Film ReView

18. Ghajini (घाजिनी -Hindi -2008)

2009-01-04T06:34:00.000-08:00

Director : A. R Murugadoss
Cast: Aamir Khan , Asin Thottungal , Gia Khan

Imagine the things below :
1) - You saw a Hollywood flick and you like it very much.
2)- You make a Tamil film inspired from it and it became super hit.
3)- You dub the the film in to Telugu and there also it became super hit.
4)-Now you get the chance to make - re - make to Hindi.

what would you do?
You will analyze both positive and negative aspects of your film and make sure when you do it for the third time there will wont be any thing at all to improvise.

Well that is what exactly happened with this movie.
This guy called A. R Murugadoss made something which cannot be improvised.

Today onwards there will be a new standard for other actors who want to show their physique onscreen - set by this guy called -Aamir Khan.

Asin was as great as she did in Tamil.
Lets call her Miss.SunShine.
I remember hearing claps for her funny dialogues and acting when I saw the Tamil version years back.
I heard claps for Asin exactly at those scenes - this time- from a Hindi speaking audience.
I think her job was a bit easy because her scenes and dialogues where almost same as the original.

The picturisation of songs was superb.
The picturisation of " Bhekka "song reminded me about some photographs of "Brian F Peterson"

I was scared about the song of Gia Khan. Apparently she replaces NayanThara in this hindi version.
As I mentioned earlier in Ghajini -Tamil - post - Nayan was a pain in my eyes.
[Her name means - Nayan -> Eyes. Thara- Stars.Now you find the rest]
I was wondering what Gia will do for this song as Nayan has not left any stones un turned.

By Gods Grace , the song did not last for 5 mintes as it originally intended.

I missed the final fight scene which was a major plus point in the Tamil version.

Well , the fights looked pretty ordinary compaerd to what Old veterens do there in Tamil.
Still I think it will be a different expereince for North Indian audience.

If people liked something , you can practically do anything.
:)

17. Ghajini (கஜினி - Tamil) - 2005

2009-01-04T06:05:00.000-08:00

Director : A.R Murugad0ss
Cast: Surya , Asin Thottungal , NayanThara

This happened to the be the first film that I see in the first day of release.
You can guess how it can be if you ever tried in your college days.

And once I returned home I was sure this is going to make history.
That was almost 4 years back.

Surya was absolutely great with his character.
The dress sense was another great plus .

The fight scene at the last would be a mile stone to the grap

Today I saw the Hindi version of this movie and thought I should recall about this movie.

Well this was a movie that had re-defined the word action in Tamil movie.
You can accuse the director of taking the core concept from the English movie memento.

But apart from the core concept , all the rest is his own creation.
There is one more scene inspired from the Movie - Amelie.

But even that scene fit perfect to the story.
There was wonderful songs , great editing and great stunts.

If there is something I really hate about this movie is - the character of played by NayanThara.
There was a song where she does the equivalent of item number.

I was never been embarrassed before like I felt after watching that song.

If I should make my words polite and graceful I should say -the kind of camera angles experimented in it will be a treasure to the western cameramen who work with adult film industry.

16 . Pedar (1996)

2009-01-04T05:51:00.000-08:00

Director:

Majid Majidi

Writers:

Majid Majidi (writer)
Mehdi Shojai (writer)

More at: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0117315/

This is the only Majidi film which failed to make an impression.
May be because it is little bit old.

If you look close - you can see few things that repeats in majidi Movies.
1) A wild River 2) A small stream of water 3) A return trip usually from city to village 4) Something that floats with the water in stream.

15. Baron (2001)

2009-01-04T05:40:00.000-08:00

Director:

Majid Majidi

Writer:

Majid Majidi (writer)

More at: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0233841/

A cute , soft romantic movie with an unique style of narrating.
Great acting from all the actors regardless of the length and importance of their roles.

14 . Ratatouille (2007 , IMDB 159)

2009-01-04T05:22:00.000-08:00

Directors:

Brad Bird
Jan Pinkava (co-director)

Writers:

Brad Bird (screenplay) and
Jan Pinkava (story)

More at: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0382932/

When your medium is life less digital images which is essentially zeros and ones the director has to direct the movie as well as act for all the characters in the movie.

