10 Endrathukulla Review – 10 Endrathukulla is a Tamil action thriller released in 2015. A skillful car thief gets involved in the kidnapping of a woman without his knowledge. How he comes through the situation is the plot of 10 Endrathukulla.
Director Vijay Milton had aspirations of creating a racy movie with some high voltage action sequences. He has achieved the output he had expected but missed the story by a mile. The situations are very disconnected, this has been mainly due to the fact that the screenplay has been designed to maintain suspense till the end. This has not been successful as the movie does not connect with the audience at all as they fail to connect with the purpose of the protagonist.
Vikram’s performance could not save the engaging factor of the movie. There are enough heroes who are dependent on mass intro sequences, this is not needed for Vikram as he has extraordinary acting skills and dedication that would woo the audience. There is no strong villain in the movie, there are three of them who try to leave the responsibility to the other and in the end it is so fragmented. Retaining the suspense to the very end has caused the screenplay to slow down to a great extent and in many places they have used cliched double meaning dialogues to push it further. Samantha has some solid role to play during the last twenty minutes in the movie which she has done well.
High Points: The stunt sequences have been choreographed very well. There is nothing much apart from this in the movie.
Low Points: The screenplay is predominantly not engaging. Absence of a strong villain.
Overall 10 Endrathukulla is like a sweet cherry fruit dipped in a spicy sambar. Cherry might be delicious but doesn’t go well with the combination. So is the brilliant action sequences built on a below average storyline.
Masala Padam Review – Masala Padam is a Tamil new wave cinema released in 2015. A conflict between online bloggers and a commercial masala film producer results in a challenge wherein the bloggers have to come up with a commercial film script without the cliches in six months and the producer would produce it. To come up with a script they decide to follow three different persons in real life to create their incidents.
First and foremost this is not a spoof movie which it seemed to be due to the casting and some of the promos. Rather it is about making a masala movie.
The movie is a new wave cinema and is abstract for a common viewer. It deals with the core question if making a masala movie necessary to woo the audience. There are a lot of technical references to script writing and the social media. This may not have connected with many folks. I thoroughly enjoyed the buildup portion of the movie and the core conflict. However post the midway the movie’s purpose shifts from script writing to the lives of three people. This is where it lost the plot.
If the script writers for the movie have given more emphasis on movie making itself, it would have been a great movie.
High Points: The plot and core conflict, The scene in which the TV reporter asks a common man if he has seen any reality movie and he refers to the Baasha sums it all, Bobby Simha and Shiva’s performance, there are no unwanted song or dance in the movie.
Low Points: Casting and promotion could have been better for instance for the rom-com hero they could have had a cast who was as popular as Shiva and Bobby Simha, The shifting of core conflict from script writing post the midpoint caused a disconnect.
The movie is well made despite its flaws and definitely would interest you if you are interested in movie making. If you are not interested in movie making then this may not engage you so much. I am giving this a watchable rating for the plot.
The Martian Review – The Martian is an American science fiction film released in 2015. During a manned mission to Mars, the base is hit by a Martian storm. They are forced to abandon the machine and lose one of the crew member Mark Watney in the storm and presumed to be dead. But Mark survives and has to find a way to survive till he gets a help in 4 years. Does he survive is the plot of The Martian.
Director Ridley Scott has struck the right chord yet again to give a movie that is thoroughly entertaining and also appeals to your intelligence. I was not very much impressed with Exodus Gods and Kings, but The Martian makes it up for all. The movie would remind you of many lost alone movies like Cast Away and also the space movies like Gravity and Interstellar. The story is a compelling tale of human perseverance against all the odds.
There is a lot of scientific accuracy behind many of the incidents that take place and a few in which they have taken some creative liberty to bring in dramatic elements. The movie is based on Andy Weir’s novel in the same name. Ridley Scott has chosen to focus on the determination and survival of a person more and let the scientific theories run in the background. This is one of the greatest strengths of the movie which makes it a widely appealing flick. Matt Damon has performed very well and this would be one of his most remembered movies.
