Ratsasan

 Ratsasan

2018, Tamil, Disney Hotstar, 8.7/10 IMDB, Directed by Ram Kumar

Amidst the overload of western influenced flicks, here's to a home-made thriller which teases all your senses and still doesn't brag itself of it's worth.

Happy to witness a packed theater on a Monday afternoon show with audience cheering and lauding when the characters brave up.

Here is a strong applause to the team Raatsasan, especially Vishnu Visual for subtly entering in to the main arena to give a tuff to the big names and big banners. Lets welcome the youngster cheerfully for all the calmness he maintained throughout the movie, not an ounce of attitude or super heroness.

Kudos to the much acclaimed 'Mundasupatti' director Ram D, for proving his skills in a totally different genre. Music director of 'Vishwaroopam' Mr. Gibran, has to be given a huge chunk of the credit, that's pouring the movie's way.

The movie opens briefly with an assistant director Arun (Vishnu), giving up his passion and takes up a job in the police force due to family crisis. His passion to make a psychopath thriller induces him to sincerely collect and record the psycho killings across the globe.

The knowledge and the meticulous ledger of data, comes handy to him in nabbing the real life psycho killer of the city.

Now let me not go deep and give any spoilers, as I want you to enjoy the movie the way I did. Not much of gore than we are already exposed to in our country off late. So don't shy away from the thriller and go ahead to watch it with friends.

Amala Paul with her magnetic eyes, does her charm to the movie. She plays a teacher and luckily the story doesn't pressure her to do any of the heroine cliches, except for a 8 year old girl presumed to be hers, later disclaimed with a brief narration.

Characters of 'Mundasupatti' Ramdoss and Kaali Venkat stand out among many others throughout the length of the movie, as we are introduced to few new characters in the second half.

The first half make you wonder what is so special about that movie that wasn't there in Director Myskin's 'Anjathee', Arulnithi's 'Aaaraathu Sinam' or Arun Vijay's Kuttram23, but it slowly proves us wrong as our mind voice literally says, this is 'Adhukkum Mela'..

You get to wonder why the girl characters in their teens are putting up with a misbehaving male faculty and it does annoy you with all the good touch bad touch initiatives we have put them through, it hurts us to see them still falling prey. But hey, later on you are given a braver version of 5 bolder tips especially to the teens who are facing, sexual abuses of all sorts. Special kudos for that..

The villain's story is new and before you doubt if this will go down well to justify all the gore and murders, you get newer dynamics to keep us totally on the edge of the seat. The racy screenplay is too engaging yet beautifully kept in the trademark low profile.

The Assistant Commissioner character played by Suzan does irritate you with her reluctant acting and constipated looks, not pretty sure if that's what the director wanted us to feel. If so, we have a winning performance. She does exactly that.

Clues to kindle curiosity to what the story is about, who the killer is, are sparing, except for the the name of the movie sporting in Piano keys backdrop, soapy bubbles, recordable hearing aid and a few more(don't want to give away too much).

I am personally happy for the team, to see the audience cheer away when the characters work smart and sighs away when target is missed. The hearing impaired little girl is phenomenal with her expressions in the climax.

An extra mention for the gripping second half and for proving you can catch the attention of the audience with no big names, no big banners, no big cast, no VFX, no CG, no big opening on first day, no sloppy song sequence abroad, no love track.

Just a plain humble thriller.. In spite of limited theaters and limited show timings, just by the word of mouth the movie has succeeded. There are many ifs and buts but no room for postmortem as you walk out contended.

'96'

 '96'

2018, Tamil, You Tube Rental, 8.6/10 IMDB, Directed by C. Prem Kumar

Yet another slow paced emotional school reunion, but have to give it to the director for showcasing the talents of the lead pair.

Much awaited and much spoken about reunion movie with a difference, '96' by the cinematographer turned director C.Prem Kumar.

The mandatory disclaimer 'no birds and animals were harmed', flashes frequently as the movie opens to the hero introduction, projecting him a wild life photographer (yet again), but this sure is painstakingly shot with passion making it stand out among the serious Dhanush's character in 'Mayakam Enna' or the fantasy of madhavan's character in 3 idiots, all credit to cinematographer Shanmuga Sundaram.

