Film Review: SINGAM II (சிங்கம்II)

You should not miss it if you are a Surya fan!

Cast: Surya, Anushka Shetty, Hansika Motwani, Radha Ravi, Manorama, Vivek, Santhanam, Rahman, Vijaya Kumar, Nassar, Mukesh Rishi
Director: Hari

THE STORY

The story begins from exactly where it was left off in the first one. Duraisingam aka Singam resigns from the police force and goes undercover to teach in a Higher Secondary School in Tuticorin as a NCC Master. In the meanwhile, he keeps a watch on the coastline for illegal activities as instructed by the Home Minister (Vijaya Kumar).

Sathya (Hansika Motwani) is studying in Std. XII. She falls in love with DS and chases him till she finds out that he is already engaged to Kavya (Anushka Shetty). Bhai (Mukesh Rishi) seems to be in charge of the criminal activities in town. Sathya’s uncle Thangaraj (Rahman) has sworn enmity with Bhai. Gathering his facts together, DS hopes to take Thangaraj’s help in fighting Bhai. But is everything as it appears to be?

Soon, DS comes out into the open taking up the post of DSP as there is a bigger enemy out there on the horizon. Danny (Danny Sapani) is a drug cartel kingpin who keeps to international waters to escape being caught. It appears that Bhai has dealings with Danny. DS is keen to catch them red-handed. Will he succeed?

MY PERCEPTION

It is an out and out masala flick – the same as Singam. Surya is a joy to watch on screen. He looks so handsome and fit and acts extremely well. I thoroughly enjoyed the character of Duraisingam handling a troublesome teenager in the guise of Hansika Motwani. He fights, sings, dances, emotes and what not! Excellent work, Surya!

Hansika Motwani has a good role in the film and she has performed very well.

Anushka Shetty is very so-so, same as the first film. Luckily, she has a smaller role in this one. The song-dance sequences were there for the crowd’s entertainment, I suppose. They add absolutely no value to the story.

It was nice to see Rahman after a long time. He has got a fairly chunky role and has performed well.

While the joke sequences with Santhanam don’t have much to do with the story line, the actor has done a pretty good job and keeps the audience laughing with his nonsense.

While there are a number of fight sequences in the sequel, they are not very prolonged. Thank God for that!

VERDICT: The film is worth a see if you like masala flicks. A must-not-miss if you are a Surya fan.

RATING: *** Smart

* Silly
** Shaky
*** Smart
**** Snazzy
***** Super

Film Review: ORU KAL ORU KANNADI (ஒரு கல் ஒரு கண்ணாடி)

The first prize goes to Santhanam. His comic timing is just awesome! 

Cast: Udhayanidhi Stalin, Santhanam, Hansika, Saranya
Director: M. Rajesh
Edited by: Vivek Harshan

The earlier day, when we went to see Tezz at Cinemax Sion, I had noticed that this Tamil film was on. I asked my sister Lakshmi whether it would be worth a watch. She told me that it was a comedy and that it had good reviews. That’s when Venkat and I decided to see it.

THE STORY

Saravanan (Udhayanidhi Stalin) receives a cover by courier first thing in the morning. He is shocked to see the contents. It is his girlfriend Meera’s (Hansika) wedding invite to which she has attached a handwritten note insisting that he should not attend the wedding that is to take place at Pondichery. A desperate Saravanan calls up his best friend Partha (Santhanam) and gives him the bad news. Not that Partha is extremely bothered. Saravanan insists that Partha drive him over to the marriage venue immediately so that they could stop the wedding and claim the bride. As they drive from Chennai to Pondichery, the film goes in flashback as to how Saravanan meets Meera; the building up of their relationship and finally the incident that makes Meera change her mind and marry the guy suggested by her father. Watch the film to find out whether Saravanan succeeds in stopping the wedding and getting together with Meera or his dream just goes down the drain.

MY PERCEPTION

Udhayanidhi Stalin happens to be the grandson of Karunanidhi, ex-CM of Tamil Nadu. While he has produced some films, this is the first one where he plays the hero. He was quite good portraying the irresponsible guy whose main way of passing time is checking out girls.

Hansika has a glamourous role and she has done well. Her acting skills have definitely improved but the rate at which she is putting on weight, she might find it difficult to find heroine roles.

Saranya plays Saravanan’s mother. While she has a jovial demeanour, she is terribly hurt by her College Professor husband who refuses to talk to her since 20 years as she is not a graduate. The way she swings between humour and pathos is simply amazing. A special Kudos to Saranya for her versatility!

