Right from Autograph and Thavamai Thavamairandu you expect Director/Actor Cheran to come up with a winner this time. To an extent, Cheran does suceed the viewer but he looses their patience in the 2nd half. Bottom line - Back to rural you go Cheran.
We are introduced to Kumar (Cheran) and Maheshwari (Navya Nair) as hair stylists. Both of them are friends turned lovers trying to come up in Society. One day, Kumar overhears a scheme to becoming rich and he gets Maheshwari to quit their jobs and follow that scheme. Unfortunately, it doesn't work out. The real purpose in life is to get everything that every wealthy person can own. Cheran gets another idea by trying out to be an actor for Tamil Cinema. That also doesn't work out. The rest of the story unfolds such as parents health, money problems and love matter.
Cheran's given his best performance. Watch out for the well-executed scenes such as his acting profile and his scenes with Navya. Navya does okay but she needs to lose some weight. Radha Ravi is adequate. Guest stars, Shwetha Konnur (Malavika), Sarath Kumar, and Arya make their presence felt.
Music by Ilaya Raja strikes a chord in your mind while his Background score (Instrumental of Oyele Yenga...) lingers forever in your heart.
On the whole, Mayakannadi is a average flick that might reflect on your lives but not as much as the Director's past flicks [AUTOGRAPH, THAVAMAI THAVAMAIRANDU].
Rating: ***
Tuesday, May 15, 2007
Sunday, May 13, 2007
Music Review - Sivaji the Boss (TAMIL) (2007)
Gentleman [The Gentleman], Kaadhalan [Humse Hai Muqabala], Indian [Hindustani], Mudhalvan [Nayak - the real hero], Boys, and Anniyan [Aparichit: The Stranger]. What do these films have in common? Director Shankar and Madras Mozart: A.R Rahman [Anniyan's the exceptional work of Harris Jeyaraj.] With a blockbuster hit maker in his resume, he lifts up the people's expectations with his magnus opus entitled, Sivaji the Boss. Starring none other than Superstar Rajnikanth and Telugu heroine, Shriya Saran, it's produced by AVM. Saravanan of the famous AVM Productions. Now you wonder how I took the so-called music of Sivaji?
Let's be frank here, Rahman doesn't give us hits like Chikku Bukku, Pettai Rap, Uravasi, Telephone Manipol, Shakalakka Baby, Saiyaan, or Sa Re Ga Me. Heck, it's a pale comparison to Shankar's superhit album by popular Kollywood MD, Harris Jayaraj who churned hits like Remo and Kannum Kannum Nokia. In fact, it's no Roja or Bombay either.
To sum things up, Rahman doesn't quite gives us the stuff we all loved and hummed to in the 90s. It's purely a rap album filled with maybe 1 or 2 hummables. Better luck next time Rahman saab.
Athiradee kicks off with singers Sayonara and the mozart himself. Honestly, you have to have supersonic hearing to understand lyricist Vaali's words. It's unbelievable that it's a Rahman composition and yet, he's stumbled upon the likes of America's favorite music genre among the teens. It's more or less a pass muster.
Rahman does make up entirely with Baleilakka sung by none other by SPB, Rajni's lucky mascot. Unfortunately, Rahman borrows heavily from Vidyasagar's Devuda from Rajni's mega-blockbuster, Chandramukhi. The female voice doesn't have depth and fails to impress me. Moving on....
Sahana is probably one of the decent tracks in this album. The only downside, it's rendered by nasal nepali, Udit Narayan. Known for his infamous tamil diction, he does that infamously well here but "Tere Bina - Guru", Chinmayee, makes up for Udit's horrible diction. Probably of the better bgm so far. Maybe a tribute to Kuluwalilee from Muthu?
Vaaji... by Hariharan and Madhusree is a average track. Hari, who's ranked as one of ARR's protege's, fails to keep up with Mozart's beats. Madhu tries as hard to be the south Alka Yagnik but she's got a shrieky kind of voice which makes the track unbearable.
