Tag Archives: Shiva

Action, Drama, Genre, Rating, Reviews, Tamil Movies, Wait for DVD/TV

Vedalam Review

2 Comments

Vedalam Review – Vedalam is a Tamil action drama released in 2015. Ganesh comes to Calcutta with his sister to give her admission into a prestigious art institute. He leads a simple life and is a pleasant company to many. But there is untold dark side to him, not known to others.

The hero is so good and straight forward person you suspect something is going to break. Something breaks and exposes a contrasting personality within him. Now you try to justify the contrasting badass personality by giving a purpose to it and then you want to see the hero win. This is a tried and tested formula for many commercial movies. Baasha being the one which started it all. Then we had seen many movies which were wannabe Baasha’s. Vedalam is one to be added to the list that is entirely banking upon Ajith’s stardom.

The movie has some interesting sequences in parts and it is enjoyable during those sequences. But then the movie falls into the trap of lack of direction, with some cliched emotional drama coming rescue making it an average affair. Ajith’s screen presence is a big strength for the movie. The initial sequences in Kolkatta are enjoyable. The most enjoyable portion of the movie is the character of Vedalam which appears in the flashback. Ajith has changed his body language and dialogue delivery which has worked out well. Lakshmi Menon has a significant role in the movie. Shruthi Hassan just adds in glamour quotient and  just becomes the reason for Ajith revealing the flashback.

High Points: Ajith’s screen presence, The characterization of Vedalam, Comedy sequences

Low Points: High voltage emotional drama which looks cliched. The entire climax sequence looks too easy for Ajith compared to the introduction the Villain had.

Overall Vedalam suffers from the common phenomenon of all the mass entertainers of falling into ordinary cliches. This movie is still watchable for Ajith’s performance. Unless you are a hardcore Ajith fan you might enjoy watching this when played on TV.

Wait for DVD/TV

Genre, New Wave, Rating, Reviews, Tamil Movies, Worth a Watch

Masala Padam Review

6 Comments

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.

Worth a Watch

Comedy, Genre, Rating, Reviews, Tamil Movies, Wait for DVD/TV

Sonna Puriyathu

Sonna Puriyathu – a Tamil Comedy movie released in 2013. The plot deals with the common problem of bachelors who have apprehensions about getting married.  Shiva a dubbing artist wants doesn’t believe in marriage while his mother forces him to get married. She tries to fix his marriage with Anjali who seems to be very orthodox. When Shiva tries varioud ways to cancel the wedding he finds that Anjali also does not believe in marriage and is trying to cancel the wedding. The rest of the story is about how their relationship develops and did they change their opinion about marriage.

Director Krishnan Jayaraj has used comedy as the flavor to tell the story. Coming from Tamizh Padam fame CS Amudhan’s school and with Shiva in the lead this is a given. The subject is very niche and many of the audience may not have connected well to the actual problem. Also the director has used various techniques to keep the audience laughing which again lightens the actual intensity of the problem and the story wavers around incidents which may not be relevant to the plot. Shiva’s template script and he has done what he usually does. Overall the movie is not bad it would make a good watch on TV and may make you laugh even if you do not connect to the plot.

Wait for TV/DVD 

Comedy, Genre, Rating, Reviews, Tamil Movies, Worth a Watch

Thillu Mullu 2

Thillu Mullu 2 – is a remake of the 1981 classic Rajinikant starrer Thillu Mullu. The new one stars Shiva in the lead role, Isha Talwar playing his love interest, Prakash Raj playing the father of Isha Talwar.

It is hard to not keep comparing the remake with its original. If you were to compare it you may not be convinced with the output. If you were to treat this as a movie on its own merits then you would find there are enjoyable parts in the new one as well. The movie turns out to be a slap stick comedy and spoof of original in some parts. This might be because of the casting choice of Shiva playing the lead role and his previous outings. For the script they could have chosen a action hero who hadn’t done much of comedy scripts. Shiva has done a decent job, however he should be careful not getting stereotyped into the role. Prakash Raj and Kovai Sarala has done neat job in their roles. The introduction of Santhanam in the climax was a good improvisation and some good thinking. This is a much better attempt at the remake compared to Bol Bachchan. Overall if you aren’t comparing this with its original and treat the movie on its own merit as a slap stick comedy you would not regret watching it.

Watchable – for fans of slap stick comedy