This movie has redefined my concepts about Food , The art of making Food and yes - about Rats.
:) .

If you happened to read the book - Icon - An autobiography of Steve Jobs - you will have a fair idea about animation films.
I mean how difficult it can be.

When you have a fine - end product like this - of at least around 100 greatly talented people what you can say in return?

Thank you very much.

13. അനന്തഭദ്രം (Ananthabhadram-Malyalam)

2009-01-04T05:16:00.000-08:00

Director: Santhosh Sivan

Cast : Pridhviraj , Kaavya madhavan , Manoj K Jayan

A beautifully shot movie in which each single frame carries a signature of Santhosh Sivan.
Of course all the three lead actors have done a great job.

If you really want to point out a draw back in this movie it is the lousy climax.
May be the best in Malayalam in this category.

12 . Slum Dog Millionaire (2008, IMDB 58)

2009-01-04T05:07:00.001-08:00

Directors:

Danny Boyle
Loveleen Tandan (co-director: India)

Writers:

Simon Beaufoy (screenplay) and
Vikas Swarup (novel)

More Info at: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1010048/

I started watching this movie with great expectation but ended it with much disappointment.
There were lot of news and reviews about this movie all over internet.

If I have to believe what Danny Boyle has to say about India , Bombay in particular - yes Ashamed.
I am extremely shamed.
This is a very improbable , eccentric , illogical bundled together .

If you are a Westerner and you like the movie it is just because you like strange things once in a while.

If you are a Bollywood freak and you love this movie , it is just because - this is another stupid bollywood movie which speaks English.

11. A Mighty Heart (2007)

2009-01-04T04:47:00.000-08:00

Director:

Michael Winterbottom

Writers (WGA):

John Orloff (screenplay)
Mariane Pearl (book)

More Info at: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0829459/

A movie based on a real incident.
A perfect film with perfect story,background score,acting,editing,dialogues.
Hats off to the Director- Michael Winterbottom.
Brilliant acting from -Angelina Jolie.
May be the best of Angelina`s performance as an actress.

Archie Panjabi was great as supporting actress and Irfan khan as one of the supporting actr.

An extra ordinary movie which excels in all departments of film making with a perfect 10.

10 : Sivaji ( சிவாஜி )

2008-11-24T10:32:00.000-08:00

No , Am not here to say my opinion, review about the Tamil movie - Sivaji here.
Just because i have millions better things to do with my time. This thing just don't deserve
it.

This is a talk on general terms.

I have nothing against the producers , the common public , actors , other technicians or the director.

Once upon a time director Sankar is someone who made movies like Gentleman and Indian .

There starts my respect to him and there ends the same.

My question is to the common public , thousands , millions who knows the entire population of people who speaks or Understands the language called Tamil.

Where is your common sense?
Where is your brain?

I need someone to explain me why this happens?
What make the very stupid and funny actions of this man called Rajni so attractive?
What make people go crazy about this?

[Again , it is none of my bcness to judge who Rajni the man is. I am talking about the so called SuperStar who can be called as an actor for the namesake]

If there is one film where I saw the Actor Rjanikanth alive - it is Dalapathy.

The rest were Rajni - the star ; not the actor.
Yea , it is like An actor can be a star at anytime. But only someone who knows acting can be an actor.

I remember the story of a Stupid King who wanted the most beautiful dress for him.Somehow he go tit .
Apparently he was told that this is visible to only the real good people. He literally walked around the city naked . Entire people praised the beauty of the dress.
It was a kid in crowd who asked why this man is walking naked?

I believe this man or this phenomenon is the single most destructive influence poisoning
Tamil film. May be there are 10 million who like this.It also make the rest of 62 crores of people
dumbs in front of the rest of the world.

Common , this is ridiculous.

It is ridiculous to make a movie which has nothing but a full hell of stardom.

I think Director Sankar did a shameful act.

