Miruthan

With the onset of new genres in Tamizh cinema, we have Sakthi Soundar Rajan's first ever zombie movie - Miruthan. Jayam Ravi's varied choice of scripts, with his last five falling under five different genres makes him the unanimously celebrated hero in the recent times. How does Miruthan live up to the expectations from the theatre going crowd?

Miruthan is about a traffic cop escorting a group of medics after zombies take control of an entire city. Jayam Ravi (as Karthik) lives with his sister (Baby Anikha) in Ooty and the city turns into a zombie-land overnight. A group of medics, Lakshmi Menon and co., after attending a medical conference, find themselves in the mid of the catastrophe. Is there a respite in the offing?

Jayam Ravi opens his account for 2016 with a perfect performance. There are a few screen-presence moments and he enjoys the screams and whistles at regular intervals. He seems to be unstoppable after Thani Oruvan. Kaali Venkat's timing and the innocence he bears while delivering the comical scenes is entertaining and there is not even a single comedy that doesn't work. Sriman shares a lot of lighter moments right from his intro. 

With a genre that is not tried and tested with the Tamizh audience, one has to compromise. There is a sister sentiment, there is romance, there is friendship and there is heroism - all the ingredients for a commercial cinema, yet the film engages the audience throughout. Imaan's songs are appealing and the background score - one of his best. The "Horrifying Zombies" theme lingers in your ears even after you leave the cinema hall - a top-class BGM from Imaan after a long time. There are zombies creeping into the lens now and then, but there is not even a single frame that turns disgusting. The effort of the technicians behind the scenes is definitely laudable for delivering a zombie movie with authenticity in a short span. 

After Naanayam and Naaigal Jaakirathai, Shakthi Soundar Rajan has delivered his third genre in three movies. He has managed to create a zombie movie interwoven with the much needed commercial elements. There are few scenes which go overboard in action and sentiment, which could have been avoided. The director's idea of amalgamating "Mirugam" and "Manithan" for "Miruthan" deserves a special mention as he conveys the theme in just one word. With the film running lesser than two hours, we have the screenplay fast enough and Miruthan crosses the boundary line with comfortable ease. 

Bottomline - For those who rave about Hollywood zombie movies, we have Tamizh Cinema's first ever zombie movie finished in 54 days with a shoestring budget. Kudos to the entire team!

Jil Jung Juck

We have Vadivelu's omnipresence reiterated with one more movie titled with his famous dialogue from Kaadhalan - Jil... Jung... Juck... With the single track "Shoot the Kuruvi" and an interesting promo two days before its release, Jil Jung Juck enjoyed the much needed pre-release hype. Is Jil Jung Juck a Jil or a Jung or a Juck?

The opening scene of the movie takes us to an interesting plot, a period when the world is experiencing a severe fuel crisis. A drug smuggler, a petrol smuggler, a scientist, three people who are hired to transport cocaine - an interesting plot and characterisation. Siddharth as Jil, Avinash Raghudevan as Jung and Sananth Reddy as Juck are hired to deliver a pink vintage car to the Chinese which is believed to be packed with Cocaine. Deiva (Amarendran) hires them to deliver his last package of drugs after many of his recent failures in drug trafficking. Will Jil Jung Juck deliver the package at the right time? 

Of late, we see Siddharth trying diverse roles and he is back as Nanjil Sivaji. As a producer and as a protagonist, he is perfect. Sananth Reddy's performance as the innocent Juck is laudable. However, Avinash as Jung is the most entertaining of the three lead characters. With a blank expression on his face, he has the perfect looks for a comedian. Radha Ravi and Nasser are the usual supporting character materials and deliver a flawless performance. Bhagavathi Perumal has been under-utilized, sad that he did not get any meaty roles after "Naduvula Konjam Pakkatha Kaanom".

