Marina

At times just a noble thought alone would not yield the expected result. If we look at what else “Angaadi Theru” had besides the noble idea of projecting the oppressed lives of the Sales girls/boys working in multi storied buildings of T.nagar, first of all it had a perfectly written script, a clinching screenplay and most importantly clarity on storyline. If you have these many positives on your side you need not worry about perfect execution. You can take it for granted.
Film starts promisingly as a boy fled from somewhere comes to Chennai. First few reels would be depicting his fight for survival in Marina. Somehow he manages to get a small job as water packet vendor. Exactly, There derailing process of the script started. What I felt was Pandiraj knew that he would not be able to make a film of three hours just with the poignant lives of the boy vendors. He tried his best to drag the movie to some length with some scenes like establishing scenes to depict child lead’s character and BBC documentary scene(Too lengthy).Then he found his pot was empty and immediately rushed towards the lives of beggars, street singers, pony raiders and a comic love story.
There are some spots in this movie you will definitely find them silly, the quest of two policemen for the boy named kailash is one to mention.Also, there are some episodes which need appreciation like Old beggar episode and the way it had been picturised specially the way it had been ended. There are some spots which show us the director’s inability to project whatever he wanted, like entire episode of the street singer.

If I put it this way, Director’s plate was full of half-baked items. He should have chosen a particular theme from the lives of marina. It doesn’t mean that everything in this movie falls under negative side there are really some interesting points they aren’t trivial either. Right from the titles you can’t ignore the impact created by BGM.It was simple yet effective. Especially BGM you notice in particular scenes like horse race (though this sequence doesn’t strike a chord), when these children are going to air port was excellent.Dialogues,Though I did not understand everything, I can say they are good, specifically dialogues between lead male and female actors(there are no heroes and heroines in this movie).

Bottom Line: director should have done a homework on screenplay writing.

Daivathirumagal

So many times I went in to theaters with tickets, but never came out with tears. What will we expect from a typical commercial Tamil (or Telugu) movie? An exaggerated introduction episode of our beloved hero followed by a fast beat song (not with heroine) ,in which our favorite hero does some gymnastic stunts and we comfortably believe it as dance and four action sequences in which our protagonist kills hundreds of people with out even sweating. Of course an item number with Namitha or Mumaith khan shaking their bellies is a must these days. I wonder why heroine doesn’t dance with some other guy in these kind of special songs. but, there are some directors and actors who really want to do some thing different from current trend. especially kollywood is blessed with these kind of path breakers like Kamal hasan, vikram,bala are some who continuously strive for something different in their pictures.

Daiva thirumagal is also a production from that clan. I have developed a real love towards vijay after watching his previous Movie( the fist tamil movie I have seen after coming to Chennai) Madrasa Pattinam, a periodic movie, which tells us a tale of platonic love between a poor Indian and a rich daughter of then governor general. I was a bit anxious when I heard that vikram has signed a movie with vijay.i have been waiting for it. finally it happened yesterday. its not a typical tamil movie. Its far away from the commercial frame work.its a typical vikram kind of movie.

Though its been said that this is an indianised version of “I am Sam” starring sean penn(won academy award for MILK in 2008) I believe that there will be a lot of difference between original version and this, as there is in madrasa pattinam(media said, Titanic + Lagaan + Nativity=MadrasaPattinam).

Coming to plot it’s so simple. The bondage between a mentally disabled father and his five year old daughter. and his fight to get back his daughter when her maternal aunt tries to separate them. So simple right? How can we make a two and half our movie with this simple story? There we should appreciate vijay for his screen play writing abilities. the screen play of this movie is so soft ,that you never feel like looking at watch.

The character of vikram is perfectly etched, that you can hardly take your eyes off him. But, some times it reminded me of Amitab Bachan from Paa. Next to vikram who attracts your eyes on the screen is the pretty girl who acted as his daughter.she is awesome in some of the scenes, court scene in climax is the one to mention. That is where every one in theater pulls out their hand kerchief to wipe out tears on cheeks.coming to other known actors to me, Anushka, she didn’t have any chance for performance. Vijay as usual presented heroine neatly on screen.but, it would have been better,if it is other than anushka. I got used to see anushka half naked on screen :-).but, she is stunning even in chudidars and sarees.though I felt the rain song is untime and unnecessary , the picturization is excellent. the photography is awesome.vijay takes good care of this technical section that’s proved in his previous film also.Not to mention he has a good ear for music as well , the BGM is catchy in this movie and definitely it has its share in creating the right impact on audience at right time.

Finally what I felt was, its worth spending Rs.120/- on this movie. Its good sign that tamil industry is coiming up with these kind of experiments.now a days there are so many directors in kollywood who are thinking out of the box. That is what lacking in Telugu cinema.i think there is some problem with telugu audience also. Nadodigal , a different movie failed to attract masses when it was released in telugu.telugu industry is really in need of directors like Shashi Kumar, samuthirakani and Myskin.

PS: another face which attracted me is Amala Paul, she is looking much better than in her debut movie Myna (a big round of applause for make up man :-)).