Vijay sethupathi, conquers you for the character that he plays called Ram, a shy, timid, skinny, dark, spineless, diffident teen, grown to become a huge bear bearded hulk, a late 30's man, but adorably remains with the same naive qualities as of his teens.

Trisha plays his crush during class 10, a chubby, cuddly, singer Janu grown to become a cute, petite and she remains the same pious self that she was in school.

Life plays 'fate' and they depart in their individual journeys and are destined to meet in a reunion intriged by the social media avert Ram while he accidently passes his school.

One ought to fight back real hard to curtail our flashbacks of similar storielines of Director Cheran's forte where he captured pre marital acquaintances in 'Autograph' and 'Pokkisham' and Director Thankarbachan's beautiful portray of such stories in 'Azhagi' and 'Pallikoodam'.

However, the characters here are more balanced that we inevitably substitute the faces of each with our own classmates and when Vijay loiters the empty classrooms, staircases and veranda, the viewers are relentlessly rewinding thier own school corridor, prayer hall, assembly, biology class (I could hear my own distress sigh that mine was an all girl school). At times the class 10 version seems to be painfully slow but some inclination makes you sit through the interval.

The two elobrate versions of what went wrong in separating them for life were dragging but the third version of what Janu would have wanted Ram to have done differently was cleverly visualised.

The supporting casts for the grown up version leave thier warmth in the first half of the movie. You are teased to await what's in store in the second half and you are not disappointed.

The lead pair's exquisite combination scenes of varied emotions, all in just the right proportion, is what makes the movie stand out of the crowd. Both Trisha and Vijay have been conferred with meatier rolls and both have pulled it off with such charisma..

The naive love that they share as teens has been captured spot on in the adult version. The teen singer Janu who sings during free hours at school and Ram who wants to hear her sing Yamunai Aatrile, and she turns it down throughout even in the reunion after 22 years by not singing that as he doesn't voice his request himself.

You are prepared to hear that song in the climax, but never expect it to happens in the dark power cut house of his and palpitation in your heart is escalated many folds seeing Vijay's fluttering reaction in the dark to get a candle from his room. You get a very poorly lit Vijay rushing to and forth of the room but his reactions are priceless. There are many such arousing intense emotions which both Trisha and Vijay emote with elegance.

The scene where Trisha finds Vijay to be as ticklish as he was in his teens, she asks him if he is a virgin, Vijay bashfully brings out his unassuming adolosent self in a visually contradicting XXL body of his.

They get to spend a few hours in the solitude of the night just before her early morning flight and I can hear a friend of mine condemning the director for masking behind sainthood and making the viewer a pervert for expecting something physical between the two, and the director strictly denies us even a sensous hug between the two that we eagerly wait for till the end credits roll.

Another friend of mine says they both may not have this kind of divine soul stirring affection if they were destined to be together, which is true and the director celebrates this quotient as his strength by showcasing the sacred teen love that's alive even after 22 years of disconnect.

Theatrical moments are plenty with subdued BGM and soul stirring songs from music director Govind Menon of Thaikkudam Bridge Band fame.

The climax with her covering his eyes from not looking at her cry and steps away to catch the flight, you are left heavy hearted and a drop of tear does roll down in awe.

Chekka Chivandha Vaanam

 Chekka Chivandha Vaanam

2018, Tamil, Disney Hotstar, 7.8/10 IMDB, Directed by Mani Rathnam

Classy Global Mass Commercial, that succumb to lack of depth in characterization.

The movie opens with an attack on a gangster and his wife, Prakashraj and Jayasudha, just after a Temple visit for their anniversary (does it suppose to scare you or pity them both, it does neither with the amateurish stunt sequence). When in later half it's disclosed who is behind the attack, you wonder why it wasn't planned and executed flawlessly with so much power and resource in hand.

The first half ends with an extended version of the trailers and teasers that by now we are too familiar with. You feel good with the character intros and it even lures to believe they are one happy family with mere sibling differences.

Aravind swamy mirrors a posh version of Inba from 'Ayudha Ezhuthu', with a classy Jothika, his cousin whom he is married to with three kids. Jo's so called responsible daughter in law role lags as her character is diluted and is disappointing as to a missed opportunity to bring in strong hold in the story. Many instances you expect Jo to turn the table and power up the screenplay, but the character falls flat except for the scope to showcase her skills while grieving her father's murder briefly.

