Agadam Review from Times of India!

Synopsis: Three men bury a woman they have murdered in the middle of the night. They get an unexpected visitor, who wants to do business with them. Soon, the ghost of the dead girl turns up before them sending them running for their lives.

Review: Oh, the irony that is the interval! You only have to feel sorry for Mohamad Issack. He has made a film that has been certified by the Guinness World Records as the longest uncut film but his very achievement is tarnished by the fact that the film is cut (read stopped) midway by the theatre operator for the interval.

In fact, indirectly, this very act is a statement on the significance of Issack's efforts. Watching the film, we realize that it isn't ambition or the subject of his movie that has necessitated this attempt but the need for such a gimmick to attract an unsuspecting viewer. This is novelty for novelty's sake, nothing more.

The film's plot heavily draws on Karthik Subburaj's trendsetting Pizza. If the latter film had an individual trapped in a lonely mansion that has a ghost, here it is four characters who are scared to death by a ghost in a house. The difference is that while Vijay Sethupathi was the protagonist there, here, the victims are all corrupt men, who distribute expired medicines and murder those who try to expose them. There is also a twist towards the end, as in the earlier film. And, like Pizza, this one too has been shot on a shoe-string budget.

But the comparisons end there. While Karthik Subburaj's film is a dazzling example of what a director with a command over his craft can do with a minimal budget, Agadam is a cautionary tale that proves that while digital has made it possible for anyone to make a film, not everyone should make one. This is an unnecessarily over-long film with a sloppy script, amateur performances, shoddy camerawork, template music and unintentionally funny sequences, with not a single redeeming feature (no, the longest shot doesn't count). The only horror here is not the one the characters experience but what we, the audience, undergo.

 

Rating:*1/2

 

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/entertainment/tamil/movie-reviews/moviereviewarticlelist/agadam/movie-review/28463733.cms 

Vizha Review from Times of India!

Synopsis: Sundaram, a tappu player, is attracted to oppari singer Raakamma, but his act of helping a friend's romance threatens to take her away from him. 

Movie Review: Updating the classic Thillana Mohanambal premise of individuals in similar professions falling in love with each other, Barathi Balakumaran presents an old-fashioned romance done the old-fashioned way with Vizha. If the hero in the earlier film is a nadaswaram vidwan, here, he is a tappu player, who performs at funeral houses. The heroine is an oppari singer (in the older film, she is a Bharatanatyam dancer), and the 'saavu veedu' is their meeting place. We have had a few films based on this idea even earlier ( Karagattakaran and Sangamam did it in the late 80s and 90s respectively), and Vizha feels like an adaptation for this generation.

Tappu player Sundaram ( Mahendran) is attracted to Raakamma (Malavika), the young oppari singer, and she too reciprocates his love. When he helps his friend Pandidurai, who is a foreign return and the heir to the stuck-up local bigwig Bakkiyammal, get married to his childhood sweetheart, Bakkiyammal tries to get her revenge by arranging a match for Raakamma with Manimaran ( Yugendran), who works for her, and sending her goons after Sundaram. However, the good-hearted Manimaran offers refuge to Sundaram, and the lovers are left in a dilemma — should they stop the planned marriage or tell the truth to Manimaran?

The plot is a fairly interesting (even if it is familiar) one but what makes Vizha a lesser film than it should have been is the amount of unnecessary padding that the director brings to this story. He is severely hampered by his decision to take the 'whether Raakamma loves Sundaram' plot till the interval and so devotes the entire first half to the shenanigans of the hero and his friends which are so been there done that. Even the opening block, which he uses to detail the customs at a house of death, lacks the punch that it needed and so doesn't quite come across as atmospheric (this week's other release, Madha Yaanai Kootam, does this in superb fashion).

The second half is much better even though we are able to predict the outcome of certain scenes — when a character in an earlier scene tells Sundaram that he should play the tappu for his death, we know that he'll die in the end; and we always know that Manimaran will, in the end, stand by Sundaram. Still, Balakumaran manages to pack a punch in the scene where the lover affair between the leads comes out in the open. James Vasanthan's song too plays a crucial role in elevating the emotion here (and, his score is a major plus throughout).

