Language:

Genre: Satire

Cast: Shiva, Disha Pandey, Vennira Aadai Murthy, MS Baskar, Manobala, Paravai Muniamma

Director: C.S. Amudhan

Music: Kannan

Reasons to watch: First full length satirical (spoof) movie in tamil. And of course it is hilarious!

Reasons not to watch: Irritating and boring in patches which is expected of any spoof movie.

Storyline: Shiva is born in a town called Cinemapatti where male new-borns are killed. Just as his grandmother tries to carry out the proceedings, the baby comes up with actor Vijay’s (the major target) ‘punch dialogue’ from Pokkiri. As a 10-year old, Shiva asks his grandmother if it is time for him to take up the responsibility to fight injustice. He is asked to ride a bicycle and with a few rolls of the pedal, we have our hero up and ready to take up the mantle long held by Tamil superstars. The parody then takes over and we are treated with a flurry of mocked dialogues and sequences from Thalapathi, Aboorva Sagodharargal, Anniyan, Kadhalan, Kaakha Kaakha, Sivaji, Mozhi, Ghajini and of course, Binny Mills – tinseltown’s current favorite shooting spot for fight sequences is not spared. When the heroine’s (like in a typical commercial film, has nothing to do) dad refuses to accept Shiva as the groom citing monetary issues and social status, our (super)hero becomes the world’s richest man in a single song; the time the dad’s cook takes to make a cup of coffee . Many more parodies follow and generate many a laughs, but definitely not hearty ones.

Climax Handling: Boring. But, I guess the whole point was to make it boring with a “twist that wasn’t”.

Points: Nirav Shah emphasizes his brilliance yet again with flawless cinematography. The fact that 40 plus actors play college students is effective ridiculing of commercial flicks. Some of the scenes I personally liked were the spoofs from Anniyan, Kaakha Kaakha, Run and Mouna Raagam.

Rating: 5/10

Comments: Tamil film formula ridiculed! You can’t stand it, but you got to watch it!

Language:

Genre: Action, Crime, Thriller

Cast: Prasanna, Sibiraj, S.P. Balasubrahmanyam, Yasmin, Ramya Rai

Director: Shakti S. Rajan

Music: James Vasanthan

Reasons to watch: A new concept for the Tamil audience.

Reasons not to watch: Painfully slow and unsubstantial first half. Completely worthless songs.

Storyline: Ravi (Prasanna) is an honest and ambitious person whose dream is to set up his own business. He is drafted by Bank Manager Vishwanath (S.P. Balasubrahmanyam) into Trust Bank where Ravi goes on to design a successful plan to make the bank ‘con-proof’. He also falls in love with Nandini (Ramya Rai), a divorcee. When all seems to be going well for Ravi, disaster strikes in the form of Fareed (Sibiraj). Ravi is framed for Nandini’s ex-husband’s murder and suddenly finds himself entangled in an intricate blackmailing scandal. With a mountain of evidence piled up against him, Ravi is forced to comply with Fareed’s devious plan to rob Trust Bank and pull the plug out of Vishwanath’s reputation — But, it ain’t over yet as Ravi’s trust takes a beating and soon the audience is sucked into the story as it takes many unexpected twists and turns that serve as (foreseeable) shockers.

Climax Handling: The fight sequence featuring Prasanna and Sibiraj is commendable. Though I personally found it a shade predictable, it was pretty clear that my co-viewers were quite enthralled by the suspense.

Points: “I pray to you God. Please make sure that songs like the ones that are shown in this movie, do not resurface again in any prospective movie. Amen!”

Sibiraj tries to emulate his veteran father, and it kind of works for the movie. Yasmin charms you with her limited on screen presence.

Rating: 5/10

Comments: A yawn for people who have seen The Bank Job, Entrapment, How to rob a Bank and all other bank heist Hollywood flicks. For those who have not, it is a one-time watch.

Genre: Action, Adventure, Fantasy

Cast: Karthik Sivakumar, Andrea, Reema Sen, Parthiban, Prathap K. Pothan

Director: K. Selvaraghavan

Music: G.V. Prakash Kumar

Reasons to watch: The pre – release hype and the efforts poured in by the technicians.

Reasons not to watch: Too long and amazingly CONFUSING!!!

Storyline: An archaeologist (Prathap K. Pothan) goes missing on a solitary mission to find the ghost town of the long lost Cholas. His daughter Lavanya (Andrea) is devastated by this news. Enter – Anitha Pandian (Reema Sen) and her bandwagon of military lads led by Ravi (Azhagamperumal) who offers to help Lavanya find her missing father; of course they have ulterior motives behind the offer. Funded by the Government and manpower provided by Muthu (Karthik Sivakumar), a churlish, rustic, bad-mannered guy with prowling eyes and his co - laborers, the entire team sets sail on a journey marred by greed, revenge and utter chaos that eventually has a deeper meaning at the end with a realization of destinies and the unexplainable links between them and one of the world’s earliest civilizations. With a clash of destinies, history is about to repeat itself — and the consequences will be far worse and disastrous than they ever imagined. The first half is awesome with a terrific combination of fanatical violence with dark and gloomy mysticism.

