Jeeva...Jeeva...Jeeva

Incorporating communal based politics into sports breathes havoc at all levels.This may lead to the domination of a single person or a community in the sports. It takes special courage to make a movie on such a controversial subject. Jeeva - the story of two youngsters for whom cricket is not just a game but life and how communal based politics plays role in the game. Cricket in India is seen as a religion. Most played and mostly watched game. But domination of few people in cricket associations does not let good talents to be exhibited. For instance, in Tamil Nadu cricket is played since the British period and it has a historical club here. But only 16 players have played for India from Tamil Nadu. Out of which 14 are from a single community. Making a story based on this plot needs special care. Suseenthiran with his team created a master piece out of sports journal movies. Not an usual movie where the hero fights back the system and wins his position. Here the hero blames the system, loses his friend but "keeps calm and erakifies kathukitta moththa vithai" in the matches he is offered chance. Screenplay scores for the movie. The most non boring autobiographical movie in the recent days. Though the movie starts with the protagonist's childhood days, it travels through a span of  25 years, yet not making the audience restless. The hero's love travels parallel to his sports passion. Being a former cricketer, Vishnu is the best choice for the role as Jeeva. Vishnu has showed maturity in his acting since Neer Paravai. In Jeeva, his emotions worked out well. Sri Divya is beautiful attracts with her mischievous acting. Though being 27 years old, she still has the looks of a teenager, which sure is a gift. Suri scores again with his timely gestures. Though Suri comes only in few parts of the movie, he makes his appearance remarkable. Lakshman Narayan as Ranjith, another crixketer-actor in Tamil cinema. Lakshman has played all levels from under 15 to under 25 for Tamil Nadu. Too much of improvised acting in Jeeva compared to his debut Annakodiyum Kodiveeranum. May be some crash course helped him. Producer "Amma Creations " Shiva makes his acting debut in this movie has done justice to Suseenthiran's hope. Wish he comes a big round like produced turned actor Jai Prakash. Music by D.Imman, three songs have already hit the list and have been played frequently in all FM radios. Imman must concentrate more on his bgm works. Using bgms from the songs in the movie has been his regular practice. Since Jeeva is a content rich movie, too much of work in bgm was not necessary. Yet Imman has to provide support to the story with his bgm. Cinematography by R.Machi. The most trusted cinematographer by Suseenthiran and has played vital role behind camera in most Suseenthiran movies. Being a sports journal movie, too much of strain would have been necessary. But giving such quality camera work with minimal cameras is an appreciatable job. Though Vishal, Vishnu and Arya are good friends, the effort to release this movie shows a good sign. It will be great if they encourage and support fresh and young talents too in such way. The success of this kinda journal movie relys on the "Yes" factor which the audience feels when the hero wins what he deserves. Jeeva gives us that feel good factor and wins the game.

MADRAS...nalla Madras.

Madras - Pa.Ranjith's second directorial following his critically acclaimed Attakaththi. We have had a half dozen films dealing with life of Madras, especially North Madras, in the past out of which only very few did well at the box office. People in South of Chennai like to refer their area as South Chennai. Whereas people in the North like to call it as North Madras. They feel it as a prestigious and proud thing. Capturing the life of North Madras is not an easy task. Being a North Madras resident, Ranjith has done justice to the script. After Selvaraghavan's Pudhupettai, 'Madras" is the only North Chennai based flick that gives a grip to the story. A wall which is felt as a prestigious issue between two political parties of the same area is the main character of the movie. Leading to the rivalry between youths and politicians for the wall is the plot. Political war for the wall leads to many fueds and deaths. The story is handled well by Ranjith comprising love, revenge, betrayal and sentiment. The effort to tell the politics behind the wall is good. Though a predictable story it doesn't make the audience to feel restless. Taking revenge for a friend inside a political plot is a good try. Except for the 15 mins in second half, slow and steady screenplay gives boost to the movie's phase. Screenplay too was mostly predictable. But this does not affect the flow.The last 20 mins gives the unexpected feel making the story different from typical tamil film. The director could have been more careful in the language used in the movie. There is even a separate page dedicated to Madras Tamil in Wikipedia. So, the dialogues could have been more interesting if the team was able to do more research on the language with such historical importance. Cinematography by Murali gives fresh feel of North Madras. Shots showing the wall from different perceptions is really good. Especially the shot before interval block which shows the wall from a certain  distance is great. As most of the stunts happen at nights, lighting and camera through narrow lanes of the housing board colony is handled perfectly. No unnecessary shakes of the camera. Karthi as Kaali is a perfect choice. Portraying a typical North Madras youth with that kinda local attitude must have been a challenging task. His performance shows the efforts put by Karthi and Ranjith. Catherine Teresa as Kalaiarasi gives a feel good appearance in the movie. Characters have been chosen with utmost care.  Kalai as Karthi's friend Anbu, Vinod as Mari and Nandakumar as Kannan are the best choices for the characters. All the characters bring the life of North Madras in front of our eyes. Locations play the major role. Perambur and Vyasarpadi housing board complexes have been used for the entire movie. The choice of the wall is perfect one. Songs in Santhosh Narayan's music have already topped the charts.The background score of the film gives a good feel. There are movies which have been great hits besides weak story line. But Santhosh's tracks adds flavour to Madras's line. His effort for chosen scripts shows the talent of a promising composer. Stunts though not extraordinary are realistic. Predictable story and predictable screenplay but great way of narration makes the movie a must watch one. Running full pack shows even in the second week proves that Madras is a not another movie with rivalry and gansgster background. Only a few could turn movies with such plot into a masterpiece. 

