FILM: SIVAKASI
CAST: Vijay, Asin & Prakash Raj
Verdict: Hit

Vijay and director Perarasu likes to work in the easy comfort of the FORMULA- one that is all about a larger-than-life character, punchline dialogues with lot of colloquial usages, plenty of action where people fly around, outrageous songs with inane lyrics about water packets and thair sadam, red, yellow and pink bell bottom pants with high-heel shoes, an all sacrificing good hearted hero with oodles of mother and sister sentiments laced with a comic touch. This FORMULA had worked well for director Perarasu and Vijay in Tirupachi and now the team has re-worked it. This formula however will test your patience as it is not meant for the class audience or for those seeking quality entertainment. Perarasu and Vijay believe only in catering to the mass audience who want their dose of unpretentious masala mix.

The cardinal rule that one should follow while watching such ‘mass masala mix’(3M) is to suspend disbelief and never ask questions pertaining to logic. The success of 3M films depend purely on how a director is able to keep his audience spellbound without a script and give him a time-pass entertainment.

Perarasu has done an ulta (opposite) of Tirupachi in Sivakasi. In Tirupachi, the story that starts from a village moves to a city in the latter half but in Sivakasi the films opens in Renganathan Street, T.Nagar in Chennai where our hero Sivakasi (Vijay) is living in exile for the last 15 years. In the second half, he goes back to the village to save his sister and mother (Geeta) from his evil elder brother (Prakash Raj)! In both the films, the hero had a rich and modern girl trying to entice him and saying “I love you”!

Sivakasi works due to Vijay-THE SUPERSTAR. He takes the cake, cream and cherry and plays to the gallery with abandon and underlines his over-the-top character with an infectious sense of fun. The Vijay-Asin comic encounters add to the fun and they have a great on-screen chemistry.

Prakash Raj as Vijay’s scheming brother reworks his ‘I love you Chellam” act as a buffoon villain with panache. Geeta has an insipid role and the new breed of comedians like M.S Baskar, Chitti Babu and others raise a few laughs. And the big surprise element is Nayantara who looks glamourous and attractive in an item number.

Sunny V.Joseph’s the cameraman of Chandramukhi has established himself with this film. GK’s artwork is lifelike and Srikanth Deva’s dapankoothu songs is just correct for the mood of the film. Sivakasi designed as a B-grade 3M extravaganza, is a cracker of a movie and delivers the goods.

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FILM: CHARAPATHY
CAST: Sarath Kumar & Nikita
Sarath Kumar seems to be like old wine getting better day by day. In Chatrapathy he is out to mete out vigilante justice in this fairly engrossing revenge drama.
Granted, there is not much of a story which you have not seen in umpteen vigilante films in the past including the original classic Death Wish. At best, the film has sufficient thrills to please his fans and front benchers. Saravanan (Sarath Kumar) is a bus driver of a college bus and a student (Namitha) falls hook-line-sinker for the hero. The city is controlled by a caste party politician Chakravarthy (Mahadevan) and his goons.

Saravanan starts eliminating the politician’s goons and hench-men one after another, leaving behind a note saying-`Bharat Mata Ki Jai`. This forces the police led by Deputy Commisioner (Ilavarasu), who feels that the killer is doing what the police should have done! Meanwhile Chakravarthy is annoyed and furious that his men starts disappearing and comes back as dead bodies.

Actually our hero is none other than an officer with Indian Army- Major Chatrapathy, a recipient of Parma Vir Chakra for bravery in the Siachen glacier! He masquerades as a bus driver to seek vengeance on Chakravarthy who had taken over the lands of poor villagers and also demolished his orphanage killing innocent children!

How the major takes revenge forms the rest of this predictable film. S.A Rajkumar music is average and it is a pucca commercial film orchestrated with action scenes by Anal Kannan being the highlight. Sarath Kumar saves the film with his icy cool looks and convincing body language, while Namitha oozes oodles of glamour. Mahadevan as villain is passable but Vadivelu’s comedy is disappointing.