It is a real shame to him considering that this same man has made few movies that made whole Indians proud of.

I don't remember the heroin-ic activities.
Well , I remember the flesh show in this film covered in nudity.

There are some people around there who are ready to go to court against every alternate statements of celebrities.
They cant tolerate a speech , they cannot tolerate an English word in film name, they cannot tolerate open talk on sex, they cannot tolerate modern dresses in functions and the list go on.

But they enjoy the films with item number , they laugh on dialogues with double or triple meaning in films , they love to see blood throughout films , they like violence and nudism in films.

Why there a double standards?

09 : Anchathe

2008-11-24T10:01:00.000-08:00

Director: Mishkin
Story, Screenplay : Mishkin
Actors : Narein , Ajmal , Prasanna, Pandyarajan , Vijayalakshmi.

I really liked the movie. Right from the very first shot.
There was a touch of difference in it.
The director has done a great job within the scope of an average tamil movie market without compromising in story and screenplay.

One another aspect of this movie that I felt different is the actors chosen for characters.

I have never imagined the soft guy like Prasanna to do a full time anti-hero character !.
And i am sure , even he did not know.
However he did a great job by playing a negative role with all the mannerisms.

When i saw one of his movie with one of my friend he said this guy- Prasanna does not look like a hero.

I would love to see Anjathe with the same friend to hear his comment this time. :)
May be he don't have six pack right now , may be he dont look like a hero , but if he is able to play a hardcore psycho- serial - murderer and morover convnice you with his ability in acting , well nothing else really matters.
It is good if you have deep throat, big moustache, swollen muscles supported with 100 kg bodyweight to play a villain.
But it takes a lot of acting skills to do the same with a soft sound , soft look , average body mass index . Hats of to Prasaana.

Sure I have not seen many Tamil films.
But I am sure there are lot of films in which Pandyarajan play a negative character.
[correct me if i am wrong]. And he perfectly portraid the character.

Narain and Ajmal did a good job too.
I think Ajmal could do the dialogues a bit better in cetain scenes.

Narain could avoid the "Monkey Jump" that he do before each fight, even though it is the dierctor who is responsible for it. :)

If my guess is correct Vijayalakshmi is the name of heroine.
M sorry if I am wrong.
My point is that this girl is really good in what she did and stunningly beutiful.
She may not be the hottest in town , but really attractive with her innocent smile.

Hope she will concentrate in meaty roles than the flesh show like the rest.

Last note: Felt Bad not to get any images realted to this movie in internet.
May be the people who are responsible for publicity - its time for you to upgrade yourself.!

08 : The Bicycle Thief (1948)

2008-11-24T09:56:00.000-08:00

Director:

Vittorio De Sica

Writers:

Luigi Bartolini (novel)
Cesare Zavattini (writer)

More technical Info here.

A 1948 film which can stir up the emotional quotient of an average movie lover - even after sixty years of release.

A feel good film.

07 : 3.10 to Yuma (2007)

2008-11-24T09:43:00.000-08:00

Director:

James Mangold

Writers (WGA):

Halsted Welles (screenplay) and
Michael Brandt (screenplay)

More Info about technical detail s Here.

A film that enjoyed very much. Each minute of it.!
I selected this film just because I did not have a choice.
I did not know anything about this film.

So it a was a totally unbiased mind frame to start with.
Well that ended up as a fortunate choice.
I got what i wanted from a film.
Breathtakingly shot , brilliant movie!.

One very interesting fat about this movie is its script.
It is thought provoking , sometimes funny , sometimes so romantic as a poem.
You name it.

I think this is a kind of movie that every serious movie lover should watch and learn about various aspects of professional film making.

06 : Pachaikili Muthucharam (பச்சைக்கிளி முத்துச்சரம் )

2008-11-15T07:02:00.000-08:00

Direcetor: Gautham Menon.
Cast:Sarath Kumar,Jyothika,Andrea,Milind Soman

The best thing about I like about Gautham Menon's film is that he never disappoints me.
I decided to see this movie just because I knew the Director is Gautham.

