture where these practises exist, I like the societal flavour to the comedy, and Vivek is just great in general. (For a general, and weirdly enough, bilingual review of the film, click here.)

7.  The most surprising plot twist or ending

Truth be told, I'm not huge on plot twists or surprise endings. In my mind, far too many stories rely on them - the "I didn't see that coming" can be awesome when it's actually well-built in terms of little clues that you as the viewer didn't pay enough attention to. In things like thrillers or other suspense-filled genre flicks, you almost expect the big plot twist, so much so that if one arrives, you probably did see it coming, because your brain already worked out all the potential alternatives. What I'm saying is - in certain ways, the plot twist has become a cliché.

There are certainly bad examples (Race) of plot twists, but favourites, hmm. I always had a soft spot for Abhishek's Bluffmaster, even if it is a remake ... and because it is one, it doesn't really count, does it now?

Then there's the film where the plot twist is so good, you almost don't want to mention the film, as to not spoil it to anyone. You'll probably know which one I mean if I just say this: Kolkatta...

That confusing note is all I'll say about my favourite.

Poliisi on ystävämme - Saamy.

Harva elokuva alkaa niin loistavalla esimerkillä kuin tamilinkielinen perusmasala Saamy (2003), jossa pätkän päähenkilö (Vikram) raahautuu aamulla kaljakioskiin, josta hän ostaa yhden ison pullon ohrapirtelöä ja pesee sillä naamansa ja hampaansa. Sitten hän haukkaa aamupalaa sekoittamalla kaljaa idleihinsä (eteläintialaisia riisikakkujuttuja) ja uhoaa erinäisille ihmisille. [Very few movies begin with such a great example as the Tamil basic masala Saamy, where the main character (Vikram) drags himself in the morning to a beer-seller, where he buys a big bottle of beer and washes his face and teeth with it. Then he grabs breakfast by mixing beer with his idlis and telling some people off.]

Hei suomalaiset, rappioalkoholismi toimii Tamil Nadussakin. Biisin jälkeen sankarimme uhittelee poliisille ja vetää paria kyttää aika reilustikin turpaan. Voin hyväksyä tämmöisen meiningin, kun tietää intialaisen poliisin kyseenalaisen maineen korruption petikumppanina. [Hey Finns, destructive alcoholism works in Tamil Nadu, too. After a song our hero defies the police and kicks a couple of cops' asses quite heavily. I'm fine with this sort of behavior, when one considers the questionable reputation of the Indian police as the bedmate of corruption.¹ ]

Valitettavasti alkukohtaukset ovat ovelaa harhautusta, eikä Saamy olekaan leffa katujentallaajasta, joka oikoo poliisin rivejä omankädenoikeudella. Saamy on sen sijaan uusi poliisipäällikkö tai vastaava, joka esitti tavista saadakseen ensikäden tietoa poliisin tekemisistä. Pian hän paljastaa oman identiteettinsä ja asettaa tiukat säännöt Tirunevelin kaupungille. Ja yllätys, homma toimii ihan loistavasti, kun kunnon mies vastaa asioista. [Unfortunately the beginning are a cleverly misleading, and Saamy is not a movie about an ordinary man of the street who corrects the police force with self-delivered justice. Instead Saamy is the new chief of police or something to that effect, who pretended to be an ordinary guy to get first-hand information about what the police were doing. Soon he reveals his identity and lays down the strict rules for the town of Tirunevel. And surprise, everything works perfectly, when a proper man is in charge.]

Paikallisen gangsterin/poliitikon/jonkun naaman kanssa sujuu alussa myös loistavasti, kun Saamy antaa hänelle liikkumatilaa laittomien baarien pitämisen suhteen; kunhan anniskelualueet eivät ole temppelin tai koulun vieressä, kaikki on ihan jees. Jossain vaiheessa suhde mutkistuu ja gangsterista muodostuu pahis, tietty, mitä sitä ennen on luvassa biisejä, romanttisia kuvioita ja tietysti pakollinen komediaraita. [Business with the local gangster/politician/whatever goes smoothly in the beginning, when Saamy gives him space with regards to running illegal booze joints; as long as the alcohol is kept away from temples and schools, everything is fine. At some point the relationship gets more complex and the gangster turns out to be a villain, of course, but before that there are songs, romantic happenings² and of course the obligatory comedy track.]

Komediasta vastaa harvinaisen loistava Vivek. Hän esittää pappia, joka näkee kaikenlaisia yhteiskunnallisia vääryyksiä ympärillään, eikä pelkää protestoida, oli kyse sitten kastisyrjinnästä, virkamieskorruptiosta tai taikauskosta. Hauskaa, ovelaa ja saarnaavaa yht'aikaa! [The truly great Vivek is in charge of the comedy. He plays a pandit who sees all kinds of societal wrongs around him, and is not afraid to protest, whether it concerns caste discrimination, civil servant corruption or superstition. Funny, clever and sermonizing at the same time!]