High Points: The movie is based on a best-selling Novel, The screenplay captures the essence of human perseverance, The visuals of the Martian planet, Matt Damon’s performance, Scientific theories and their accuracy.
Low Points: Not many low points, the climax I felt was a bit over dramatic.
Overall The Martian is a space movie that you would enjoy as you have enjoyed Gravity and Interstellar. The movie keeps you engaged for two and a half hour and is a trip worth taking when it is in theaters.
Puli Review – Puli is a Tamil fantasy adventure movie released in 2015. Many years ago a superior race known as Vedhalam had won wars over the human race in India and ruled them. The atrocities of their general in the kingdom caused misery to people’s life. Circumstances lead an adopted son of a village chief to take on the might of the Vedhalam race.
There has been enough negative trolling on Puli review on the social media. This increased my curiosity to watch Puli and understand why it could have gone so bad. This review is my take on Puli and an unbiased opinion.
Director Chimbu Deven had treated us with periodic movie Imsai Arasan 23 am Pulikesi. He has now experimented with periodic fantasy movie. Post the era of Vittalacharya there has not been any successful attempt in Tamil Cinema on any fantasy adventure. Even if it had been it has not become wildly successful. Most of the Tamil filmmakers stayed out of this genre for quite some time. The financial budget and relevance of such stories in the modern era should have been the fear.
Vijay and Chimbu Deven should be lauded for going beyond the usual mass masala movie to create a fantasy adventure. It is definitely a welcome change to Tamil Cinema. However where the movie has gone bad is in the script writing department. The plot was in place which has similarities to 1948 classic Vedhala Ulagam starring T.R Mahalingam directed by A.V Meiyappan, Pa. Neelakantan and M.V Raman. Many of the trollers in social media may not have been aware of such a movie which was a mass entertainer of its time and beats many of the fantasy movie stories that are out there in the west.
In the movie Puli the writers have fallen prey to push mass masala film elements which seem out of place. The dual between Sudeep and Viay is one of the important portions of the movie. Sudeep says, “Intha kottaikke Thalapathy naan thaan” and Vijay replies “Intha kottaikkuthane…” looks very cliched and out of place for the movie. The film is filled with such cliches throughout including the dance numbers that doesn’t fit the genre of the movie barring one song which happens in the Kingdom.
The first half of the movie is long and boring. I felt why did I come for this movie. The scenes were too disconnected, the artists eye line match was out of place in many occasions. This is sure to test your patience and by the time the interval block comes it would have disconnected the audience from the movie. The second half of the movie which seems to be the actual story which the director wanted to convey is sure to engage you in a much better fashion. Thanks to the characterisation of Sudeep and Sridevi who help in making the movie watchable. If someone walked into the movie hall just for the second half they might be wondering why people are upset about the movie. Shruthi Haasan and Hansika are just used for glamor quotient. The songs are more jarring to the years than being pleasant.
The big plus for the movie is the production design by T. Muthuraj. He has aesthetically created some of the sets which looks grand and help you connect to the movie. Also, the VFX department has worked hard to add more grandeur to Muthuraj’s set.
High Points: A fantasy adventure genre for Tamil Cinema, Sridevi’s performance, Muthuraj’s production design, Mannavane Mannavane song choreography, Talking birds, frog, Lilliputs would entice kids.
Low Points: Screenplay is a big let down, Cliched mass elements in the movie, Songs and choreography, Title of the movie doesn’t fit in well, There should have been much more creativity in differentiating Vedhalam race and human race, Long and boring first half.
In 2002 Rajinikanth tried a different genre in Baba and it failed when it released in theaters, but later the home audiences enjoyed watching the movie on their TV sets once it was edited and all expectations died down. Vijay’s Puli is one such movie. When it comes on TV hopefully with some of the cliches edited the home audience would like it.
Overall Puli is a wannabe fantasy adventure movie that works in parts in the second half. A better script writing would have helped it to appeal to the audience. Still it is not as bad a movie as it is being trolled about, it could be watched when played on TV.