Director Dheeraj Vaidhy and Mohan Ramakrishnan's dialogues are new and afresh. Art direction and VFX deserve a special mention for the spectacular treatment of few shots, escpecially the scene involving the petrol silo and the marbles. The screenplay is fast paced in the first half, with the movie shifting back and forth as there is a flashback scene for each of the primary characters. Though the plot and the line-up of characters is interesting, the screenplay lacks the much needed element of suspense until the last fifteen minutes. There are lengthy scenes which makes the second half a little dragging. A movie tagged with "Comedy" genre tries hard to evoke laughter in most parts. Despite the comedy ingredients ranging from adult comedy to slapstick comedy, a very few scenes evoke laughter. The film falls yards short of the boundary line, with a dragging second half attempting the comedy route. The final 15 minutes of the movie provides relief to the otherwise dull second half. 

Vishal Chandrasekhar deserves a special stanza in this review - the sole hero of the movie. Right from his "Shoot the Kuruvi" to background score he has delivered his best in an experimental album. The music adapts to the wacky nature of the movie and compliments the picturization. The carnatic dubstep that is played in the background during the burst of the petrol silo and the chase that unfolds - height of experimentation. With the next-gen musicians forming a line-up with Santhosh Narayanan, Anirudh, Sean Roldan to name a few, Vishal finds his place in the list with a thumbs-up from the audience. "Shoot the Kuruvi" with the end credits rolling, makes the audience sit through till the end card - a winning moment for Vishal!

Bottomline - Jil Jung Juck, definitely not a Jil or a Juck!

Visaaranai

Visaaranai, after seeing a lot of international film festivals across the world, comes back to where it belongs - theatres of Tamizh Nadu. The film garnered highly positive reviews right from superstars Rajinikanth and Kamal Haasan to critics and jury members. Tamizh Cinema has seen a lot of promise from Balu Mahendra's proteges - Bala, Ram and Seenu Ramasamy to name a few. Vettrimaran is no exception. 

Visaaranai is about political interference in Indian judiciary, corrupted officials, white collars, police officers and hapless victims caught in the web - if that's the correct hierarchy of the so called "system". The movie starts in Andhra Pradesh with a group of four homeless migrants from Tamizh Nadu being picked up by the policemen and asked to confess a robbery they never knew about. The only connection they have with the robbery is the place where they stay, a park closer to the colony. They are repeatedly beaten up until they confess the robbery and finally taken to court. The second half runs along the same lines again, but the ambience and the nature of police investigation changes. Vettrimaran, taking inspiration from a novel "Lock Up" has interwoven few real life incidents to make a feature film that runs for less than 2 hours.

The realistic portrayal of police investigation sends a chill down your spine. The brutality handled by the policemen to make the victims confess the crime is terrible. Everytime a lathi blow lands on one of the victims, you feel the pain. Vettrimaran has achieved a rarity in Tamizh Cinema, making the viewers a part of the proceedings. Right from the first frame, he keeps everything real and there is no exaggeration anywhere. The authenticity of picturization is clearly evident from the crackles of walkie-talkies you often hear in the background in a police station. 

Vettrimaran is one director who makes movies which are critically accliamed and commercially successful. In Visaaranai, he has managed to place an intriguing sub-plot that keeps the audience engrossed throughout. There is love, there is friendship, there is betrayal, there is truth - everything blended in so perfectly that there appears to be no compromise. Above all, there is an element of fear that engulfs every frame - and it sometimes shifts to the viewers too.

"Attakathi" Dinesh gives his career best performance - Performance would be an understatement :  He has given his heart and soul.. and skin for the character. You can sense his pain everytime his muscle releases a spasm on a lathi blow - the most underrated actor in recent times. We can see his "Attakathi" version in a few frames that involves a love portion with Anandhi of TIN fame. Be it the frame where he emotes betrayal or the scene where he takes in more and more beatings to save his friends from being beaten to death -  a masterclass performance from an under-utilized actor. Samudhirakani and Kishore play their role with comfortable ease. They are the front-runners in the list of most sought after supporting actors. The investigation scene involving the two of them brings out the crux of the story, a true reflection of the reality - how political heads influence and make use of police and civilians as pawns for their own gains. Samudhirakani's shift from being confident when he has the upper hand in the first half to becoming one more pawn in the second half is just a sample for his versatility. Kishore's performance is perfect especially in scenes where he cries in pain before having his last breath. "Aadukalam" Ramadoss provides the humour quotient, and his boundary does not end there - he is only second to Dinesh in emoting the pain. Each and every person on screen is at his/her best, even the ones who come in for a single frame. Misha, as the only kind hearted cop makes an impact. 