Chatrapathy is an escapist film meant only for those who enjoy mass masala films devoid of any logic or reason.

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FILM: MAAJA
CAST:Vikram & Asin
Verdict: Average

Majaa magic? Not quite… it was supposed to be a breezy entertainer but something seems to be missing! The major flaw of Majaa is its wafer-thin story and screenplay, a mediocre subject to be remade from Malayalam. Shafi, who had done the original debuts in Tamil with dialogues by Viji and the film gives you a dreary sense of déjà vu, a feeling that one has seen it before. The story is about Govindan (Manivannan) and his two foster sons Aadi (Pasupathy) and Mathi (Vikram). All three are petty thieves who decide to reform and settle down in a new place. But fate brings them to a small village where their lorry breaks down and they meet a retired agricultural officer (Vijayakumar) and his three daughters. He is in debt and they have pledged their house to Rayar (Murali) the local loan shark.

The village is controlled by Rayar who has both money and muscle power. His only daughter is Seeta (Asin) who after a few scenes fall in love with Mathi!! The rest of the story is how Mathi helps Vijayakumar to get back his property, marries Seeta and exposes her uncle (Biju Menon) who tries to frame up Aadi!! Later in a contrived climax, everything is sorted out and the film ends on a happy note!!

There is nothing new story wise with no surprises or twists and the climax was predictable. On the plus side, watch out for Pasupathy and his immense comic timing with Vikram. He is a scream as the guy who speaks broken English and his love banter with Vijayakumar’s daughter is sure to bring the house down. Vadivelu’s comedy too raises a few laughs. The bonding between Pasupathy and Vikram is another highlight –everything ends in a fight and a smile

Vikram tries hard to carry the colossal burden of the film and he manages, but only just. The love angle between the lead pair is a bit of damp squib. Right from her introductory scene to the songs and close-up’s Asin has been badly photographed. She has hardly anything to do in the film except to be there in two songs. Murali as Rayar looks fragile and Biju Menon has to go miles before he looks menacing as a baddie.

Technically the film lacks finesse as Balu’s camera, which was exotic in Pitamagan is very ordinary here. Art work is commendable with Pollachi farm house sets. Vidyasagar’s songs has a hangover of his earlier hits and the Chellame..Chellame and the melodious Sollitharava.. are the pick of the album.

On the whole if you are looking out for time-pass, Majaa can provide entertainment as it is a clean family fare with no vulgarity or violence.

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FILM: ATHU ORU KANA KALAM
CAST: Dhanush

Verdict: Below Average

Has Balu Mahendra the noted cinematographer and director run out of ideas? Yes, seems to be the answer as his long-in-the-making Athu Oru Kana Kalam is nothing but a rehash of his own 1985 Mammootty-Sobhana classic Yatra from Malayalam! The story, presentation, locations, song picturisation and the climax are all an extension of what we have seen in earlier Balu films. The story unfolds as Sreenivasan (Dhanush), a convict who escapes from jail tells his tragic love story to a lorry driver who promises to take him to Ooty where he wants to meet Thulasi (Priya Mani).

Flashback- Sreenivasan alias Cheenu is an unemployed youth who is always at loggerheads with his disciplinarian father (Delhi Ganesh). While the parents are out-of-station for a couple of days Thulasi, daughter of the maid (Kalairani) comes for work!! Cheenu’s life turns colourful as he falls in love with her (in one song sequence) and predictably, his dad opposes his son’s relationship with a servant’s daughter.

To forget his worries, Cheenu has a beer with friends but ends up in jail. That night, he accidentally kills a guy in the cell which gets him a 10 year imprisonment!! In jail, he is tormented by officers and brutally beaten up (a straight lift of Sylvester Stallone’s Rambo) and now he is a runaway, with police close on his heels!