This is a kind of movie which keeps you guessing you till the end of the movie.
The movie is always ahead of you. :)

You just cant guess what happens next.
A real thriller that push you to the edge of the seat.

Milind Soman proves two things 1) He is a great actor 2) He is a brave man to take up a negative role only to excel in it.

Sarath Kumar has done a disciplined acting let us say " Elegant act " comparing to his other movies where he usually try to prove what kind of super human he is.

Andrea , you are a great actress. No fault at all. Just brillaint!.

Jyothika did a good but she could do even better.
Watching her performance is reminds feww things.
It is like she got a specific template for each emotion.

Like a template to use when she is extremely angry , another one to use when crying etc.
Imagine her acting a scene where her character is angry.
Her face will be in 30 degree to the left , 10 degree to the front with a stare.

Anyway the dress sense for every character was perfect , even the style and color of ornamaents that Jyotik`s character uses.

The dialogues were apt and short.

The only falult you may find is the dubbing of the kid's characrter.

I am lucky to see this movie.!

05 : Saroja (சரோஜா )

2008-11-15T06:44:00.000-08:00

Movie : Saroja (2008) Cast: S.P.B. Charan, Siva, Kajal Agarwal, Premji Gangai Amaran, Vega, Prakash Raj, Jayaram.

Music Director : Yuvanshankar Raja

Banner: Amma Creations Cast: S.P.B. Charan, Siva, Kajal Agarwal, Premji Gangai Amaran, Vega, Prakash Raj, Jayaram Direction: Venkat Prabhu

A very weak, ordinary story with an exact proportion of un proportional songs and dialogues bundled together. The only positive thing to remember about this movie is the honest performance of the lead actors.

00 : Index

2008-11-15T06:35:00.000-08:00

18. Ghajini (घाजिनी ) - Hindi

17. Ghajini (கஜினி - Tamil) - 2005

16 . Pedar (1996)

15. Baron (2001)

14 . Ratatouille

13. അനന്തഭദ്രം (Ananthabhadram-Malyalam)

12 . Slum Dog Millionaire (2008)

11. A Mighty Heart (2007)

10 : Sivaji ( சிவாஜி )

09 : Anchathe

08 : The Bicycle Thief

07 : 3.10 to Yuma

06 : Pachaikili Muthucharam (பச்சைக்கிளி முத்துச்...

05 : Saroja (சரோஜா )

04. Mauna Raagam (முனராகம்)

03. Children Of heaven

02. Color of Paradise

01 . Memento

04. Mauna Raagam 1986 (முனராகம்)

2008-11-01T22:31:00.000-07:00

Director: Mani Ratnam
[1986]

It is almost 22 years after release.
It is about arranged marriage. Nope. Arrange marriage is a factor in the movie.
It is about human relationship based on love and mutual consent.

I prefer to see movies when I am alone because I can laugh when i want and I can cry when i want. Without inhibitions.

Few movies can stir up your mind, make you laugh , make you cry , make you think - all at same time.
Within the 2 minutes of movie i felt so happy because of the thought that i picked the right film and i am going to have a nice time!.

The first quality for a film aspirant is observation.
When you observe people u learn a lot of things. It is a kind of language.
Once you master the language you don't need words.
A blink of an eye ,a stare, a smile can means a lot.
As they say a FRAME can say thousand words.
There is a kind of democracy in the sense of characterization. Nobody is too fat to fill up the screen for 2.5 hours. Everybody has got their piece of action.

I happened to see substandard movies of kaarthik and i never knew he was an actor until this.
For Revathy as an actress i really don't dare to judge her performance.
In an age where girls show up their extreme ends of their anatomy , geography and geometry just to earn few extra bucks there is someone who had her share of meaty roles without flesh show.
I was thinking about Shreya in "Sivaji", Nayanthara in "Gajni" .
If you are going to call them as actresses what you call species like Revathy?

Mohan - This is the first time i see his movie. It is difficult to believe this guy acted in many tamil movies , had his share of hits. Such a graceful man with elegent acting and dialog delivery skills!. I doubt someone can ever be softer than this character.

