Its been a long while since I posted - But this time I'm back with a movie review again!No - Not the KANK review - I decided I would not waste time watching it - So I decided to make my way to Sathyam Cinemas hoping to catch our "Universal Star" Kamal Haasan in "Vettayadu Vilayadu"(translates to "Hunt and Play" in English).

The movie was made with lots of production hiccups - not the first for Gautham - He had to face lots of it during the making of the Surya - Jyothika starrer "Kaakha Kaakha"(2003).
VV is a sequel to that actually - and is the second in a series of three movies which focusses on an episode in a cop's life.
The title song could not have been better - A grand intro for Kamal - with the District Commissioner of Police looking extremely smart and suave in his police clothes and plain clothes as well. The movie shows the DCP as being a 40 year old - and that is definitely what Kamal is - I have had people tell me he looked "hot" and some told me he looked "old" - but I thought he looked neither of the two and fit the bill perfectly.
"Karka Karka" was awesome - and got the pulse racing - It showcased a series of events in which DCP Raghavan(Kamal) deals with the people in his life and at work - it was shot stylishly and the slick editing shows.
The story moves towards Keeranur - a town in TN - where a girl is shown in one shot and goes disappearing in the next - adding to the mystery. Prakash Raj(Arockiaraj) - as the girl's father and as Kamal's superior, has done a neat job - whether it be the scene where he finds his daughter's severed finger outside his home and the scene where he breaks down on seeing his daughter buried deep inside a pit - after being raped and murdered - in a very gory manner. The action in all these scenes is "Edge of the seat" and the minute you see the corpse in the pit - it disturbs you - I frankly have not seen a movie wherein a gory killing is shown in this light.
Kamal investigates and tries to get to the root of the murder - But before he does that - 6 months pass - and Arockiaraj and his wife shift base to New York - where he says his daughter wanted to pursue her MS. The screenplay is pretty racy and Kamal soon gets to know that Arockiaraj is murdered - and so is hi wife. He requests his superior to send him to NY so that he can investigate this in greater detail.
NYC is shown brialliantly by Ravi Verman - who is the cameraman - and Renaissance Hotel in NY is where Jyothika(Aradhana) stays - quite interestingly, right next to the room where Raghavan stays. Kamal's first sight of Jyothika - is when she is weeping in the corridor and that forces Kamal to think about her problem at night. His intuition forces him to barge into her room at midnight, and he finds her attempting suicide.
A brief conversation next morning reveals that Aradhana has had a failed marriage - which led to her decision. Meanwhile,Raghavan meets Anderson, who works with the NYPD - and both of them try to get more clues on the killing of Arockiaraj and his wife. A detailed investigation reveals a link between the killing of Arockiaraj's daughter and one in the US. Raghavan and Anderson get to a remote place , close to the scene of the US murder and find corpses buried in a similar manner to the one Raghavan found at Keeranur.
Daniel Balaji and his associate are the ones behind the killings - both medical students in the US - and when Anderson and Raghavan get to their apartment, an encounter leaves Anderson dead and Raghavan severely wounded. That is when Amudhan(Balaji) reveals the dark side of his associate(Ilamaran) and himself - and that is when he reveals that he has a passion to kill and was responsible for Arockiaraj's family's death.(An incident with Arockiaraj's daughter (Rani) at a college fest leaves Amudhan and Ilamaran locked up in jail for a night - they are subjected to sexual assault by an eunuch - which makes them wild and cry for the blood of people who led them to this).
The story shifts to Raghavan again, and Aradhana rushes to his rescue when she finds him being taken to hospital.Amudhan and Ilamaran, meanwhile,rush back to India, and manage to escape into the city. This forces Raghavan to get back to India - and Aradhan insists she accompany him. The script shows more of the Aradhana and Raghavan duo here - and the scene where Raghavan proposes to Aradhana is well conceptualized. Finally, Raghavan manages to nail the culprits - after a gory battle which sees lots of bloodshed, rapes and murders.
The high points in the movie are Kamal's acting, the music, the camerawork, racy screenplay and Kamalini Mukherji.(she looks adorable in the one song she features in).
The film has a few negatives, first being the lack of logic in some sequences( - ex - Raghavan seems to know a lot more than the NYPD!!), Jyothika's pale appearance, attempt at romantic interludes in the second half, and the extremely vulgar and violent rape and murder scenes.(It is not a pleasant thing to show homosexuals in films, and it gets worse when the rape scenes are shot in too much detail - leaving little to imagination).
Gautham's dubbing for Balaji's associate seems ok - but reminds us of Paandya in Kaakha Kaakha - and the director's language when the villain describes Aradhana's physical attributes, touches the nadir - reminds us of Pandya in KK again!)The scenes towards the climax, where Aradhana's family doesn't even try to get in touch with Raghavan - after she is kidnapped, defies logic again. The KK hangover comes through with names like Maya,Ilamaaran, and some of the characters from the previous Gautham movies.
On the whole - a decent flick worth a watch - minus family.
Kamal proves he is a great actor, and Gautham proves he has a long way to go before he can make movies without vulgar or explicit dialogues/scenes. Harris Jeyaraj takes top honors - for sure!