Balu seems to have lost his magic touch. The director who has given some memorable films like Veedu, Kokila, Moondram Pirai among others just failed to deliver this time as it is a lifeless love story in the first half that turns into a morbid drama moving at snail pace in the second half with a contrived end.

A fragile looking Dhanush looks bewildered and lost throughout while Priya Mani has tried her best to do justice to her character. And what was the need of that sexy item number of Tejasree? The songs tuned by Ilayaraja falls flat. All in all, a disappointing venture from a prominent member of the earlier off-beat brigade of film makers.

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FILM: THIRUPACHI
CAST: Vijay & Trisha
Patience is a huge virtue especially when you watch mass masala Tamil films with no logic. Forbearance is necessary when one sets to watch Vijay’s Tirupachi. The credit attributes the story, screenplay, dialogue, lyrics and direction to Perarasu but it is a typical Vijay machine tooled crass commercial bereft of a soul.

Vijay has stuck to his regular formula - five songs, flying fights, crass comedy, punch line dialogues, dream songs in foreign locales and corny sentiments. So if you have seen earlier films of the superstar like Madurai, Tirumalai, Puthiya Geethai etc etc…. you may strive hard to find anything new in Tirupachi, which is old wine served in a new bottle, with a different label.

The film opens in Tirupachi, a village near Madurai where Sivagiri (Vijay) makes a living making the famous Tirupachi aruvaal or sickle. He is a happy-go-lucky guy whose life revolves round his only sister Karpagam (Mallika). She is the apple of his eye and he wants her to marry a nice guy. Enter Sai (Sai Baba) a nice young man who runs a canteen in a college in Chennai and soon Karpagam gets married to him and shifts to the city.

Sivagiri’s sidekick is Kannappan (‘Autograph’ Benjamin) who gets a visa to go to Dubai and our hero accompanies him to Chennai. He finds that Chennai is controlled by a mafia who roughs up his sister and husband and Kannappan gets killed. Now is the time for the hero to intervene and clean the Chennai city of its scum, so that his nephew (still in its mother’s womb) lives a good life!!!

Sivagiri turns into a one-man demolishing army to finish off some weird sounding villains ‘Sanian’ Sakatai (Kota), ‘Pottas’ Balu (Pasupati) and ‘Pan Parag’ Ravi (Aryan). The hero is given adequate support by gutless police force led by Raj Guru (Manoj K.Jayan) and inspector Veluchamy (Yugendran) as he cleans up the crime ridden Chennai city. Finally Karpagam delivers a baby in the village and all of them come back to a peaceful Chennai.

The basic theme of the film is the age old annan- thankachi pasam seen in umpteen films of the past along with heavy dose of violence packaged with Vijay formula. If you are looking for some newness, then the new tools of death like red-hot iron box, using heavy drainage manholes as flying saucers plus a lot of special effects in action scenes (a la Matrix style) are the highlights.

Tirupachi is a one-man show for Vijay as he is there in every frame along with Mallika, who plays his sister and the motivating force. If you wink, you may miss Trisha who is there for the song ‘n’ dance routine. The villains do their ham act adequately while Benjamin’s comedy role is refreshing. And for God’s sake what was Manoj.K.Jayan doing in that insipid role of a police officer?

Dheena, the Manmadharasa… fame music director has tried hard to create some mass songs but goes flat! In fact the only hit number Kannum Kannum Than… is credited to Mani Sharma that is a clean lift of Vidyasagar’s Asai.. Asai… from Dhool. On the whole there is one thing that might lure you into this mindless film- Vijay. Watch the film about a Pattikkattu Payyan from a village who becomes a superhero in the city.

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FILM: KUNDAKA MANDAKA
CAST: Parthiban
Verdict: Below Average

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FILM: AYYA
CAST:Sarath Kumar
Hari’s Ayya is perfect family fare! Sarath Kumar is brilliant in his dual role as father and son. The director’s ability to weave together a family drama set in rural milieu in a typical Sooraj Bharjatya style with no villains, vulgarity, and crude commercial elements is commendable. However the plot does lapse into predictability sometimes, with an extremely manipulated climax where everyone is nice and the only bad man turning a new leaf with the hero’s lecture!

