Sunday, April 25, 2010

Short Takes

Movies since my last movie post in the order of watching.

Tamizh Padam - One can make short parody of movies, but this full length movie parody stretched it slightly far to end up tiresome. Have to agree with chennaigirl's review sometime back. It was fun for the first hour, the second hour dragged on and on. And I loved the "meaningless words" song 'Oh! Mahaziya", which had a attractive tune. Seems to have had a good run!

Vinnaithaandi Varuvaaya - A slow movie, but I liked it for its crawl. I think I liked the uncomfortable undecidedness of Trisha's character. Silambarasan has tried hard not to use his usual irritating mannerisms, expressions, jingo and sexist dialogues and he has succeeded pretty well. Except for a very few instances where a few of his mannerisms peek out slightly, he is subdued and has done a good job. I am forgetting, what else... The classy Rahman peeks out at times. High time, Gautam Menon stops those rap-dancer sequences. The movie is fading away from my memory, but well, that happens to almost all the movies I see. :-)

The Hurt Locker - What a movie! Deserved its Oscar accolades. "...war is a drug", the movie starts with this statement. A gripping movie on an US army bomb defusal squad involved in Iraq. Death stares from all directions, no guessing from where and how, which comes near and goes away and sometimes snatching people away, nobody being a friend and the scorching weather making wrecks out of them. Gruesome in sections, but that builds the movie's character. The film's name is interesting. It is a war slang for a place where you don't want to be, where pain (hurt) is aplenty and suffering inevitable. The movie makes you feel as if you are a part of that squad and thereby lies its success. A high-five to Kathryn Bigelow!

One movie which I have been trying to see completely from start to end is the late 70s Tamil movie "Udhiri Pookkal". I am seeing it in portions on the TV channels whenever the movie is being aired, unfortunately I landup seeing the same portions. This movie is considered a landmark movie in Tamil moviedom for its realism of village life in those times and the unassuming villain. The movie's off-beat climax and a beautifully haunting song, "Azhagiya Kannē, Uravugal Neeyē", sung by S Janaki are etched in my memory.

22 comments:

gils said...

enna oru contrast...tamil padam..vtv..hurtlocker !!! :D :D udhiri pookkal...semma soga movie :( cudnt bear to see it fully

Ramesh said...

Thanks to you I am now 300% more knowledgeable than before. Uthiri Pookal seems vaguely familiar in the mists of time .....

Appu said...

Tamizh padam you should watch it only in bits and pieces.
Quick gun was a better parody. I felt goa too was a parody, a better one than tamizh padam

The uncomfortable undecidedness makes it more special more appealing you see :) :P :D

I felt inglourios deserved more than hurt locker.! hurt locker did not appeal to me!

R-ambam said...

tamil padam naasamaa irunthuthu :)
ROFTL.. all through .

VTV .. not watched yet.

english padam : hmm.. therila.

azhagiye kanne awesome song ! kathai romba sogam so , chinna vayasulernthe orey the fear of that tragedy story !

Sandhya Sriram said...

hey, thanks for the nice review. in bangalore, i have lost touch with tamil movies. for whatever it is worth, i would like to watch tamil padam once. the 2nd one, not too keen - not with silambarasan.

RS said...

Tamil padam-we got bored after a while. Felt it was a totally unconnected sequence. After watching half the movie, I understood why in the world, problems exist!!

On a unrelated note, since you've mentioned S Janaki-sometime back, she appeared in this super singer junior
II in Vijay TV. I was simply bowled over by her simplicity. (I hope you watched,too) her interactions were just so humble, not an air of dominance!! God really chooses the right person to bless!!

RamNarayanS said...

@gils-Ellaam orey timela paakkalai, wide time differences between them. :-). Yep, that movie is a soga movie. Saw it sometime in my childhood and the only thing I remembered about it was the climax in which Vijayan walks into the water with the whole village seeing him.

@Ramesh-Ha Ha Ha. Old times, yes. I still have Casablanca lined up to watch sometime. I need to find the time. :-)

RamNarayanS said...

@zeno-I liked Inglourious Basterds, but this I felt was a tad more sharp. Tarantino did it pretty good there (the Jewish girl's plot was good imagination and Christoph's Oscar was deserved), but I don't think that may be his best.

Yes, Tamizh Padam is to be watched only in bits and pieces. Haven't seen the others though.

The "uncomfortable undecidedness" is realistic unlike the usual portrayals. I feel that girls don't fall in love just like that with their blinkers off. They are very very hesitant. :-)

RamNarayanS said...

@R-ambam-:-). Atheppadeenga anga irundittu 'The Hurt Locker' paththi theriyalannu sollareenga. Aaha OhOnnu pugazhdhu thallittaanga anga. And it overshadowed "Avatar" at the Oscars.

Definitely Udhiri Pookkal is a soga padam only, but given the time in which it came, this film went against the tide to be down to earth when over-exaggeration was the norm in almost all the movies then.

And that song still rings in the ears. Awesome one indeed.

RamNarayanS said...