My rating - 2.5 on a scale of 5.

I'm tempted to post - as it is a Saturday and we're supposed to be nothing worthwhile after our mid day intake of curd rice and pickle! But this particular from Mission Kashmir usually is a nice one to wake you up from your slumber - Shanka Mahadevan brings all his expertise into play - "Rind Posh Maal" from that movie.
Speaking of Shankar Mahadevan - I have to talk about his French beard - which I'm sporting right now;) and of course, the great Shankar Ehsaan Loy combo - and of course - their numbers for DCH and Lakshya.
The soundtracks were simply too good - and did catch everyone's attention during that period - The movies themselves were well made ones which made me sit up - I am not a great fan of Bollywood - but I've developed a liking for Farhan Akhtar's style - DCH brought out the lives 3 happy-go-lucky youngsters lead - and how love was important to each one of them in a unique way - and how the concept of relationships differs from individual to individual - For one,it was a case of flirting all the time - and having a love affair with many women - for the other,it was a case of seeking true love in someone whom he had liked at first sight - yet, could not believe she had it in her for him to fall for her. The most interesting was the third character(Akshay Khanna's)-who found love in an elderly woman - who could understand him completely and could appreciate his works of art - something a man definitely would want a woman to do.
That done, Farhan moved on to make Lakshya - a movie where he had a message for the youth -to understand the country's plight in terms of border trouble - and to wake upto reality. One particular scene where Hrithik calls up his bro in the US and asks for DVDs is so reminiscent of people we meet in everyday life.:)
From one movie to another - I also had a chance to watch "Taal" yesterday - the camera which Akshay Khanna uses to capture images amuses me - now that we have all sleek and slim digicams - the cam shown in the film seems a bit too big - mebbe like a box used to hold betelnuts down south:)All southies can relte to that!!Whats more - Amrish Puri - who plays Khanna's dad - tells him he got the cam for his son from the Singapore airport!!LOL..Bollywood films haven't change I can see over the past decade!!
But the high points of all the films here is the music surely - And when Shankar Mahadevan sings " Rind Posh Maal" - there are a few lines in the song which mean to say that there is Ram and Allah in music - and there is the Githa and Quran in music!!How true!
I can't imagine life without music - it's got the capacity to pep you up and keep you on your toes for the whole day!Am sure most readers would agree!
But Himesh Reshammaiaya - is he scoring the music for Dasaavathaaram?!!!!