Aravind's affair with journalist Aditi, fails to express the need for such a sidelined story in the first place. Missed impact yet again.

When the camera zooms on Dubai backdrop with Arun Vijay making deals with the Arabs, in mid-ocean, Vijay Mallya style and his Srilankan slanged wife Aishwarya Rajesh calls on him in a private boat to inform about the attack on his parents, you are truly left in awe with high expectations, but again its all short lived as the episode of the duo never repeats except for the brief emotions when he meets her in the Dubai prison.

Simbu, plays his true gutsy informal self, with a girl on his arms and in knee deep trouble with Siberia police over some illegal business.

Vijay Sethupathi, a childhood friend of Aravind, a cop, suspended on a note of a poorly explained staged violation (makes sense in the last scene) keeps trailing the three brothers and makes it look circumstantial till the climax. He plays the role way too much in his usual effortless style that the twists of events in the last scene becomes very ineffective as the underplay has gone too far and by then you had already given up on the story.

There are leads for power hungriness in all three sons and Jothika's subtle crave for the same but the lack of details fails to transport us in to their greedy world.

Second half of the story starts to murk down the sibling bond, turning it in to rivalry for inheritance. But here is where the story telling is troubled to translate what the director wished for.

You are thronged with too many loose ends and plenty of unsubstantiated sequence. One is frequently pushed in a void in spite of the ensemble casting and top names on the credits, A. R. Rahman, Santhosh Sivan, Sreekar Prasad..

Every time a character is chiseled on-screen, you keep expecting if that is the link to sync and engage with the storyline and we are repeatedly shunned. Jo's father played by the movie's co-writer Mr. Shiva Ananth, you want his shade to turn black from grey to give more edge to the screenplay but never happens. Jayasudha's sequence with Simbu, that reminds of Srividhya and Rajnikanth from 'Thalapathi', but fails to deliver. The grim faced Aishwarya Rajesh was left stranded half way.

The background score overlaps with the dialogues that you are often left deafened. The songs are all montage versions and we are denied the relish.

The camera is uniquely mesmerizing in all the bird eyed shots.

Clearly chaotic falling short to the hype that's gone overboard. Could have been gratifyingly better if it was a bit more racy and less superficial.

Imaikaa Nodigal

 Imaikaa Nodigal

2018, Tamil, Amazon Prime, 74./10 IMDB, Directed by R. Ajay Gnanamuthu

Director Ajay Gnanamuthu is all set to strike gold this time- with his casting and story line. The strengths of the movie are unmistakably the casting combo, hawk eyed Nayan, Atharva and intriguing Anurag Kashyap.

Fully packed theater just jolts with cheers as Nayanthara's name crops on the screen, a true 'Girl Power' moment. She deserved it for her role pick and role design as she works on giving each of her roles a uniqueness right from the costume to body language to hair dressing. She is turning into an inevitable icon and happy for her.

The movie takes off with a cat and mouse chase of a serial killer Rudra (Anurag) and a CBI investigator Anjali (Nayan) and one is intrigued throughout why he targets to tease Anjali's efficiency. You start to question the ability of Nayan's character with a weird displeasure over the director even. The monotonous chasing is later justified.

Atharva's introduction, his love failure saga does fatigue ones thriller appetite but acceptable as the audience just cheer away our handsome dude and the 'Madras Cafe' celluloid Raashi khanna. (cinnemapaiyan / openpanna S.Abhisek in a tiny role as a model, a sheer lag, but again the director passes all lags as audience roar with laughter)

The layers on Nayan and Anurag's characterization is made to unfold in the second half making it a decent thriller. The revelation of each's motive does pull one to the edge of the seat.

Cameo by Vijay Sethupathi (shame Vijay looks too heavy and unhealthy) just doesn't add magic that it ought to have as his opposite is a pinnacle of beauty in the wedding attire (meticulous in handling Nayan's bridal look as never seen in her precious roles). Love sure is blind, ain't it.