Sahara is probably the BETTER version of the song in comparison to Udit's style. Why? Vijay Yesudas makes a perfect lead male singer in TAMIL WITH SUPERB DICTION and his voice will tell you the shades of Dr. Yesudas. Gomathishree does well in her debut as well. For a very short track, one wonders whether Yesudas got gypped for the dictionkiller that is Udit.
Style and The Boss are nothing by noise. Ignoring the barely understandable wordings and annoying rap music, it's a skipworthy no doubt.
Say what you want ARR-Rajni apologists, Rahman fails to impress me with his comeback in tamil. Even his Sillendu oru Kadhal was beautiful in comparison to this atrocious album. Perhaps next time, we could get some of your Roja stuff or better yet, GURU? Please? Shankar should've stayed with HJ for music and have ARR for BGM.
Rating: *1/2
Let's be frank here, Rahman doesn't give us hits like Chikku Bukku, Pettai Rap, Uravasi, Telephone Manipol, Shakalakka Baby, Saiyaan, or Sa Re Ga Me. Heck, it's a pale comparison to Shankar's superhit album by popular Kollywood MD, Harris Jayaraj who churned hits like Remo and Kannum Kannum Nokia. In fact, it's no Roja or Bombay either.
To sum things up, Rahman doesn't quite gives us the stuff we all loved and hummed to in the 90s. It's purely a rap album filled with maybe 1 or 2 hummables. Better luck next time Rahman saab.
Athiradee kicks off with singers Sayonara and the mozart himself. Honestly, you have to have supersonic hearing to understand lyricist Vaali's words. It's unbelievable that it's a Rahman composition and yet, he's stumbled upon the likes of America's favorite music genre among the teens. It's more or less a pass muster.
Rahman does make up entirely with Baleilakka sung by none other by SPB, Rajni's lucky mascot. Unfortunately, Rahman borrows heavily from Vidyasagar's Devuda from Rajni's mega-blockbuster, Chandramukhi. The female voice doesn't have depth and fails to impress me. Moving on....
Sahana is probably one of the decent tracks in this album. The only downside, it's rendered by nasal nepali, Udit Narayan. Known for his infamous tamil diction, he does that infamously well here but "Tere Bina - Guru", Chinmayee, makes up for Udit's horrible diction. Probably of the better bgm so far. Maybe a tribute to Kuluwalilee from Muthu?
Vaaji... by Hariharan and Madhusree is a average track. Hari, who's ranked as one of ARR's protege's, fails to keep up with Mozart's beats. Madhu tries as hard to be the south Alka Yagnik but she's got a shrieky kind of voice which makes the track unbearable.
Sahara is probably the BETTER version of the song in comparison to Udit's style. Why? Vijay Yesudas makes a perfect lead male singer in TAMIL WITH SUPERB DICTION and his voice will tell you the shades of Dr. Yesudas. Gomathishree does well in her debut as well. For a very short track, one wonders whether Yesudas got gypped for the dictionkiller that is Udit.
Style and The Boss are nothing by noise. Ignoring the barely understandable wordings and annoying rap music, it's a skipworthy no doubt.
Say what you want ARR-Rajni apologists, Rahman fails to impress me with his comeback in tamil. Even his Sillendu oru Kadhal was beautiful in comparison to this atrocious album. Perhaps next time, we could get some of your Roja stuff or better yet, GURU? Please? Shankar should've stayed with HJ for music and have ARR for BGM.
Rating: *1/2
Thursday, May 10, 2007
Movie Review: Ta Ra Rum Pum (HINDI) (2007)
Flop after flop after flop. Post Mani Ratnam's GURU, seems that the film industry is going through a terrible phase. Granted, movies like Honeymoon Travels and the latest Bheja Fry seems to be average hits this season. Seems that the year that was 2006 could not be repeated. So now it all comes down to this: Sid Anand (assist director of Kunal "Fanaa" Kohli) who's debut "Salaam Namaste (2005) earned a name in the industry. But does he repeat the same success this time with TA RA RUM PUM? To an extent, but they're are some flaws....