The first prize goes to Santhanam. His comic timing is just awesome! While the dialogues were not so fantastic that one would tend to memorise them, his delivery was superbly timed. I always thought that Santhanam made for a great comedian. I continue to believe that. Congratulations!

The film ran for 2 hours and 40 minutes and could have been edited down to 2 hours. The editing by Vivek Harshan was not at all good. The movie tends to become slow at many points. While the film goes back and forth – which is good – it could have been made tighter in a number of instances.

I have to mention the choreography. It was nothing short of terrible. To begin with, every song – there were four duets – is a slow number. Then there are the dance steps that were so bad that one could not miss them. The choreographer – Dinesh, I think – needs to go learn dancing himself before he is let loose on the filmy community.

VERDICT: I think most of you like comedies. Then this is definitely for you.

 RATING: *** Smart

* Silly
** Shaky
*** Smart
**** Snazzy
***** Super

Film Review: மாப்பிள்ளை (MAPPILLAI)

Mappillai (2011)

Cast: Dhanush, Manisha Koirala, Ashish Vidyarthi, Vivek, Hansika Motwani
Writer-Director: Suraaj

The Story: Sharavanan (Dhanush) lives in a friendly neighbourhood in Chennai and is the envy of all the neighbours. He lives with his sister and brother-in-law and spends his time visiting temples. Chinna (Vivek) and his friends are the bad boys who loaf their lives away. Sharavanan happens to rescue the daughter (Hansika Motwani) of billionaire Rajeswari (Manisha Koirala) from a scooter accident. The girl falls for him and seeing him for the quiet boy he is, Rajeswari decides to make him her son-in-law and keep the married couple in her own home. Just before the wedding, Rajeswari finds out that Sharavanan is not the simpleton that he appears to be. While she does her best to keep him out of her daughter’s life, Sharavanan sticks to them like glue and the rest of the story goes on to show how he proves himself to be a good son-in-law (Mappillai).

My Perception: The story sounds familiar? Yeah, of course, you have seen it either in Tamil – Mappillai (1989) starring Rajinikanth with Srividya playing the mother-in-law and Amala as Rajinikanth’s heroine. OR you have seen it in Hindi – Jamai Raja (1990) starring Anil Kapoor with Hema Malini playing the mother-in-law. Incidentally, Madhuri Dixit played Anil Kapoor’s love interest.

Getting back to this film, it began extremely well. Vivek’s comedy timing was perfect and the dialogue was quite witty and sharp during the first 45 minutes. Even the song – Kandhanukku arohara Muruganukku arohara – was good. One could relate to the lyrics that were quite well-written following the life-story of Lord Murugan. One could very well understand how young men from the lower and middle-income groups could relate to Dhanush, the actor. He looks like your local rickshawalla who can sing, dance, fight and romance. While he looks anything like a hero, Dhanush can definitely act. He so reminds me of Rajinikanth when he was new to films. The superstar used to look a lot like his mappillai (the pun is intended as Dhanush is married to Rajinikanth’s daughter in real life) and I remember not liking him much.

But later, I, like millions of others, fell for the superstar’s style and there was no looking back. I went to watch this film for the same reason, hoping to find some kind of a style in Dhanush that I could relate to. Maybe I am way too old and cynical, but, alas, I just could find nothing in the hero that could charm me, despite his good (just good, nothing exceptional) acting skills.

After about one-third of the film got over, it went straight downhill. While I really admired the writer-director Suraaj for the dialogues in that part, I was totally disappointed with the way the film moved steadily from bad to worse, with no surprises. I could have uttered the dialogues myself as it so closely followed the original Tamil version. BTW, I have seen both Rajinikanth’s and Anil Kapoor’s films.

Manisha Koirala has done an excellent job. Taking on this role must not have been easy to someone who had been playing the heroine not so long ago. But this was indeed a smart move as the mother-in-law’s role is fairly stylish and that of a vamp. Kudos!

Hansika Motwani had a negligible role that does not enhance her career in any way.

Vivek was excellent and I sincerely wish that he had had more of a role in the film. I had thought that his career was taking a downward spiral, but this film proves that the actor has a lot more comedy in him that he could share with the public.

Verdict: A must watch if you are an ardent Dhanush fan. Otherwise, keep away. I am sure Vivek's comedy scenes will soon be on TV. You can have your fun then if you are a Vivek fan. 

Rating: ** 1/2 (One of those stars solely belongs to Vivek)

* Silly
** Shaky
*** Smart
**** Snazzy
***** Super