Camera work of P.C Sreeram was so good that in certain frames you wish to to pause the movie and watch the stilll on the screen.

There are 2 mispalced songs in the movie which was not a good idea.
It looks like one item\Semi-item number is a must for maniRatnam.
I have not seen all his movies but there are in :
1) Mounaraagam2) Nayagan 3) Roja 4) Thiruda thiruda 5) Bomaby 6) DilSe 7) Alay payuthe 8) Guru etc.
Not sure why he does compromise on this. Noramlly nudity and flesh show is used to hide the weak story.

Complete List of Movies of ManiRatnam

Pasted from WikiPedia .

Year	Film	Language	Cast	Music Director	Notes
1983	Pallavi Anu Pallavi	Kannada	Anil Kapoor, Lakshmi	Ilaiyaraaja	Dubbed into Tamil as Oh! Priya Priya
1985	Unaru	Malayalam	Mohanlal, Sukumaran, Sabina Jose	Ilaiyaraaja
1985	Pagal Nilavu	Tamil	Murali, Revathi Menon, Radhika Sarath Kumar, Sathyaraj	Ilaiyaraaja
1985	Idaya Kovil	Tamil	Mohan, Radha, Ambika, Goundamani	Ilaiyaraaja
1986	Mouna Raagam	Tamil	Mohan, Revathi, Karthik Muthuraman	Ilaiyaraaja	Dubbed into Telugu
1987	Nayagan	Tamil	Kamal Haasan, Saranya, Nassar, Janagaraj	Ilaiyaraaja	Remade into Hindi as Dayavan Dubbed into Telugu as Nayakudu
1988	Agni Natchathiram	Tamil	Prabhu, Karthik, Vijayakumar, Nirosha, Amala, Janagaraj, Jayachitra	Ilaiyaraaja	Dubbed into Telugu as Gharshana
1989	Geethanjali	Telugu	Nagarjuna, Girija, Vijayakumar	Ilaiyaraaja	Dubbed into Tamil as Idhayathai Thirudathey Dubbed into Malayalam as Geethanjali,
1990	Anjali	Tamil	Raghuvaran, Revathi, Prabhu Ganesan, Tarun Kumar, Shamili, Shruti, Saranya	Ilaiyaraaja	Dubbed into Telugu as Anjali,success at box oofice
1991	Thalapathi	Tamil	Rajinikanth, Mammooty, Arvind Swamy, Amrish Puri, Sobhana, Bhanupriya, Srividya, Geetha, Jaishankar	Ilaiyaraaja	Dubbed into Telugu as Dalapati Dubbed into Hindi as Dal-pati
1992	Roja	Tamil	Arvind Swamy, Madhubala, Pankaj Kapoor, Nassar, Janagaraj	A. R. Rahman	Dubbed into English as The Rose Dubbed into Hindi, Telugu, Malayalam and Marathi as Roja
1993	Thiruda Thiruda	Tamil	Prashanth, Anand, Heera Rajgopal, Anu Agarwal, S. P. Balasubrahmanyam, Malaysia Vasudevan	A. R. Rahman	Dubbed into Hindi as Chor Chor Dubbed into Telugu as Donga Donga
1995	Bombay	Tamil	Arvind Swamy, Manisha Koirala, Sonali Bendre, Prakash Raj, Nassar	A. R. Rahman	Dubbed into Hindi and Telugu as Bombay
1997	Iruvar	Tamil	Mohanlal, Aishwarya Rai, Prakash Raj, Madhubala, Tabu, Revathi Menon, Gouthami, Nassar	A. R. Rahman	Dubbed into Telugu as Iddaru
1998	Dil Se	Hindi	Shahrukh Khan, Manisha Koirala, Preity Zinta	A. R. Rahman	Dubbed into Tamil as Uyire Dubbed into Telugu as Prema Tho/ Dubbed into Malayalam
2000	Alaipayuthey	Tamil	R. Madhavan, Shalini Kumar, Arvind Swamy, Kushboo, Vivek, Sukumari, Lalitha, Jayasudha	A. R. Rahman	Dubbed into English as Waves Dubbed into Telugu as Sakhi remade into Hindi as Saathiya
2002	Kannathil Muthamittal	Tamil	R. Madhavan, Simran Bagga, Nandita Das, P. S. Keerthana, Prakash Raj, Pasupathy	A. R. Rahman	Dubbed into English as A Peck on the Cheek Dubbed into Telugu as Amrutha
2004	Aayitha Ezhuthu	Tamil	R. Madhavan, Surya Sivakumar, Siddharth Narayan, Meera Jasmine, Esha Deol, Trisha Krishnan, Bharathiraja, Janagaraj	A. R. Rahman	Dubbed into Telugu as Yuva Dubbed into English as The Three Dots Simultaneously remade in Hindi as Yuva.
2004	Yuva	Hindi	Ajay Devgan, Abhishek Bachchan, Vivek Oberoi, Rani Mukherjee, Esha Deol, Kareena Kapoor, Om Puri	A. R. Rahman
2007	Guru	Hindi	Abhishek Bachchan, Aishwarya Rai, R. Madhavan, Vidya Balan, Mallika Sherawat, Mithun Chakraborty	A. R. Rahman	Dubbed into Tamil as Guru Dubbed into Telugu as Gurukanth
2010	Ashokavanam	Tamil	Vikram, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, Prithviraj, Priyamani	A. R. Rahman
2010	Raavan	Hindi	Abhishek Bachchan, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, Vikram, Ravi Kissen	A. R. Rahman