Rating:***

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/entertainment/tamil/movie-reviews/moviereviewarticlelist/vizha/movie-review/28065951.cms

Thagaraaru reviews from Times of India!

Synopsis: Four thick as thieves (literally) friends earn a lot of enemy with their roguish behaviour. When one of them is murdered, the other three thirst for revenge. But who among their foes is behind the deed?

Review: Saravanan (Arulnithi), Senthil (Pawanjiy), Pazhani (Sulile Kumar) and Arumugam (Murugadas) are orphans who are close-knit friends since childhood. They are bureau pullers who do not really think anything of life, drifting along as the wind blows. They invite the wrath of a local inspector when they steal from his house as an act of bravado. They also rub the big shot (Aruldas) who had hired them for a job on the wrong side by demanding more money. And, when Saravanan falls in love with Meenakshi (Poorna), he and his friends become the target of her goonda father (Jayaprakash). When Pazhani is murdered, the other three thirst for revenge. But who among their various enemies is behind the deed?
If there is one thing that Ganesh Vinaayac's Thagaraaru has going for it, it is the director's intention to not turn his film into a typical action film. The film is actually stock full of elements that we have seen in earlier Madurai-set films — as in Thoonganagaram, we have four friends who are the protagonists, they are aimless drifters resorting to a life of crime like the guys inSubramaniapuram, like Sriya Reddy in Thimiru, the heroine, despite all her love for the hero, has an arrogance, her father, who like the father in Kaadhal, is a fearsome man in the area, a self-important cop, who is one of the adversaries of our heroes, as in Aadukalam. And yet, the director manages to spring in a surprise or two in this tale which is a conflict between friendship and love.

At the same time, while the twists and turns help the film from never turning into a boring affair, we also wish that the film was sharper (like the countless sickles we see in it). It has tension but that isn't nail-biting. It has romance but that is so run of the mill. It has some emotional moments but we never feel that much for the main characters. The performances, while competent enough are never compelling (Arulnithi tries to be a charmer in the romantic portions but he is not helped by the broad characterization; neither his wooing in gaudy clothes nor his Dhanush-like lungi dance endear the character to us). Even the climatic twist, which is very good, at least on paper, is surprising but not truly shocking.

Rating:***
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/entertainment/movie-reviews/thagaraaru/movie-review/27118433.cms

Ivan Veera Mathiri Review From Times Of India!

Synopsis: Gunasekaran, a socially responsible youth, kidnaps Easwaran, the brother of Sadasivam, the law minister, after the latter orchestrates violence among students. Sadasivam loses his post and Guna releases his captive but Easwaran wants revenge...

Movie Review: You have kidnapped the brother of a minister. He is also a ruthless gangster but you have managed to keep your identity (read face) a mystery from him. You have reached the place where you are hiding him, and right at that moment, you get a call from your girlfriend. You attend the call rather than ignoring it (or even texting a 'will call bk ltr') and go on to discuss banking details, saying out loud her account number, despite the chance that your quarry could hear it and use it to discover who you are. If such a circumstance feels logical and plausible enough for you, then, Ivan Vera Maathiri is right up your street. Else, steer clear!
The film opens with visuals of violence unleashed on some students in a law college (with policemen remaining mute spectators), a not-so-subtle reference to the incidents that occurred in a Chennai law college in 2008. Gunasekaran (Vikram Prabhu), a 26-year-old advertising professional, is affected by the news, and decides to take on Sadasivam, the law minister, who orchestrated the assault. To do that, he kidnaps his brother and hit man Easwaran ( Vamsi Krishna), whom the minister has unlawfully brought out of jail in parole. Guna's idea is to hold the man hostage until his parole lapses, humiliate the minister in public and make him resign his post, and take away the power that made him a fearsome individual. Guna also meets Malini ( Surabhi), an airy-fairy college student, who falls in love with him.

Meanwhile, Sadasivam resigns and becomes the target of a police investigation, and a contented Guna releases Easwaran. Now, the prey becomes the hunter, searching for his captor, despite being pursued by the hard-nosed cop Aravindan ( Ganesh Venkatraman).