Romanttisissa kommervenkeissä tapaamme Trishan, joka on eteläintialaisista sankarittarista tähän mennessä näkemäni perusteella ehdottomasti kuivin. Vaikka Trisha on ihan mukava joissain rooleissa, yleensä hän ei yksinkertaisesti liikuta puoleen eikä toiseen, ja siten aina toivoisi, että hän olisi vain leffoissa, joita en edes halua katsoa. Ihan söpöähän tämä juonikuvio elokuvassa oli, mutta aina välillä sitä vain pyöritteli peukaloitaan ja mietti, milloin Vivek tulisi taas saarnaamaan jostain jutusta. [In the romantic side of the plot we meet Trisha, who is out of the South-Indian heroines that I've seen so far the least interesting³. Even though she's quite nice is in some roles, usually she simply doesn't move me either way, and therefore I findm yself wishing she'd only be in movies I wouldn't want to watch. The plot here is quite cute, but at times I'd just twidle my thumbs and wonder when Vivek would come onto the screen again.]

Jos nyt vähän saan omaa sukupuoltani vähätellä, niin biisienhän takia muijat näissä leffoissa joskus on. Saamyn musiikkianti on aika menevää, vaikka lyriikat tuppaavatkin olemaan vain listoja erinäisistä asioista. Tamil on varmasti runollisempi kieli kun nämä sanoitukset onnistuvat kuvaamaan. [If I could undermine my own gender for a moment, then it has to be said that it's mostly for the songs that girls in these movies sometimes are. Saamy's musical offering is quite good, though the lyrics seem to only be lists of different things. I'm sure Tamil is a more poetic language than these lyrics manage to convey.]

Kaikin puolin mukiinmenevä toimintapätkähän Saamy on, ei käy kieltäminen. Vikram antaa tasaisen roolisuorituksen, Vivek loistaa, ja juoni antaa juuri sopivasti paatosta. Silti aina välillä mietin, minkälainen leffasta olisi tullut, jos Vikramin esittämä Saamy ei olisikaan ollut roistojen keinoja käyttävä, poliisivoimia puhdistava kyttä, vaan ankaramman puolen, alkoholiin sortuva kadunmies. Erilainen elokuva, ja ehkä, surullista kyllä, parempi elokuva. [Saamy is quite an adequate action flick, can't be denied. Vikram gives a steady performance, Vivek shines and the plot delivers just enough of pathos. At the same time I sometimes wonder, what the movie would've been like if Saamy hadn't been the rowdy-methods-using cop but the violent, alcoholist man of the street. A different movie, for sure, and maybe, as sad as it is to say, a better movie.]

---

Second bilingual review. Just as shoddy as the first one. My style in Finnish is so weird, ugh. Hate.

Notes:

- "Poliisi on ystävämme" - the police is our friend. Finnish readers may connect this to a song from the 90s..

- ¹ This is what I mean about my shoddy Finnish. I just develop these overly complex sentence structures that end up sounding ridiculous in both English & Finnish. Bedmate of corruption? But I kind of like how it sounds in Finnish, heh.
² Direct translation would be "romantic patterns".
³ Literally translates "dryest".

^{Once again, English translation is shoddy because I am laaazy.}

Like a Sega fight! Sivaji: The Boss.

S. Shankar's megalomaniac project Sivaji: The Boss (now ain't that some title, people?) is a Tamil masala extravaganza that looks like money and tastes like entertainment. The Superstar Rajnikanth plays the typical omnipotent NRI hero who wants to do his blessed homeland some good with his earned riches. His uncle (the brilliant comedian Vivek!) meanwhile helps him find a very "Tamil-cultured" bride, played by the gorgeous Shriya Saran, and naturally we have a villain, who has corruption and thirst for power running through his veins.

Throw in glorious, glorious song picturizations (soundtrack by A.R. Rahman!) and a boatful of meta-Rajnikanth jokes, as well as some references to other Tamil cinema heroes (Sivaji Ganesan, Kamal Hassan, MGR), and stylish action sequences a plenty and you've got Sivaji: The Boss in a nutshell.

In Hindi they have an expression, "paisa vasool" - meaning, as far as I know, "money's worth". The thing I love about Shankar is that he's serving up the crowd-pleasing masala, the incredible visuals and the action in such a large bowl, I wouldn't call it just "money's worth", I'd call it "tip generously!". I especially adored all the Rajnikanth-y Rajnikanth gags, that were all over the place, and was surprised at how much I caught of the more inside Kollywood gags, too.

Vivek's comedy as usual is a mix of English and Tamil gags, but his comic delivery just makes it work, and Rajnikanth naturally also has great timing - the two work magnificently together and the comedy bits were some of the best I've seen in a while.

One may always disagree with the message and the politics of Shankar films (at least those were he has a clear social message), but the man is optimistic and that's admirable. Too bad there is no character such as Sivaji to make India better a country; but perhaps part of the point is to raise awareness of possible Sivajis - that somebody, anybody could take action in the right direction.