My first memories of having been to the Sathyam Theater in Chennai date back to the days when my dad and mom chose to take me along for a screening of QSQT – And I still remember “
Papa Kehte Hain” – which made sure there was repeat audience for the film.
Those days – and I’m speaking of the late 80s and the early nineties – the theater was not exactly a “hangout” for the youth – Or it probably was – I will never know – I was barely 10 then – So don’t have any images of bold young women accompanying their “guys” out to the movies. The change has been quite phenomenal – There were 3 movie screens then – Sathyam, Shivam and Sundaram as compared to the 6 we have today.
The theater is really a mini-mall – with food courts, swanky lifts and attractive posters and graffiti all over the place.
All said and done – we directly contribute to all this – Oh yeah we do – I’ve known lots of my friends who want to go to Sathyam alone – for the “Sathyam” effect - And pay up Rs.130 to watch Siddharth Suryanarayanan squeak and don Bhagat Singh’s role for a documentary, as the film’s script goes.!
We also pay up Rs10 to park our bikes in a corner for 3 hours – and those guys would be making millions out of this alone – The scenario gets worse if you own a car – you have to pay up 25 bucks – else no parking space in this big sprawling city!!
I do appreciate the efforts of the people who’re the brain at “Sathyam Cinemas” – they have made sure they cater to all sections of the cine-going public. – Oh yes – there are different sections amongst the cine-goers – Those who can sit and watch melodramas for Rs50, those who have very little time on hand – and yet do not know what to do before their first interview – They can check out the fast action packed thrillers for Rs.90/100 – and then, the regular Chennaiite who checks out movies once a month for Rs.100 and above.
Well – I was talking about the people at Sathyam reaching out to the cine-goers – yes – their novel attempts like “Lights On” where cine veterans interact in front of the audience – has quite caught on with the elitist Chennai crowd – especially those who study Visual Communication at colleges like Loyola or MOP!(I find that most moms accompany their daughters to these events - maybe these are the only places that the current generation of college going women in Chennai can take their mom around to!)
But maybe – just maybe – they should let the public breathe a little bit more – after all – we do want to check out the great movies with good sound and visual effects – but shelling out “Sathyam-ish” rates for those seems unreasonable!!!

I was listening to this awesome piece by Mandolin Shrinivas!! Set in the Ragamalika Raagam - this is actually a song rendered in praise of Lord Guruvayoorappan - A song which we can readily relate to actually - Most of us(those who like listening to Carnatic music) would have heard Unnikrishnan sing it!

http://puggy.symonds.net/~suraj/lj/enthamuddo-shrinivas-bedham.mp3

I had a pretty calm weekend - Yes, when I say calm - I mean I did not pick up quarrels with anyone, nor did anyone find fault with me for watching SS Music all through Saturday.
Chennai usually has some event or the other going on throughout the year and this weekend, it was the unveiling of the Sivaji statue which was in the news.
I am a keen follower of the political situation in Tamil Nadu, just like everyone else, and I make it a point to listen to speeches of political leaders when they speak. This time though, it was a lot of cine artistes and less of politicians who spoke at the function.I was particularly impressed with the way Rajnikanth spoke - he brought out a fictitious situation where in two teenage friends discuss their lives - and one of them tells the other that he would erect a statue for him some day in the future. And the other is quick to point out that if he has to be the one to erect a statue, he must be in such a post that would command such power. Well - it just was fictitious - but it could have transpired that this might have well been the dialogue between V.C.Ganesan and M.Karunanidhi 50 years ago.
Whether erecting a statue by the Marina is the best way to honor the legend is a debatable point - But without getting into all that - we could do well to look into the things that make people popular and instinctive leaders - Their stage presence.
Most of TN believes M.Karunanidhi is a good orator - and he is - and that is precisely why he is back in power - But oratory alone does not make people leaders - and Sivaji Ganesan's failure in politics stands testimony to that. The sense of emotion and anxiety that the people of TN have - usually when they see their celluloid heroes live - and on stage - is a major factor in deciding the vote split.
As Shakespeare said - "All the world's a stage - and we are all actors on it" - We know Rajnikanth can never look like he does on screen in real life - yet he's the Superstar who earns 50 crores for a movie this year - and we all know that the CMs and Ministers we have aren't the most perfect gentlemen on earth - yet, they are the ones who decide the law of the land - Strange but true - The best way out is to either spark off a revolution or keep mum.
Right now, keeping mum seems to be the option chosen by all of us:)

So here I am - Starting to write afresh on a Tuesday - during primetime - Raahu Kaalam(a time believed to be inauspicious, according to Hindu beliefs - But then, hopefully, this time I would have many more posts to accompany the first one:)