Meet Ranveer Singh (Saif Ali) a New Yorker who has a raging passion for race cars. As a NYker, he tries to win over the sponsors with his passions and stuff, but they don't seem to buy his dreams. Until a Gujju man called Harry (Eggactly's Javed Jaffri) sees his talent in action and offers him his dreams come true. Dubbed by the name "RV", he makes a name in the career. At the same time, he falls for Radhika (Rani) whom he fondly calls her, "Shona", Bengali for sweet. Fast foward two song sequences later, and we get the see RV's mindless money spending in wedding stuff, house, cars, etc which he fondly replies, "it's a loan, an installment."Whatever, we get it! Oh and the kids, adorable! Regarding the money matter, the family goes bankrupt and are forced to live in a Bronx type neighborhood, ala DesiYork. The family encounters robbery, starvation, desperate times for money, health and so on.
While the child artists did justice to their roles, Saif and Rani were the best. Give his fathering character or his moneybags character, he simply rocks. Rani as a mother does a decent job, but it's Javed Jaffri who steals the show. If "eggactly" was the phase in SN, TRRP brings his "Mera # Girlfriend said...." Hilarious jokes and at the same time, serious.
Visual-Shekhar give some good tunes, but 2 of them stand out. "Hey Shona" and "Saiyaan." The rest pass muster. The writing point is good, but sometimes, the whole rag-riches storyline is old as hills. But the dialogues make up for it.
So is the film worth watching? Only if you like the artists. Otherwise, watch for timepass.
Rating ***1/2
Meet Ranveer Singh (Saif Ali) a New Yorker who has a raging passion for race cars. As a NYker, he tries to win over the sponsors with his passions and stuff, but they don't seem to buy his dreams. Until a Gujju man called Harry (Eggactly's Javed Jaffri) sees his talent in action and offers him his dreams come true. Dubbed by the name "RV", he makes a name in the career. At the same time, he falls for Radhika (Rani) whom he fondly calls her, "Shona", Bengali for sweet. Fast foward two song sequences later, and we get the see RV's mindless money spending in wedding stuff, house, cars, etc which he fondly replies, "it's a loan, an installment."Whatever, we get it! Oh and the kids, adorable! Regarding the money matter, the family goes bankrupt and are forced to live in a Bronx type neighborhood, ala DesiYork. The family encounters robbery, starvation, desperate times for money, health and so on.
While the child artists did justice to their roles, Saif and Rani were the best. Give his fathering character or his moneybags character, he simply rocks. Rani as a mother does a decent job, but it's Javed Jaffri who steals the show. If "eggactly" was the phase in SN, TRRP brings his "Mera # Girlfriend said...." Hilarious jokes and at the same time, serious.
Visual-Shekhar give some good tunes, but 2 of them stand out. "Hey Shona" and "Saiyaan." The rest pass muster. The writing point is good, but sometimes, the whole rag-riches storyline is old as hills. But the dialogues make up for it.
So is the film worth watching? Only if you like the artists. Otherwise, watch for timepass.
Rating ***1/2
Movie Review - Unnale Unnale (TAMIL) (2007)
After churning hits like 12B and Ullam Ketkume, cameraman-turned-director Jeeva's latest film deals with relationships. While it's a dead-beaten subject one wonders whether Jeeva succeeds this time. The answer is yes. Jeeva succeeds to a large extent primarly because of the script and it's gripping narration. Ten minutes into the movie and you're a sucker for the film from start to finish. Another plus point is music director Harris Jeyaraj. Chartbusters such as "June Pona" and "Mudhal Naal" are hum addicting. But let's get to the plot shall we?
Karthik (Newcomer Bangalore model, Vinay) is a software engineer, who gets an opportunity to work in Austrailia for a long term project. As he travels to Australia, he encounters his old lover, Jhansi (Anniyan's Sada), whom the two had a fall out in the past year or so. The flashback explains their first meeting at a temple festival along with Karthik's friends (Raju Sundram and Sanath) She gets a liking to Karthik as they meet often, but due to Karthik's habit of flirting with other girls, Jhansi starts to feel jealous or rather obsessive with him and scolds Karthik to the maximum. The result was nothing but a seperation of their relationship. Back to Austrailia, Karthik, encounters the bubbly Deepika (Sarkar's Tanisha Mukherjee, Kajol's sister) who tries to reunite the estranged lovers but in the process falls in love with Karthik as well. The rest unfolds as any other story goes BUT WITH A DIFFERENT KIND OF CLIMAX *hint hint
As far as performances go, Karthik stands tall for a debut. Tanisha, who's last hindi film Neal N'Nikki was a bomb at B.O, regains her stardom with this film. Obviously dubbed, but definetly a hightlight. Ditto goes for Sadha, who steals the show completely with the Preity Zinta of KHNH look. Raju Sundram and Sanath provide you some best laughs in the movie (Watch out for the conversation with his lover, makes you fall down laughing.)