Atharva rocks his role in second half, making one jealous of his toned body, sharp eyes, crisp stunts, suave looks (I can hear my friend beside me commenting on his Burberry shirt). Kudos to the boy and wishes for him to take home plenty laurels including his late dad's share.

Coming to Anurag, initially one is offended with his dub, but a while later you forget it all. We are transported to his world on wondering who he is throughout the first half and taken by surprise in the second half even though one could guess, revenge is in store with Vijay's voice played to his daughter by nayan. He is no wonder toping the chart in bringing the best of his artist in his direction. His psychopathic stare scary yet balanced as not to give away suspense. Content he didn't overdo it and kept his uniqueness till the last frame.

How could I leave without congratulating hip-hop tamilzha for arriving with a bang in a strong casted movie after his K. V. Anand's Kavan. His BGM's for Anurag's scenes were phenomenal and it paced up the thriller quotient of the movie.

R.D.Rajsekaran from Rajeev menon's school took the movie to an elite class through vibrant colors and glossy lighting.

Credits to novelist Pattukotai Prabhakar, for his dialogues (cliches in the love sequences could be forgiven).

The length was a major concern since the director was safe guarding himself from not leaving behind any loose ends. Too many loose ends to tie without compromising on his crowd pulling gimmicks does sag the movie causing concerns but he is saved by the masses.

There's always a next time for amendments. Kudos team.

Merkku Thodarchi Malai

 Merkku Thodarchi Malai

2016, Tamil, Netflix, 8.6/10 IMDB, Directed by Lenin Bharathi

Neither an entertainer, nor a documentary, but a definite stirrer.

A collective biopic of rural humans whom people like me never knew that they even existed. Kudos to Vijay Sethupathi for producing a movie like this to document such lives on the silver screen.

Unfamiliar story line in an unfamiliar terrain with unfamiliar casting, that's the strength as well as the pull down for the movie to lean more towards a documentary.

One liner- A hard working human from a downtrodden background is lashed by fate or destiny or by opportunist or by all of the above?

Story is introduced with the hardship of people travelling towards uphill estates and hamlets without roadways. Sole livelihood is to carry cardamom sacks from hillock to the owners on plains. Cardamon estate's daily wagers are exploited by greedy estate owners while communist unions fights for fare wages. A handy man/messenger hero with an ambition of buying a land of his own is prematurely pulled into this vicious sack carrying trade through marriage. Does he end up buying a land of his own, does he prosper as a farmer, what a poor man's syndrome did to him, is the rest of the story.

Though the story is hard hitting it fails at some point to translate that on screen. Story is new, but you are already familiar with this kind from news about the ill-fated farmers.

I was simply numb when I came out of the theaters just the way our farmers are numb towards fate, environment and society. May be that's what the director wanted us to feel. If so, it sure is a winner.

If there is a real villain one could think of winning the fate with might or with intelligence. But here God seems to be the villain in creating a low socio economic group of people who live and die a mundane life of a looser.

They seem so damn helpless, with either no rain or too much rain to ruin their lives or with a small opportunistic fertilizer vendor who lures the naive people to rise to a land developer and an agro industrialist.

These people are not uneducated, mind it, the hero signs his name and is not a finger printing illiterate.

Urbanization takes a toll on the hero's dream to own a piece of land and flourish as a farmer. A communist fights against roadways amongst the hillock, quoting it might snatch the livelihood of the people as roads might make it easy for machines to take people's jobs. But isn't that the irony that the people are destined willingly to live a measly life with no basic amenities just for the sake of daily wage opportunities?

You are posed with too many such questions and debates as the movie progresses and ends with a sad note that the movie is dedicated to all land less people.

I wonder what on earth are the people shoved to think, owning a piece of agriculture land can give them salvation? All this when global warming and urbanization takes a toll on nature's routine and leaving farmers either as victims or at the mercy of begging politicians or the government for their debts.

It's not the time that I watched the movie that was hard hitting but it's the aftermath that bothers you with 'the hand-tied helplessness' that churns your tummy, and here you go, the movie is a winner.

Prayers for more guardian angles like the green revolutionist and geneticist M.S.Swaminathan kind of clan to help break the vicious cycle that our Indian farmers have gotten into and make them our country's back bone again..

Kudos to all the real lives for being themselves on the screen. I couldn't find any actors just performers..