03. Children Of heaven (1997)

2008-11-01T22:12:00.000-07:00

Director:

Majid Majidi

Writer:

Majid Majidi (writer)

Before I saw this movie , the word Iran meant sand,desert,guns,beard, Parda and Chaos.
After i saw this movie I understood that the people of Iran are humans just like you and me with flesh and blood. And they got Soul too.

If you can a film to describe the power of innocence and simplicity - this is it.

I prescribe this movie to the Rajnis, Sankars and Kamals of Indian continent who believe billions of money can buy sensibility before they die , just to justify that they too made films at some point of time.

For more info about movie visit:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0118849/

02. Color of Paradise (1999)

2008-10-26T06:31:00.000-07:00

Director:

Majid Majidi

Writer:

Majid Majidi (writer)

Close your eyes for 2 minutes and listen to the world.
If possible continue for two more minutes.
If you cannot do it more than 4 minutes , open your eyes and think about being a blind for entire life.
Do you know how it feels like feeling those dots with finger tips?
connecting those dots , making a word , reading it and understanding it?
Have you ever seen how a the system works in a school for blinds?

And believe me this movie is not a documentary on problems faced by the blinds.
It is about a blind boy`s world and about his family.
I think the the directors from the rest of the world should do an introspection to justify their existence.

Definitely not with the support of Multinational studios this man hailing from Iran makes movies just to say that not all in the tribe is dead.

For more info:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0191043/

01 . Memento (2000, IMDB 28)

2008-10-26T05:51:00.000-07:00

Director:

Christopher Nolan

Writers:

Jonathan Nolan (short story "Memento Mori")
Christopher Nolan (screenplay)

Take a script divide in to 10. Select the 10th one. Play it reverse. In black and white.
Once it reach the end forward it in color.
And after doing the same for the next 9 parts , you will know that it is time to go home.
Well , roughly this is what memento is.

I wont say that the team lack spirit.
You got two options .
1) Prove that the crew behind the movie is intelligent than the audience.
2) prove that the audience is less intelligent than the crew behind the movie.

In either way it is we - the common audience who suffer.
In one angle you can say that this is the only way to make the audience convinced about the life of a man who is suffering from short term memory loss.

Ok , Agreed. Do you want us to be in mafia before watching "Godfather" ?

However , kudos for AR Murugadoss who took the main thread from this film and made a wonderful movie in Tamil - Gajini.
I believe he is an avid viewer of Hollywood flicks after seeing another thread used in Gajini from the great movie - Amelie.

For More about the movie :
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0209144/