Two Line Reviews - #435

Movie: Thuppaakki (Thamizh, 2012)

Plot: An army officer comes home to Mumbai for vacation. Vacation time turns vocation time when he accidentally hits on a sleeper cell member and creates a plan to disrupt the terrorist group's plan. Things get riskier when he tries to find the instructor so that the sleeper cell network can be made dormant. In the middle of all this, there's time for some romance too!

What Works?

• AR Murugadoss shows in places that he is indeed the guy who made Ramana and presents a simple story in a thrill-filled impactful & intense screenplay of the Q&A/cat-and-mouse format.Watch out for the pre-Interval scene!
• I never wished I would say this someday but Vijay has finally shown he can deliver solid stuff without being preachy, angry or irkesomely kiddish (Something which you would see in almost all his films in the last decade). In specially designed outfits (especially those in the Aleikka song & the interval tuxedo he wears), with an ultra-fit body, spotless dubbing (English & Hindi as well!) and superb screen presence, he steals the show!
• One never gets reminded of a camera being held somewhere to can the shots and that shows Santhosh Sivan's stellar work behind the lens. Sreekar Prasad's Editing meanders between good and bad (abrupt cuts at places).
• Murugadoss has placed the action scenes where apt and the stunts have come out well. Vidyut Jamwal provides the thrills but for the climax. Sathyan's tiny presence doesn't go unnoticed.

What Doesn't?

• Kajal Agarwal does what is expected of her but in an otherwise racy film her portions (and Jayaram's) are speed-breakers.
• Climax could have been a lot better given what was promised before. Ghilli like act by Vijay to mend body damage was comical, atleast, for the 'not-so-fans'.
• Harris Jeyaraj's songs fall flat. There's no hummable number except maybe Kutti puli kootam. His deja vu background score leaves hell of a lot to be desired!

Bullets from this Thuppaaki hit the target, more or less!

Two Line Reviews - #297

Movie: 7 aam Arivu (Thamizh, 2011)

Plot: The chinese aim at wiping off the Indian threat by making them seek Chinese medicine for a virus wantedly spread by them in India. The trouble is, there is one person in India - a descendant of Bodhidharman who can find the cure to the virus upon a successful DNA matching which a Genetics Research student is on track to complete.

Pluses:

• Intentions to bring to notice the legend of Bodhidharman are appreciable and the efforts put in are evident in the first 20 minutes or so of the narrative which takes us back in centuries.
• A huge plus for the film is its Photography by Ravi K Chandran. Some of the Chinese & late night shots make an impression on the eye. 
• Suriya, as Bodhidharman, is apt and even the Thejas on his gleaming face is visible in the history burst.
• Searching..searching..searching for more pluses.. one or two scenes here and there (like the one showing the spread of the virus & some scenes of Dong Lee, some stress upon the need for looking at Thamizh's sciences etc.) are good to watch.

Minuses:

• A.R. Murugadoss's petty screenplay is predictable to the hilt.
• The supposedly tributes to Bodhidharman - the science of Hypnotism & Martial Arts - are absolutely gibberished and insulted in the film with a flurry of nonsensical & continuous fight sequences in the second half.
• Shruti Haasan (she looks beautiful yes..) acts & talks like an amateurish performer and that makes her beauty plastic and unenthusing.
• Except for a maximum of one or two scenes,Suriya, in the role of Aravind, has literally nothing to do except to flaunt his chiseled body and abs now and again (wearing coat without an inner vest takes his abs show to abysmally insane levels)
• Harris Jeyaraj's album is one of his worst and the background music has no steam in it.

Disgrace to the arts and its master who the film supposedly pays tribute to!

Two Line Reviews - #287

Movie: Engeyum Eppodhum (Thamizh,2011)

Plot: A girl from Trichy comes to Madras; A stranger helps her navigate the puzzling route to her & at the end of the day, Cupid strikes but they don't get to meet again. Elsewhere in Trichy, a soft-natured factory worker falls in love with a girl. After six months, all four get entangled in a tragic bus collision as if destiny was meant to be that way.

Highlights:

• A pretty decent outing for a debutant director; Saravanan makes a film that one cannot have many things to complain about.
• The soft and innocent one of Jai's is a surprising characterisation & the naive, town-girlish role played by Ananya, though cliched, is fresh thanks to the scenes with the city guy. Anjali saves her best for the climax.
• The bus-collision scene graphics is very much appreciable showing how meticulate the makers have been in paying attention to detail.

Lowlights:

• There are quite a lot of exaggerations all through the film.
• The deliberate pathos effect created out of characters that are about to die is a dampener creating no impact at all.

Though a bit exaggerated, A good attempt by a new-comer.