@SandhyaSriram-I understand that predicament. I rarely see movies at the theater these days. I go only for kids' movies once in a while. :-)

@RS-:-D at Tamizh Padam. Señora was very fidgety and dozed off.

And on Janaki, I watched those episodes. She is wonderful and down to earth. Amazing lady. Once she starts to sing, she just breezes through. Funnily, her Tamizh was not very fluent in conversation (Malayalam accented, and nothing wrong with it) when compared with the rattling compere, but she sings Tamizh songs (all genres like happy, sad, child, oomphy etc) as if she were soaked in Tamizh from her birth. Not sure if you watched Jency sometime back on the same program. She struggled with a Tamizh conversation, but she gave some of the greatest Ilaiyaraaja hits of 70s and 80s. :)

Appu said...

Initially I thought the movie was all abt jewish girl's plot. If you think deep it is classic tarentino, connecting the dots.

VTV was so real that many felt that mirrored their true life as though goutham menon was peeking over their shoulders. ;) :) :P :D

Coming to girls, there are some who fall, but dont express, and some are commitment phobes[just like guys][no offense intended]

and BTW where do you get all the time in the world to watch all the programs in TV?????[serials reality shows! god what on earth is happening to you?]

chennaigirl said...

Me too. I never watch all these soga padams fully, watch them in bits and pieces - udhiri pookkal, mullum malarum, mahanadhi- to name a few. I watch movie only for pure entertainment - i go with more of mmkr,thillu mullu genre.

REg, "girls hesitant in falling" - i think it has got all to do with the age, maturity factor - i know few instances where the girls - mean from good family, educated falling for boys of lower strata (by this i mean not-so educated/ without any do-good jobs). But, never the reverse. I do agree, most of the cases girls are cautious now-a-days.That doesnt mean boys are gullible and innocent, particularly this aspect.

RamNarayanS said...

@zeno-QT's connecting the dots was great. He slowly and masterfully converges both the side plots into the killing of Hitler in the second half of the movie and in the blazing climax.

VTV paththi naan onnum sollaraththukku illai. Experience paththaadhu. :-D :-P

There will always be a few on any side (guys / gals) who sit on the fence or are on the other side. :)

Airtel Super Singer Junior was the only one serial I see in which I am an observer when it runs. And haven't seen it the past 2 weeks. :( Otherwise my TV viewing is all on kiddie channels or channel browsing.

RamNarayanS said...

@chennaigirl-It is not that I love watching soga padams always, but this movie's climax influenced me so much to go back and see the whole movie. :-) I am willing to tolerate the sogam for that. Plus this movie is also one of the Aaha-OhO movies touted by earlier gen movie directors, incl. Maniratnam.

Hmmm... Age and maturity are relative. Guys are usually never innocent and gullible except for rare exceptions. Gals can be tricked into believing something, though most would not, but there are also gals who indulge in power-play. I think it is all in the genes and in the hunter/gatherer psychology, though that theory is considered passé.

TheUncanny said...

Tamizh padam- Laugh riot
VTV : uselessly wasted 3 hrs of my life
Hurt Locker : torrent file iruka?

TheUncanny said...

//but there are also gals who indulge in power-play//

ROFL.....T20 eppect ah????
I dunno what the subject of conversation is...but Ram, the powerplay statement was top notch...hehe

Unknown said...

Indha list naa paattha padam onne onnu daan... Adhu yedhu nu ungalukku teriyum :P so no comments, case close :D

RamNarayanS said...

@TheUncanny-:-) Ennanga ippadi kaettutteenga? The Hurt Locker is available on torrents. :-)

powerplaykku innoru meaning yaedhaavadhu apply panneengala. ;-)

@Anu-Ennavoru comment, ennavoru comment. :-) :-) Wah Wah.

ambulisamma said...

I have seen something before 2 yrs and tried watching tamizh padam on DVD,thiruttu of course,i guess the movie is worth watching at comedy time in TV slots than a film stretching 2.5 hrs together.

Rest absolutely no idea,but i wonder how you find time to watch all these and write review too.

RamNarayanS said...

@ambulisamma-I don't go to theaters usually (unless it is a kids' movie and am forced to go), these are DVD based reviews only. :) :) And I watch them once in a while (1 movie every 3 or 4 weeks) and not at a stretch. :)

Matangi Mawley said...

well.. tamil padam was sure funny.. bt as u say- it dragged in the second part.. bt the best thing in it which i loved was- the hero intro song- "intha paata siva paadiyathaaka podumpadi kettukkondaar" ammazing work there!

VTV- rahman.. movie- head ache..

hurt locker was sure fab! saw it day b4 yest..

uthiri pookkal- (mahendran?) is sure a gr8 movie.. esp vijayan.. wht an actor!

RamNarayanS said...

@Matangi-Caricature is fun (as long as it is not you) :-)

As I said, VTV seems to swing end to end. Some swear by it, some at it.

Vijayan is a good actor. He had some great movies at that time, Niram Maaradha Pookkal for example, at that time. Those were hippie times. :)