The second half is where the director seems to have gone bonkers along with the movie’s script. Parthiban as the Chola King is all guns in the second half and his intro scene makes you jostle in your seats. The first 45 minutes of the second half tests your patience. It looks like Selvaraghavan wanted to show us ‘more’ and I guess in the end he has shown more than what the audience can take; too much of anything can also be a problem.

Taking cue from Tamil history, Selvaraghavan’s epic movie gives us something totally uncalled for by breaking away from the shackles of stereotypical Tamil cinema and finally confuses us so much that we wonder if we actually liked the movie or not.

Climax Handling: 3 hours of watching this movie and you get this logical but irritating climax that leaves you completely dissatisfied.

Points: Karthik hasn’t shed his Paruthi Veeran look and continues in the same manner. No scope for acting as such in this movie, but a lot of hard work has been put in by the technicians and that is evident. Parthiban’s intro does not allow you to blink, but he is reduced to a caricature as the movie progresses. The songs are a real headache and add to the on-screen confusion. The movie would have been more comprehensible had there been sub-titles in the second half.

Rating: 6/10

Comments: Brush up your history before watching this complex brain-racking movie.

Click here to view the embedded video.

This trailer leaves you in a curious state as it simply doesn’t give away any idea of the storyline and makes it tough even for an expert guesser. But, there have been rumors surfacing about this movie being related to the April 2007 Scarlet Keeling murder case. Let’s wait and watch if Venkat Prabhu is in for a hat-trick of hits.

Language:

Genre: Action

Cast: Vijay, Anushka Shetty, Salim Ghouse, Sanchita Padukone, Srihari, Sayaji Shinde

Director: B. Babusivan

Music: Vijay Antony

Reasons to watch: Only for hardcore Vijay fans who will accept anything that he does is practical and possible.

Reasons not to watch: Stale and obsolete storyline that lacks originality.

Storyline: Ravi aka Police Ravi (Vijay), idolizes Devaraj IPS (Sri Hari) and comes to Chennai with dreams of becoming a police officer. He meets Susheela (Anushka Shetty) during his journey and love blossoms at first sight (the director brings in his usual flurry of duets). It is a college-auto-love routine (versatile, aren’t we?) for Ravi until he encounters Vedanayagam (Salim Ghouse), the treacherous banal yesteryear villain. Ravi tames Chella (Ravishankar) for having sexually harassed his class-mate Uma (Sanchita Padukone). This infuriates Vedanayagam, who happens to be Chella’s dad. Vedanayagam, responsible for Devaraj’s loss of eyesight, family and job, uses his hold over the police and makes life horrible for Ravi. With Devaraj’s moral backing-up, Ravi becomes a gang leader (does it ring any bells?) and puts an end to Vedanayagam’s brutal and cold-blooded efforts using his ‘intelligence’ and super-heroic muscle power. Though Anushka peps up the proceedings and knocks you out with her stunning beauty and screen presence, like in all other Vijay flicks, there is little role for the heroine in this movie too.

In a nutshell, Vettaikaran is yet another B-Grade ‘mass-masala’ movie that borrows it’s ingredients from Pokkiri and Bhagavathy.

Climax Handling: Clichéd…. and all it’s synonyms.

Points: Vijay simply fails to learn from his previous box-office disasters. Despite his charm and dexterity in dancing, there is nothing new that Vijay offers in yet another miserable attempt to emulate and mimic Superstar Rajnikanth. The only positive for this movie is the song “Naan Adicha” in which Vijay showcases his tremendous potential in dance.

Rating:4.5/10

Comments: Don’t watch it. And even if you do…. forget it!

Genre: Romantic

Cast: Genelia D’Souza, Jayam Ravi, Prakash Raj.

Direction: Raja

Music Direction: Devi Sri Prasad.

Reasons to watch: Different storyline, Good comic sequences

Reasons not to watch: Typicalism, same old things same old things same old things….

Story: Santosh (Jayam Ravi) is a guy who has all his decisions made by his father (Prakash Raj). Although, he is disgusted by this fact, he never mentions this to his dad. His dad gets him engaged to a girl against his wishes and he still does not protest although he totally doesn’t want to get married to her. In the mean time he bumps into this happy-go-lucky girl Hasini (Genelia) in a temple and likes her. They meet on a regular basis and fall in love. This angers Santosh’s dad. Santosh however convinces him to give Hasini a chance by letting her live at their place. Everyone in Santosh’s home begins to like her except his dad. One day Hasini leaves as she cannot bear Santosh’s dad’s irrational behavior and bossiness. Santosh opens his heart and spills out all his anger and leaves his home. Santosh’s dad repents on his behavior and agrees to Santosh’s and Hasini’s marriage.

Climax Handling: Classic ending with no twists or tension.

Points: It a remake of the movie Bommarillu starring Siddharth.

Rating: 6/10

Comments: This flick is a good time-pass. Watch and forget.