Saroja-Youthful Hit

Fun, frolic and mayhem were in abundance in Venkat Prabhu’s first directorial venture ‘Chennai 600028′. With his second film ‘Saroja’ the director dutifully follows the same pattern despite having the backdrop of a thriller featuring a kidnap, gun totting desperados and characters with malicious intent. 

Even with a no-way-out situation that four friends get themselves into, and with the events unfolding in a real time sequential order, there is still scope for laughs. Premji Amaran’s good-for-nothing attitude in the film amalgamated with silly remarks, ‘Mirchi’ Siva’s ever so casual comic remarks, the intense demeanor of Sampath as a bad guy, Prakash Raj as the doting father of a kidnapped daughter, Vega as the kidnapped girl Saroja and Jayaram as the Assistant Commissioner of Police impress in their respective roles. One of the movie’s strengths is that all these characters are introduced quickly in such a way that audiences easily understand the roles played by them except when the twists in the film happen. 

Major strengths for ‘Saroja’ are in the form of some breathtaking and spectacular background score from Yuvan Shankar Raja (probably one of his bests so far), slick editing from Praveen K. L and Srikanth N. B (they have a long way to go) and excellent cinematography by Sakthi Saravanan. 

Four friends with diverse natures but similar interests decide to travel to Hyderabad from Chennai to watch a cricket match. A huge tanker lorry heads towards South India from the North and a vicious gang has kidnapped a rich girl and holds her for ransom. All these events are narrated sequentially with the backdrop of the Chaos Theory. 

The tanker lorry capsizes creating a complete traffic jam that has the makings of an all night stand-still. Our protagonists stuck in traffic decide to get to Hyderabad through a short cut and eventually get lost. They end up in the den of the vicious gang who hold the daughter of the millionaire captive. 

The capsizing of the tanker lorry and the vibrant adventurous nature of the young protagonists make all these three events that should have been isolated amalgamate with each other. The butterfly effect is at work here. 

Ajay (Shiva), an actor in television serials, Ganesh Kumar (Premji Amaran) as a funny good-for-nothing who falls in love with every passing girl, Jagapathi Babu (SPB Charan) as the senior of the team, married and has a young daughter and Ram Babu (Vaibhav Reddy) as Jagapathi Babu’s brother fit into their roles with ease. Their interactions during all the events stay true with doses of humor never running out….no matter what situation they are in.

The kidnappers headed by Sampath are in talks with the millionaire businessman for a huge sum of money. An Assistant Commissionaire of Police is on the case. Most of Sampath’s goons appear to be mechanical with their approach and are stiff all through, even in fight sequences. Sampath however is perfect for the role and his companion Kalyani, played by Nikitha oozes with glamour (probably the only reason she is part of the script).

Vega seems to have understood her character (Saroja) in the film very well as she pulls it off with perfect ease. Prakash Raj has been at his usual best. 

How this whole issue get sorted out forms the rest of the story.

The movie is a neat entertainer for audiences who want fun in their dosage of cinema. However, audiences who love true-blood thrillers might be a touch disappointed as too much of comedy is part of the proceedings thereby bringing down the intensity a bit.

‘Saroja’ tickles the funny bone with tremendous technical brilliance and proves to be a roller coaster fun ride. Venkat Prabhu….one gets the feeling has come on the scene as a director to stay. His understanding of entertainment has all the potential to work wonders with Tamil Cinema audiences.

Tahaan:Santhosh Sivan’s perfect touch

Those who’ve seen them bond cannot deny the special affection between kids and animals. It probably stems from a lack of adult conditioning, lack of fear, and lack of the human ego that insists it’s superiority over all other species. Naturally, almost all kids’ movies are revolved around this precious tie. This one, too.I did fear that Tahaan would have the regular trappings of the kiddo-pet flick with the formula of friendship and separation. The film does showcase a little boy’s concern for his pet donkey and what he does to get him back, but still, the film is intelligent, full of things to say and supremely enjoyable.
Tahaan is a playful eight-year-old who lives with his Habba mother (Sarika) and elder sister Zoya (Sana Shaikh). His father has gone missing since three years now, and the family is under financial strain owing to a huge loan. The mother sells off almost everything to pay the interest on the loan and that includes giving off Tahaan’s beloved donkey. Everyone reacts differently to Tahaan’s inconsolable state – his mother is sympathetic, but his sister and neighbourhood friends ridicule. The donkey, we learn its name is Birbal, is further sold to Subhan Darr (Kher) a short-tempered man.

The man has bought the donkey as a gift for someone and Tahaan decides that the only way to get back Birbal is to somehow join the troupe on their journey. They are joined by girl-chasing, entertainingly stupid Zafar (Bose). The film then showcases the risks Tahaan takes to rescue his beloved Birbala.