Ayyadurai (Sarath Kumar) and Madaswamy (Napolean) are close friends who control 10 towns and villages in and around Ambasamudram, Tenkasi maintaining peace and communal harmony. Ayyadurai is an MLA and sort of a God to the people of the place as he treats them as an extension of his own family consisting of wife Kalyani (Lakshmi) and only son Chelladurai (Sarath Kumar).Their only enemy is Karuppusamy (Prakash Raj) son of a corrupt MLA whom Ayyadurai had accidentally killed years back during a famine after he tried to smuggle rice.

Karuppuswamy’s only aim in life is to eliminate Ayyadurai and become the local MLA but all his attempts are thwarted by Chelladurai who saves his father at the right time. Chelladurai is also a do-gooder and an ideal son who lives for his parents and villagers. Selvi (Nayantara) is Madaswamy’s daughter who has a silent admiration towards Chelladurai that slowly turns into love. Both the families agree for the wedding but Karuppuswamy intervenes and stops the wedding and thereby sowing seeds of enemity between Ayyadurai and Madaswamy.

The rest of the film is all about the father and son trying to bring back peace between both the families and also changing Karuppuswamy into a Good Samaritan in a totally non-violent manner. The message that Hari conveys through his protagonist- “We have the right only to advice and it is up to God to make the punishment”. At a time when heroes of Tamil cinema take law into their hands this message is loud and clear.

The Ayya character has been etched out of Kamaraj, the Lion of Virudhanagar, one of the finest politician and do-gooder of Tamilnadu. It is Sarath Kumar eighth dual role but Ayya will remain his career best. He comes alive and captures the zest and passion called for by the script. Be it his flawless soft dialogue delivery, body language and the voice modulation he is astounding. No two ways about it, Sarath Kumar is the soul of Ayya.

All the others in the supporting cast like Napoloean, Lakshmi, Rohini are brilliant. Prakash Raj as Karuppuswamy reworks his Ghilli role while Nayantara has made a sensational debut in Tamil. She looks pretty and confident and is sure to go places. Priyan’s camera has etched the lush greenery of Ambasamudram with all its hills and meadows. Bharadwaj’s melodious music is an added attraction in the film especially the “Oru Vaartha Solla… and other numbers.

Though Hari tends to be preachy at times, he has packaged the film with essential commercial ingredients like Vadivel’s comedy track where the plight of a running a C-class theatre owner is brought out effectively. Added to that, the romantic bits between a minor girl and a man in his early 30’s are brought out well. Another highlight is the bonding between the father and son is told in a subtle manner.

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FILM: AYUDHAM
CAST: Prasanth & Sneha

It seems strange that while the rest of Tamil film industry is busy changing colours, growing bolder and braver, one wonders why actors like Prashanth resort to old fashioned stories with clichéd dialogues, presentation and an outdated climax like his latest Aayudham! The film looks like a poor man’s Ghilli and the story is as old as the hills with no semblance of either style or substance.

Your heart bleeds for Prashanth who is an immensely talented and hardworking actor with great potential being relegated to B grade action film like Aayudham where the script does not allow him enough leeway. The idea of director M.A Murugesh to present the hero as a guy joining medical college, (So is Prashanth a 19-year-old in the film?) is absolutely ridiculous as it has nothing to do with the story !

Shiva (Prashanth) is a nice guy, son of a policeman (Rajesh) who fights injustice where ever he sees it. He gets admission in Medical College and the family shifts from Tuticorin to Chennai. He meets Maha (Sneha) and is smitten by her beauty at the first sight, and soon she too likes his good nature. The city is controlled by Naga, a ‘dada’ who has an obsessive love for Maha and wants to marry her though her family lives in constant fear as he is a cold-blooded killer. Naga has a roaring business in adulterated petrol and he runs his business with the support of Police Commissioner and politicians!

