meenal-an

Feeling very happy to watch a meaningful and inspirational film after a very very long time. I have not seen anything like this in tamil cinema before. I wouldnt say that it really inspired me... But, I was pleasantly surprised to see a film with great direction. Surely, Sudha Kongara is a great director. Her meticulous work clearly shows. For Sooriya, after Anbuchelvan and Sanjay Ramasamy, Nedumaaran Raajangam may be a good meaningful character in his career (after a looooong time). Dialogues were very impressive. And the film has many interesting moments. All the actors in the film have given great performances. G.V.Prakash's music was apt for the film, with Veyyon silli standing out. The song transports the romantic feel to the audiences. Making a movie on aviation is not that easy. The flight scenes were terrific (that too, the first few scenes were awesome .. the team has rightly understood that these scenes are the plus of the film and has rightly kept one of these aviation scenes as the opening for the film). Another thing I liked was that everything about the aviation business has been shown clearly - all minute details, the problems faced, the competition in the business. The heroine character was very interesting and I think that, that character has been created the way it has been, to maintain the raw tone of the film. Aparna's performance was terrific. Urvashi's too....One great thing about the film is its pace. It is super fast and uniform from start till end. But, still,I feel that, if the film had been edited differently (still maintainig the fast pace of the film) and few other minor issues fixed, this film could have been an outstanding,oscar-worthy film. My understanding of what Sudha wanted to show us in the film is that when a socially responsible person who has affinity towards his town and town's people (something that he has inherited from his father), who also happens to be a pilot, goes through a bitter experience of not being able to get a flight ticket when he desparately wants to, the result would be that he would make it his life's ambition to make flight journey a possible one for the middle/lower class people. Thats what happens here with Maara. Basically he doesnt want flying to be a prospect that only the upper class people have. In other words, when a need arised or when someone was having a lifetime dream to have a flight journey, Maara wanted to make it possible for them to do so. He did not want class or money to be a barrier in having a flight journey. And most importantly he wanted to connect the small towns and cities through flight. This would make India look more developed and sophisticated. This can be seen as an improvement to our society. This is probably what Sudha wanted to tell and if this had been presented in this manner as such, I think it would have been more acceptable. But, here it has been presented in a slightly different manner - the focus was only on Nedumaaran wanting the poor people to fly. (As though one fine morning he woke up and started wondering why poor people are not flying and he badly wants them to experience the flight travel...As though this is the pressing issue that poor people in India are having now). The film does show his experience as a pilot in defense team and also shows the incident which made him want poor people to fly... but, its all disjointed... so,the way it has been presented now, it makes one think - ' why should a poor guy fly? What is the need? why would a poor guy bother about flying when he has other pressing issues'.Though Sudha has pointed this out herself in the film and given an apt reply for it, through Maara's character, we cannot avoid thinking 'all of these struggles to achieve something luxurious like flying? As though struggling for basic necessities like water and food...' Is this ambition worthy of this much of struggle? One cant help thinking that the same amount of struggle and energy could have been spent in achieving what is 'necessary' for poor people. All of this because of the disjointed narration. A few more drawbacks I noticed .... As the film progresses , somewhere we start feeling a little bored. This is inspite of maintaining the fast pace evenly through out the film. It feels a little monotonous and a little confusing after 1 and half hours of the film. And I felt that the villain character is very caricaturish. For a film that is aimed at being close to reality, this kind of villains dont really fit in. Another minus point is that, though Sooriya is terrific in scenes where he has to display his determination, his ambition, his frustration, his sadness, his love and the fire in him , he doesnt look convincing as a villager. In all the family scenes, he alone looks aloof. For the most part, he looks like someone who just returned from Harvard university and just got introduced to his village family and is wondering what village life is like. The rest of his family and Aparna's family are very convincing as villagers. And they are the ones who give the audiences the right feel and tone for the film. Maybe if this had been corrected, the film and the character would have touched our hearts, the way it was meant to. For, the very pulse of the film itself is the protagonist's character - an 'ordinary villager' coming from a 'middle class' family having big ambitions and that too with strong determination, dedication and perserverance. So, Sooriya, acting like Anbuselvan-trying-the-rustic-looks (or may be like the young Sooriya from Vaaranam Aayiram) is not doing any good for the film. Overall, it was a surprisingly good film. But, it could have been a gem of a movie , if these few problems had been taken care of.

Aayirathil oruvan, a fantasy adventure thriller, is a first of its kind in tamil cinema - and thanks to its director selvaraghavan for the brave attempt. I found the film to be fast paced (very long film though) and engaging in many places. It has got some wonderful visuals and art direction. However, the screenplay is too bad that good cinematography and Karthi's good acting cannot makeup for it.Considering that this is a very difficult and expensive film to make, the director should have taken additional efforts to make sure that the script is good,or at least,that it makes any sense. As I was watching the first half of the movie,I thought that the movie cannot get worse than this,but after I watched the film post interval, I felt that the first half of the film was much better :- ) This film seems like a collage work of a whole range of Selvaraghavan's favorite Hollywood films.

Plot - An archaeologist is lost while on his quest to discover the lost chola dynasty. Anitha (Reemma) and her group of officials, the archaeologist's daughter Lavanya (Andrea), a coolie gang (Karthi is one of them) all set out to trace the missing archaeologist.Their journey to the lost city of chola dynasty has some very interesting moments.The story takes a u-turn after the trio make it to the lost city and what follows next is a series of mysteries.

Most scenes are very filmy and therefore, raise a lot of questions in the audience's mind.And the songs do not gel well with the film.

What I hated about the film was unnecessary violence, double entendres and profanity (as is the case with all Selvaraghavan films).The film has many gory scenes and too much vulgar, which could have been avoided. And the 'open ending' climax was very disappointing.

Acting wise, Karthi was awesome.Unfortunately, we don't get to see much of him in the second half. Andrea has very little to do. Some other actress in the place of Reema could have done some good to the film.Reema, as the heir of the Pandian dynasty, looked out of place and could not be taken seriously.

This movie is undoubtedly a brave attempt in tamil cinema, but sorry to say that it was very disappointing.