As I said before, HJ derserves kudos for the music as well as Jeeva's camera work. Give Unnale Unnale a watch, a real movie treat!
Rating ****
Karthik (Newcomer Bangalore model, Vinay) is a software engineer, who gets an opportunity to work in Austrailia for a long term project. As he travels to Australia, he encounters his old lover, Jhansi (Anniyan's Sada), whom the two had a fall out in the past year or so. The flashback explains their first meeting at a temple festival along with Karthik's friends (Raju Sundram and Sanath) She gets a liking to Karthik as they meet often, but due to Karthik's habit of flirting with other girls, Jhansi starts to feel jealous or rather obsessive with him and scolds Karthik to the maximum. The result was nothing but a seperation of their relationship. Back to Austrailia, Karthik, encounters the bubbly Deepika (Sarkar's Tanisha Mukherjee, Kajol's sister) who tries to reunite the estranged lovers but in the process falls in love with Karthik as well. The rest unfolds as any other story goes BUT WITH A DIFFERENT KIND OF CLIMAX *hint hint
As far as performances go, Karthik stands tall for a debut. Tanisha, who's last hindi film Neal N'Nikki was a bomb at B.O, regains her stardom with this film. Obviously dubbed, but definetly a hightlight. Ditto goes for Sadha, who steals the show completely with the Preity Zinta of KHNH look. Raju Sundram and Sanath provide you some best laughs in the movie (Watch out for the conversation with his lover, makes you fall down laughing.)
As I said before, HJ derserves kudos for the music as well as Jeeva's camera work. Give Unnale Unnale a watch, a real movie treat!
Rating ****
Tuesday, May 8, 2007
Movie Review - Pokkiri (TAMIL) (2007)
If you've seen the Telugu original by Puri Jagan starring Mahesh and Ilena, stay away from this hackeyned remake.
Vijay's comeback vehicle is appreciated by his "fans" and "repeated audience" by his continous streak of mocking larger than life heroes. Basically, it's Simbhu's thunder taken over by Vijay. Can he act? In non-remakes, but this, no-no. It's more or less a masala film but one of those films that would belong in the b-movie category.
You have your wooden face heroine (Asin), the incompetent comedian (Vadivelu) and you have the most successful actor in South India alas he's stooped to the level of stupidity (Prakash Raj). The mimicry hero (Vijay) is a cop going undercover as a gang member. Learning the ways of their precious leader, Ali-bhai, the rest of the story shifts from crass kuthu songs (What happened to the musical master Mani Sharma from the original? The theme, "Yuthamae" should've been the opening track instead of the deadbeaten "Pokkiri Pongal" track.") to love tracks to corrupted policemen back to gang talk, contrived flashback and bam, back to square one.
Dissappointing as it is, the film just reached its 100-day run and still is running. One must wonder that such films in South are going beyond the days because of his fans willing to hurt their eyes just for the star himself or something else. Bottom line: Skip it, watch the original with subtitles.
Rating **
Vijay's comeback vehicle is appreciated by his "fans" and "repeated audience" by his continous streak of mocking larger than life heroes. Basically, it's Simbhu's thunder taken over by Vijay. Can he act? In non-remakes, but this, no-no. It's more or less a masala film but one of those films that would belong in the b-movie category.
You have your wooden face heroine (Asin), the incompetent comedian (Vadivelu) and you have the most successful actor in South India alas he's stooped to the level of stupidity (Prakash Raj). The mimicry hero (Vijay) is a cop going undercover as a gang member. Learning the ways of their precious leader, Ali-bhai, the rest of the story shifts from crass kuthu songs (What happened to the musical master Mani Sharma from the original? The theme, "Yuthamae" should've been the opening track instead of the deadbeaten "Pokkiri Pongal" track.") to love tracks to corrupted policemen back to gang talk, contrived flashback and bam, back to square one.