Vettrimaran's dialogues are top-notch, they convey the much needed message strongly - The system feeds and is being fed by the powerful and the powerless are nothing but pawns. Editor Kishore has delivered one more masterpiece and Tamizh Cinema has definitely lost one of the bests in business. GV Prakash's background score is undisturbing and doesn't dilute the script. There are scenes where there is no background score - this makes us realise the impact the movie would have created in the international film festivals, where it was screened without the BG score. Being a definite contender for the national awards, Dhanush and Vettrimaran have one more feather to their cap - after Kaaka Muttai.

Bottomline - Visaaranai: The real face of Tamizh Cinema at the global arena... Oppukontaara?

Irudhi Suttru - Boxing Its Way To Box Office Success!

We have been seeing sports drama movies in the recent times in Tamizh cinema - Vallinam, Jeeva, Bhoologam to name a few. We have Sudha Kongara's Irudhi Suttru concentrating on issues plaguing Indian Sports industry - Right from political interference to sexual harassment.

Madhavan as an angry, foul mouthed, short tempered boxing coach makes a memorable comeback to Tamizh cinema after 4 years. Prabhu (Madhavan), a boxing coach with allegations of sexual harassment against him goes in search of (is made to go in search of) new boxing trainees. He stumbles upon a "born boxer" (Rithika) in the slums of Chennai. The journey of this born boxer to world championship forms the storyline - a clichéd storyline that differs in the treatment it gets.

How often have we seen screen presence of a woman in Tamizh cinema? Rithvika Singh has delivered aplenty here, especially the "Kannula Gethu" moment. Rithika's portrayal of the bold, defiant and rebellious "Madhi" is definitely laudable. Her lip sync is perfect - the dubbing artist needs a special mention too. She even overshadows Maddy in many scenes.

There is not even a single frame that doesn't belong. A tight screenplay, an honest script, hard hitting dialogues by Arun Madhieswaran makes the movie a must - watch. The film's supporting cast is hand picked and there are no complaints. Kaali Venkat, as Rithika's father provides the humor relief. Nasser, as a boxing coach reiterates that he is one of the best supporting actors Tamizh Cinema has. Radharavi cakewalks his role and no doubt he is Nasser's counterpart in the most sought after supporting actors. The villain gives a performance that makes you hate him, a winner hands down.

Behind the scenes, we have a hero - Santhosh Narayanan. His songs are a huge plus. His background score and placement of lyrics from Muthamizh and Vivek are brilliant. There is a scene where Rithika counters Madhavan after he dictates her to do pushups as a punishment. Santhosh's placement of "Kannula Gethu... Ava kannula gethu... Vaaipilama vechuduvaa vaaiyila kuththu" gives Rithika the best screen presence moment. Be it a foot tapping "Vaa Machaney" or a soul stirring "Ey sandakaara" or an ambitious "Maya Visai", we have typical Santhosh in full form. There are whistles and screams at the start of each of his songs. His background score in the final moments makes your heart race faster - his brilliance in script oriented music revisited. The climax sequence makes you feel as if the moment is live, though we see shades of Chak de India.

Madhavan underplays his role, a much needed performance for the script. Being overshadowed by Rithika's performance in most of the scenes, he makes it even with just one emotional shot in the climax - a knockout performance.

Sudha Kongara delivers an honest script without much fuss and with no compromise. Her detailed research on boxing is clearly evident from the never ending list of boxers in the end credits - a trendsetting lady filmmaker.

Bottomline - Irudhi Suttru, tadoun tadoun tadoun tadoun taaandoun tatatadoun! (Santhosh Narayanan effect)