Anjaan - Yet another action flick.

Lingusamy's first project with Surya. First Indian movie to be shot in Red dragon camera. Surya-Samantha paired for short time. Santosh Sivan joined hands with Lingusamy for the first time. First Tamil movie released only through Digital projection in all theaters, with no physical prints. But the story was not a FIRST kinda one. Clearly predictable after 30 mins of the 1st half. Lingusamy trying to give a Baadshah has failed to fetch him 100 marks. He misses his story tracts of movies like Sandakkozhi, Paiyaa and Run. Anjaan's storyline could have been far better. Surya as Raju bhai perfectly fits into the character's shadow. He makes us to feel the heat in action sequences. Samantha as Jeeva. Inspite of having fewer scenes, she tried her best to fit in. Though being born and brought up in Chennai, she still needs to concentrate on her lip syncs for Tamil movies. Her dialogue delivery was not complete in few scenes. Rather than that, a too hotter Samantha for Tamil flick. Vidyut Jamwal, this man should be credited for his seamless performance. Cut-to-Cut, he was good. No dupes for action sequences. Flash and Bang. That was a plus. Performance, a one hundred percent. Manoj Baypai as Imran bhai, the villain only appears few times on the screen  making his role to look as Cameo appearance. But we couldn't blame him for this. It is very sad that Tamil directors are using a shuttle performer like Manoj for roles like this. His performances in recent Bollywood movies like Rajneeti, Gangs of Wasseypur, Special 26, Satyagraha would speak for him. Soori with his gestures and timely dialogues steals the show again. Songs are good that doesn't make audiences to go for a drink. After his conversion to Islaam, it clearly shows Yuvan has started concentrating Sufi music. Kadhal Aasai song  is a perfect example. After his 100 albums, Anjaan tracks topped sixth in icharts for the first time. Bgm at its best as usual from him. Bang Bang song used for the title credits is good mix. Santosh Sivan is no doubt a genius at the camera. Lightings in few scenes were exceptionally good. Technically to handle a camera for the first time after its make needs a greater sense. Santosh Sivan is the best at it. Showing the nights of Mumbai through his camera is a masterpiece. Cuts by Antony may go for few award nominations this year. Especially fight sequences would have been a challenge for Antony's team to cut. Once again Antony proves he is one of the best. Silva's stunts as usual is amazing. With all the above said plus, joins the story as a minus. Minus X Plus is always minus, right ? Sixth standard mathematics. That's what happened here too. Surya in an interview on the day of release said that he chooses scripts only after the directors narrates story scene by scene. I don't think, it would have worked that way in Anjaan. Screenplay was even weaker than the story. Few scenes were beyond saying those were logical errors. Screenplay was misleading the audience at many sequences. The unnecessary use of blazers in the movie, I feel is a overrated thinking of the director or the costume designer. All goondas and stunts artists move with unfit blazers throughout the movie.  The whole movie made me to think, where the hell is Lingusamy's screenplay touch. His racy Sandakkozhi and Paiyaa screenplays are memories. Only the placement of songs were good atlast. Weak story and weaker screenplay. Minus x minus didn't make a plus here. Failure of a mathematical theory, huh? With this Lingusamy has let down Anjaan and Surya. Most of the characters were using Audi, BMW, Benz, Range rover type of cars. But the effects in many scenes for these cars were like Ambassador car's and Mahindra van's. Directorial team should've paid some attention to it.  Over all the movie was another effect to establish Surya as a mass hero. It may be a mass entertainer for his fans. For other viewers it's just another normal action flick in which we have nothing high to expect. Better luck next time Surya and Lingusamy.