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Tuesday, November 01, 2005

Sivakasi - Mappum mandharamai - a free fall but not fully flat - Movie review...


Ennappan thirupparankundram muruganin arulalal, watched “Sivakasi” first day, first show in Madurai J. Didn’t get a chance to read balaji’s dissection report then. But do not regret that much.. For those who do not want to read the full review, herez the short review: First half – bittu, second half – jettu.. Mothathula, thalavidhi, padam hittu!

The director seemed to have a semblance of story which would occupy screen for half an hour. So, he has knit a full remaining two and a half hours watching old rajini movies and recent masala movies including the Namitha special - Aei, Dhool, Vijay’s own Thirumalai et al. He has also managed to pull out a tacky intro scene for himself! A request - Dr. Anbumani, please ban directors acting or even showing their faces in Tamil Films like you tried doing for cigarettes… [Quote: Cigaratte smoking and director's acting are injurious to health.]

The base knot dates back to puratchi thalaivar’s Neerum Neruppum with slight adjustments. Good parents having one good son and one bad son with a “Perarasu” special supplement, one good daughter. The good son branded bad thanks to bad son, sent out of town, bad son acting good for-a-while, later ill-treats the left-over good ones and finally the original good son coming back to save his good ones from the bad one and finally all good ones win and the bad one turns good with audience feeling goody goody walking out of the theatre… Don’t we know all this? So wats good abt the movie?

First, the goods:

- The second half. It’s a clever masala mix with thaipaasam, thangachi paasam and director’s strong paasam on “dhool”. The dhool resemblence is as strong as the size of “Sornakka” who shouts and stamps hard in the same way as “Mooli mangamma” (or some crappy name like that!) this time.

- The side-team comprising Baskar managing to bring out a few chuckles. Kanja Karuppu does his bit as a side-kick of Prakashraj.

- Vijay’s masala performance (rehashed histrionics from all his old movies) carrying the movie afloat. The much thought (?!) intro scene has the die-hard fans going all out with their vocal chords.

The bads:

- Asin’s double role pretention throughout first-half is straight from “fresh-in-memory” Namitha’s Aei.

- Director’s intro scene!!!

- The hero character, sidekicks, the backdrop, challenging heroine (and her poorly etched father) etc strongly resembling “thirumalai”

- The dumbo characters like “Pallakku paandi”, which the director probably couldn’t add in his earlier thirupachi featuring sooper titles like sagadai saniyan etc.

- The heroine’s father and brothers. Haven’t seen many dumb characters than these. These characters also go for a long pop-corn in the interval and get stuck in the loo. Flushed out of the movie after that!

- Second half dhoolisms

- Prakash Raj, never striking as a villain – more of a comedian.

- The “letter” factor being overused in the second half. Perarasu, lack of ideas, eh? You should’ve watched some more old masala movies! Take more time next time.

The so-sos:

The entire movie. The movie’s first-half has so many gaping loop holes like “moons in craters” rather than “craters in moon”! At the end of first-half, my next seat vijay fan commented “Kathiya pottutangappa!” (Translates to something like ‘A nice tirupaachi knife being shoved in!’). Srikanth Deva makes us feel strongly that his father was umpteen times better. A few dappanguthu tunes and an old IR sad song tune make for songs. The back-ground music has strong “Rajinism” in it (like baasha background, they have one “siva siva sivakasi” here). However, it passes off with the quality of movie. How long can we see hero giving some “Pombalainna.. ” kind of dialogues and a rich heroine falling for the filthy hero due to that? Perarasus and your breed, give us a break! Logic is at an alarmingly tragic level in tamil movies’ so-called “mass entertainers”. This movie has touched some new depths (heights are not in pits, right?), thanks to Perarasu's imaginative, creative, innovative collage skills! Technically, no major flaws with all the use of recent buzz words: graphic jing-bang around the hero in fight-scenes and song sequences, jerky camera for action, time-slice take-nique, flash and cuts etc etc.

However, since the second half moves on in fourth gear, the flaws are conveniently swept under the … Finally, the movie gives a “feel” of pretentious paisa vasool due to that! Perarasu, please take some long leave before offering us another “Vandhavasi”…

First half, engayo pichukichu.. Second half, steadya pathikichu… Mothathula, ‘Sivakasi’ kodi nattukichu!

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