This week my facebook wall was filled with funny and sarcastic criticism about the recent Tamil movie Puli. There have been really creative meme’s posted which were definitely rib-tickling and became coffee table conversations and Whatsapp forwards. Equally there has been my friends in the movie industry who felt sad that a creation after so much of hard work is being criticised heavily without any regards to the effort the makers have put it.
In this week’s “Friday Fundas” I decided to share my opinions about the behavior and my humble thoughts on whether to fight it or use it to the strength.
Criticism is not a new phenomenon. It has been in practice for ages. It is like an opposition party in a democratic government. Where the critic’s opinions are targeted to shape the quality of the content. Recollecting one of literature discussions we were having one of them had raised a point that a creation doesn’t belong to the writer once it is published. And the readers have complete rights on expressing their views about it.
While on the other had the writers have a different take on it. Writer/Director Brad Bird has expressed his angst against the critics in the movie Ratatouille in the words of the character Anton Ego as below
“In many ways, the work of a critic is easy. We risk very little yet enjoy a position over those who offer up their work and their selves to our judgment. We thrive on negative criticism, which is fun to write and to read. But the bitter truth we critics must face, is that in the grand scheme of things, the average piece of junk is probably more meaningful than our criticism designating it so. But there are times when a critic truly risks something, and that is in the discovery and defense of the new. The world is often unkind to new talent, new creations, the new needs friends.”
And the following scene from the movie Birdman takes a hit at critics trying define what the artist needs to do
They are two sides of the same coin. One needs to exist for the existence of the other. They will shake hands and embrace each other when there is agreement and turn their backs to each other when there is disagreement.
Off late with the advent of social media the amount of criticism a works get has dramatically increased. When a movie is good it is heavily praised and when it is bad it is heavily trolled. In either case it definitely affects the performance of the movie in the theaters.
Social Media has become a necessary evil in promoting products. It has provided a great tool for the movie producers to reach their audience like never before. Compared to the era when weekly magazine articles were the only medium to promote the content now it has become much more easier to take the content to the audience to their personal mobile phones. Also they have the option to hear back from them. While this is powerful it also opens a pandora box of hearing non-favorable comments as well.
Assuming that the reviewers on the social media will become ethical and write responsibly is a wild goose chase. But they could be leveraged to the strength of the promotion. If the source content is good it will definitely get a majority of positive reviews than negative reviews. For instance movies like Kaaka muttai and Maya received very positive reviews which helped the movie while movies like Anjaan, Puli suffered from the negative reviews. More hype the movie creates before the release the more it is going to be reviewed. There is no secret formula for an optimum amount of promotion one could do.
Instead of spending too much energy on worrying about the reviews if the makers invest time in producing quality content then the chance of getting positive word is much more. Now one could argue that no one sets out to make a bad movie. But there certain patterns behind a movie that doesn’t work. One of the major pattern which I believe the Indian movies suffer is screen writing. In India most of the movies are being written and directed by the same person. This is a very diffcult job to do. Unless the director is very talented like Christopher Nolan, Tarantino, Anurag Kashyap, S.S Rajamouli or Vishal Bharadwaj who can write entertaining scripts and also direct good content the quality of the content suffers. In the Hollywood most of the movies have a well established writing department. Or the content is made from literature that is already published. It took Danny Boyle to create a movie based on the book Q&A and not for any Indian director. Spielberg has made movies based on books written by popular authors. His skill has been in directing movies and he does that well. This has enabled Spielberg to work on multiple projects simultaneously. Director Shankar and Maniratnam heavily relied on writers like Sujatha to create screenplay which worked well. Screenplay is the soul of the movie and if you have a great screenplay the movie would work. Increased production quality makes the movie more appealing to a wider level of audience. But if the screenplay is bad the movie would not work. I hope in the future we have the culture of directors more open to work on someone else’s script.
A good movie would work well with the audience and thereby attract more positive comments from people. There has been no movie which has worked for every one. There would be always lovers and haters for the movie. At the end of the day it matters whose count is larger.
Movie makers should stop worrying about the negative comments and concentrate on building a quality movie and believe in it, it will be healthy for Cinema.