My main complaint and the reason Anniyan remains my favourite Shankar movie is that while a lot of things about Sivaji are excellent, the whole lacks something. The over-three-hour film starts to drag at times, and the villain is super-boring. The last hour delivers a few twists to the story, and awesome action, but I was only really engrossed in the songs at that point. The romance could also be tons better, but then, perhaps at this point all of Rajni's on-screen pairings will suffer from lack of believability.

If you want to see what Shahrukh's OSO Rajni-impression was based on, this is certainly one insanely glorious way to educate yourself. (Though I would also recommend Muthu, the first Rajni film I saw.)

Tamil masala 101. Dhool & Arul.

Take one brave and brawny villager. Add a societal injustice, a corrupt politician, a handful of mob connections, spice the mixture up with a love story, songs and a comedy track, stir and serve in DVD format. Congratulations, you have just made a typical Tamil masala film.

This is exactly what Dhool, my first Tamil (or Thamizh as the South-Indian language would more correctly be spelled) masala film, is. But thankfully for my sake, Dhool was a good one. Maybe to the general public it's merely a solid film, but to me it's really special, perhaps being my first, perhaps just being that good. I love it to pieces.

And of course, it has these two. If the prejudice about chubby, unattractive old guys in Southie films had been strong in my head to begin with, Vikram would've negated that pretty quickly. Vivek, right in the above picture, on the other hand made for a safe landing into the comedy tracks of Tamil films; his comedy is language-based but aided by his fabulous acting that makes him funny to even me, who didn't know a single word of Tamil (of course, his comedy uses a lot of English, too).

Vikram plays Arumugam, a villager whose village's water has been polluted by a nearby factory. The villagers decide that taking the issue up with a minister who originates from the village should help matters, so Arumugam, Eeswari (Jyothika) and Eeswari's grandmother travel to Chennai to confront the minister. In Chennai they room with a friend of Arumugam's (Vivek) and are introduced to a second heroine, the glamorous model Sapna (Reema Sen). The water issue naturally isn't solved without a can of whoopass being released upon the baddies, and on the lighter side of things, a romance between the bickering Eeswari and Arumugam develops.

Dhool was one of those films I watched and couldn't get enough of afterwards; Vikram-Jyothika chemistry is just so cute here, the songs are catchy and goofy ("Kundu kundu" especially is one crazy picturization), the violence is entertaining enough and Vivek kills me with his comedy.

I knew I had to eventually get my hands on the other Vikram-Jo starrer, Arul. Again, there is a corrupt politician or rather an unjust system vs one man who kicks ass, and I'll admit that once you've seen this plot feature enough times, it does get tiring, kind of like the college-love-opposed-by-parents in Bollywood gets dull after a few movies. However, Arul's not a bad example of it - the songs are again delightful ("Ottiyanam sai" is the glitziest song I've ever seen!), Vikram-Jo chemistry works and Vikram's performance as Arul, whose father disapproves of him despite the good deeds that he has done, is a lovely one. The character has an utterly ridiculous complex about people swearing, though.


Not that I didn't mostly buy the DVD for the eyecandy, to be honest. I'd say Dhool's a better film of the two, with the caveats that if you've seen the plot too many times and the film doesn't make you a fan of its leads, you might consider it merely okay. And let it also be said I've never been alienated by film violence, unless it's particularly cruel (torture, for example). If you're one of those who cannot stomach any, you might want to give the mass entertainer portion of Tamil cinema a miss.

Don't be a stranger to Anniyan no more.

If somebody was to ask me for the most entertaining film I know, I would answer Anniyan (Tamil for 'stranger') before they had a chance to finish the question.

For Anniyan, Tamil director Shankar's big budget superhit from 2005, contains everything a movie ticket ought to buy you. It has the visuals, the comedy, the action, the romance and a bit of social significance, as well. It's just a big damn movie.

And it's awesome.

The picture here is just an example of the outrageously whacky visuals you get with Shankar films. And how can you not adore them? It's nuts! It's colourful! He also abuses special effects mercilessly, which amuses me greatly.

The plot of the film tells of Ambi (Vikram), a pedantic lawyer, who annoys just about everybody around him. The girl he loves (Sada) is equally unimpressed with the way he deals with problems in society; he will not let a wrong-doing go, and will lecture at people about even the smallest things. Meanwhile, somebody is murdering people in very unusual ways. Ambi's friend (Vivek) works together with the DCP (Prakash Raj) to solve these cases..

If that sounded boring to you, don't worry. Vikram plays three characters in the film, and Vivek provides some of the funniest comedy I've ever seen. And when the film has an occasional lapse in quality, the hillarity doesn't stop there.

Just youtube the song "Remo remo". I dare you not to laugh your head off.

Yep. Anniyan is a film not to be taken too seriously. You can take in the social message, ponder it, turn it upside down, I will even discuss and debate it with you, should you want it. But at core Anniyan sets out to entertain and oh boy, does it ever. I've seen the movie nearly 10 times and never does it fail to do just that.