This simple, staid story gives off enough messages nonchalantly. Note the scene where the kids are simulating a terrorist gunning. While one bunch has the toy guns that they use gleefully; the other group plays the frightened victims who get shot dead. It’s heartbreaking to see children, so casual about cold murders and so influenced; they think it normal to incorporate it as a game.

Technically, the film is a masterpiece. But that you already knew since director-cinematographer Santosh Sivan is at helm. Beautiful, beautiful Kashmir is cold and serene; an irony to its political situation. You wonder to yourself if you’ll be lucky enough to see it for yourself at least once.

But the lyrical shots are not principal, rather incidental, to the tale-telling. And that’s refreshing coming from Sivan known by his exotic shot-taking. Of course there are those aesthetic shots of sun-rays streaming in, landing right on Tahaan’s sleepy face.

Sivan, for once, is not so serious and has some fun with his camera angles, placing it once, right behind the donkey’ wide ears. More subtle humour is there to relish throughout. A truck standing in the background has the words ‘No girlfriend. No tension’ inscribed above its nameplate.

Performances are flawless. Sarika brings out the grief of her character without once, reducing it to a sympathy-seeking one. Sana Shaikh does very well. Anupam Kher is great as the tough on the outside-but-marshmallow inside character. Rahul Bose brings on the laughs. Victor Banerjee is the loving grandfather who makes the warmth of his character come alive.

The film belongs to Purav Bhandare who plays Tahaan without reducing it to one of those smart-mouthed, desperately cute child characters. He’s incorrigibly adorable, as all children are, but a toughie as well, whose world includes curfews and random midnight interrogations by the army. Little wonder that once Birbal is gone, he doesn’t waste too much time crying and even offers to work hard in exchange for his pet.

If you’ve enjoyed films like Majid Majidi’s Children of Heaven, you’ll find yourself right at home. Tahaan is one of those rare films where children are treated with respect, even for their seemingly frail ambitions. Don’t miss it.

Hindi Remake Of Ghajini

After completing his children’s film ‘Taare Zameen Pe’, Aamir Khan has begun shooting for the Hindi remake of the Tamil hit Ghajini .

The Hindi remake is called Kajri and is being directed by A R Murugadass, who directed the Tamil original.

The mahurat of ‘Kajri’ was held in Mumbai a few days back. At the mahurat Tamil filmstar Surya (hero of ‘Ghajini’) was present along with Telugu superstar Chiranjeevi who struck the clapper for the opening shot.

Director AR Murugadoss canned the shot while producer Allu Aravind looked on.

‘Kajri’ has south Indian actress Asin playing the lead opposite Aamir. Asin was also the heroine of ‘Ghajini’.

The role of Aamir’s heroine in ‘Kajri’ was previously offered to Ayesha Takia who declined the offer for the reasons better known to herself.

The movie will also have a second female lead who is yet to be finalized.

True Report about Dasavatharam

Dasavatharam is an entirely different movie.It had some defects also.First of all i wish to talk about its merits :this is a different story , Kamalahasan done all 10 characters beautifully…. The make-up s of each characters are very appreciatively created.Each and every movements of all this characters are stylish , especially the movements of American terrorist ,Japanese karate master and American president George W Bush. Graphics ,stunts , background music ,editing, and songs……..all are extra ordinary except one thing .To including 10 characters he try to include some extra unwantable scenes to the film that is the one and only defect.

Priyamani

Priyamani - The Bangalore Tamil girl was introduced by Bharathyraja as Tamil Actress in his movie “Kankalal Kaithu Sey“. The first movie was flop and she was acted as heroine in Balu Mahendra’s “Athu oru kana kalam” – another big flop movie for her as well as Rajini son-in-law hero Dhanush.

After this movie Priyamani was stamped as “Unlucky Actress” in Tamil Cinema. She acted another one movie pair with Ramesh “Madhu” – No one knows when this movie was released and when it was left from the theatre. Everyone came to know when they are seeing review of this movie in Tamil Television like Sun TV. (Tamil Televisions are never show any program other than these waste movies ).

Priyamani was identified by Director Ameer for his project “Paruthi Veeran” as heroine, Priyamani was excited about Ameer how he was selected her for his next project. Because Priyamani felt deep down herself because of her 3 successful flop movies. Parthi Veeran – Released and it becomes mega hit in all centres and all are praised Priyamani performance in that movie.

Now, Priyamani time turns to her. She is starting to teasing Tamil producers. Couple of Tamil producers approached her for their next project. Priyamani telling them that she is very busy with Telugu movies (currently she is acting in 2 Telugu movies ). Priyamani not intention to act with new heroes and she will act with top heroes like Vikram, Ajith and Vijay. Priyamani never indicated Rajini or Kamal…. May be she feels they are very old?. No Idea… Because of this teasing priyamani was not getting any project in Tamil after Parthi Veeran.

Anyway Time is turns to Priyamani……………

Either she should use it and If not it will turns to others.

because Time is always Time………….