Naga bumps off anyone who even speaks to Maha and all hell break loose when he comes to know that Shiva and Maha are in love. Now Shiva becomes the protector of Maha and her family and how he goes about it forms the rest of the predictable yarn. To please the B and C audiences there are enough song ‘n’dance numbers at regular interval shot in the streets of London. In the climax, Shiva the one-man army demolishes Naga and his men and walks away with Maha.

Perhaps the redeeming factors are Kanal Kannan’s action sequences and the love angle between Prashanth and Sneha in the first half. Prashanth has given his best while Sneha has nothing much to do but dance with the hero in a couple of songs. Dhina’s mass songs fails to impress and on the whole Aayudham is strictly for audience who like to get some entertainment in the form of action, glamour and Vadivel comedy track packaged in an outdated story.

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FILM: Manmathan
CAST: Simbu & Jothika

Manmathan is a taut thriller which engrosses the viewers with an engaging naration, presentation, and is technically top class. Silambaran has taken the audience by surprise with a good performance and contrary to his loud image that he had in films so far, he is a revelation. Mean, diabolic and malevolent, he plays his first double role to perfection with a sense of humour.

Though the film’s official director is debutant A.J.Murugan, the film seems to have been ghost-directed by Silambarasan! What makes the film work and create palpitation for viewers is its racy narration, excellent camera of R.D.Rajasekhar, editing of Antony and background music of Yuvan Shankar Raja which has the intensity and style of a well made thriller.

The opening scene is not to be missed when Simbu meets a psychiatrist (Mandira Bedi) and explains the fears within him. It is an excellent introductory scene that takes the viewer by surprise! Madhan Kumar (Simbu) is an accountant who joins a music college and meets Mythili (Jyotika) who initially screams and runs away when she sees him. Madhan mistakes her to be a ‘loose?(mad) but she has a reason behind it. In one of her worst dreams she was brutally raped by a man who looked exactly like Madan!

Now cut to a man (Simbu)- who looks hip, riding a swanky bike and he seduces attractive young girls and later kills them. He is a psycho who is on a killing spree as he picks up girls from discos, train and restaurants. A policeman (Atul Kulkarni) starts investigation as a lot of young girls start disappearing in the city, and not even a trace is left behind, creating confusion as to whether it is a murder or kidnapping.

Slowly Mythili starts liking Madan for his good nature but he avoids her. Mythili finds out that the stalker in the city who calls himself Manmathan is none other than Madhan and gets him arrested. Madan confesses to the cops that Manmadhan is his younger brother who is a serial killer. In a flashback, he tells the police about his naïve brother in village, Madan Raj (Simbu) who falls in love with his classmate Vaishnavi (Sindhu Tolani). The city-bred Vaishu had actually taken him for a ride and when he comes to know about it, he kills her.

He turns into a serial killer and takes revenge on all sexy young girls who have no moral values or scruples. Madan is left free after he is proved to be innocent but there is a twist in the climax, making scope for a sequel. The film has shades of Bharathiraaja classic Sigappu Rojakkal. If Kamal used to plant a red rose after each murder, here the hero burns the body of the victim, and store their ashes in bottles with names labelled on them!

Manmathan purely belongs to Silambarasan and has definitely infused a fresh lease of life to his career. He exudes menace with his expressive eyes. Simbu does wonders with a screenplay focusing on the cocky mind of a serial killer as he is able to create the moods, anxieties and sheer dread required for a thriller.

The supporting cast of Jyothika, Sindhu Tolani, Gaundamani have all done their respective roles well. Mandira Bedi in the introductory scene and Yana Gupta in an item number along with other Mumbai models add fizz to the proceedings. The songs of Yuvan, lingers in your mind. Most of them are in sync with the storyline and they have been choreographed well in chic sets designed by art director Rajeev.

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