Dissappointing as it is, the film just reached its 100-day run and still is running. One must wonder that such films in South are going beyond the days because of his fans willing to hurt their eyes just for the star himself or something else. Bottom line: Skip it, watch the original with subtitles.
Rating **
Music Review - Cheeni Kum (2007)
Cheeni Kum is better than Shiva 2006!
As my love for Raja's Mayakannadi continues, I simpyl awaited his next hindi soundtrack, Cheeni Kum. Raja's last 2 outings, Mumbai Xpress and Shiva 2006 haven't been received very well. So is Cheeni kum an acid test for him? Yes. Does he succeed? Yes again. Because unlike Shiva situational numbers and classical background music (Saara yeh aalam paticuraly from Anandan Raagam) Raja goes synth style with these reused tunes of his to fit the Mumbai-tes!
Cheeni Kum (Shreya Goshal) starts off the album by being a tune from Mandram Vantha by SPB (Mouna Raagam,Tamil.) Goshal excells and Raja has changed the beat to a more happy melody compared to the sad original. Same goes for Sooni Sooni (Vijay Prakash) who sounds strikingly familiar to tamil cinema's Unni Krishan? Coincidence? I'll leave that up to you.
Baatein by Amitabh and Shreya is another melodious asset. Taken from Kuzhaloodhum kannanukku’ by Chitra in the original (Mella thirandhadhu kadhavu, Tamil) She and Amitji (who rather voices in the song) do justice to the track. Another feather in the cap for Raaja.
Jaane Do by Shreya again (Must be a Raaja favorite post Devdas!)Taken from Geetha's track "Jothi" Kannada, Shreya and the music sound like they were meant for each other. This is nothing but a must hear.
The last 2 tracks are bgm from the movie.
Overall, I'd say that in comparison to Raja's last with RGV, this albm sounds like a complete winner. Shiva had 1 peppy, 2 raagams, 1 situational and 1 sad melody. Whether as 4/5 tracks are fast paced and are retuned to fit todays standards, I strongly feel that Cheeni Kum is a winner for chartbusters. Go for it if you're a music lover!
Rating: ****1/2
As my love for Raja's Mayakannadi continues, I simpyl awaited his next hindi soundtrack, Cheeni Kum. Raja's last 2 outings, Mumbai Xpress and Shiva 2006 haven't been received very well. So is Cheeni kum an acid test for him? Yes. Does he succeed? Yes again. Because unlike Shiva situational numbers and classical background music (Saara yeh aalam paticuraly from Anandan Raagam) Raja goes synth style with these reused tunes of his to fit the Mumbai-tes!
Cheeni Kum (Shreya Goshal) starts off the album by being a tune from Mandram Vantha by SPB (Mouna Raagam,Tamil.) Goshal excells and Raja has changed the beat to a more happy melody compared to the sad original. Same goes for Sooni Sooni (Vijay Prakash) who sounds strikingly familiar to tamil cinema's Unni Krishan? Coincidence? I'll leave that up to you.
Baatein by Amitabh and Shreya is another melodious asset. Taken from Kuzhaloodhum kannanukku’ by Chitra in the original (Mella thirandhadhu kadhavu, Tamil) She and Amitji (who rather voices in the song) do justice to the track. Another feather in the cap for Raaja.
Jaane Do by Shreya again (Must be a Raaja favorite post Devdas!)Taken from Geetha's track "Jothi" Kannada, Shreya and the music sound like they were meant for each other. This is nothing but a must hear.
The last 2 tracks are bgm from the movie.
Overall, I'd say that in comparison to Raja's last with RGV, this albm sounds like a complete winner. Shiva had 1 peppy, 2 raagams, 1 situational and 1 sad melody. Whether as 4/5 tracks are fast paced and are retuned to fit todays standards, I strongly feel that Cheeni Kum is a winner for chartbusters. Go for it if you're a music lover!
Rating: ****1/2
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