If the screenplay was the strength of Saravanan's debut Enageyum Eppothum, here, it becomes a weakness as the director's attempts to make a "different" vigilante film get lost in implausibility, patronizing (a line about girls who do not receive calls or SMSes being "good girls" is downright condescending) and sub-par acting. He has the outline of a terrific action movie plot; generally, it is the hero who is at the receiving end in the first half and goes after his tormentor in the latter portions after piecing together his identity but here, it is the opposite. However, the scenes aren't particularly interesting beyond a strictly functional level. Guna isn't directly affected by the violence in the college and so, his decision to turn a vigilante should have been compelling. But what we get are a couple of scenes where he is aroused by stray remarks. And, while his plan to hide Easwaran seems well thought out, the manner in which he goes about smacks of carelessness. He reveals his real intention to his captive, gives him a blatant clue to his identity, and worse, when the minister is arrested, lets Easwaran loose on the streets rather than ensuring that he gets into police custody. And, in the end, Aravindan is conveniently shown as someone who believes vigilantism to be good.

But the weakest section is the romantic track — Malini is certainly the latest in the ignominious list of daft heroines in Tamil cinema. She allows Guna, a stranger to her at this point, to use her house loo, and later carries a fish all over the city after he leaves it with her. Saravanan wants these scenes to be funny but they only trivialize Malini's character. And to add to her insult, we are repeatedly told, she has 18 arrears! Even after Malini and Guna fall in love, we never sense their chemistry. That Vikram Prabhu is far more convincing as an action hero than in the romantic scenes also doesn't help.

Rating:***
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/entertainment/movie-reviews/ivan-vera-maathiri/movie-review/27310587.cms

Jannal Oram Reviews from Times of India!

Synopsis: A bus conductor and driver accidentally hit a person on road and get involved in a murder mystery. Will they be able to clear their names?

Remaking the Malayalam film Ordinary, Karu Palaniappan gives us yet another family entertainer with a multi-star cast. The film, as the director tells in a voice over at the start of the film, is a journey into the lives of two characters — bus driver Karuppu ( Parthepan) and the new conductor Subbu ( Vemal) — and the characters that they encounter during their daily bus trip from Palani to Pannaikadu, a hillside village with a motley bunch of characters. Given that they have to spend the nights in Pannaikadu to make the return trip to Palani in the morning, they become almost a part of the village. Subbu even falls in love with one of the villagers, Kalyani (Manisha), who is also a regular passenger on their bus.

But, one day, an unknown man falls down in front of their bus and the duo thinks they have accidentally hit him, and send him to the nearby hospital on a jeep that happens to pass by. But, soon, Subbu is arrested for murdering the person, who is revealed to be Shiva (Sanjay), the son of Vinayagam (Rajesh), a respected man in the village, and the fiance of the school teacher Nirmala David ( Poorna).

Jannal Oram starts off as a routine village drama, populated with some interesting and some not-so-interesting characters. There is Saami ( Vidharth), an orphan who does odd jobs for everyone in the village, Justin ( Ramana), a teacher who has a soft spot for Nirmala, a church Father, a drunkard, a tea shop owner and his girl who flirts with Karuppu, an idler and so on. We get introduced to these characters and see the dynamics of the various relationships here. So, when the murder happens, the director provides us with many suspects, which helps to hold the suspense.

Overall, the film is competently put together and somewhat interesting but you cannot escape a lingering feeling that it should have been a little ambitious and much better. Too much time is spent in getting us familiarized with the characters that for large stretches in the first half, we wonder when the director will get to the story. The songs, which are shot indifferently, only add to the length. The second half is better paced but even here, some of the actions of the characters are cinematic and the beats feel a bit too familiar — Subbu's secret getting out, Karuppu chancing upon the jeep driver, the final revelation. But sometimes, familiarity can be comforting and in that aspect, the film delivers. 

Rating:***
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/entertainment/movie-reviews/Jannal-Oram/movie-review/26649086.cms

Naveena Saraswathi Sabatham Reviews Times of India!

Synopsis: Four friends go to Bangkok for a bachelor party, get totally drunk, only to wake up on a remote island with no recollection of how they ended up there. And, no, this isn't their 'Hangover'!

Movie Review: There is a scene in the second half of Naveena Saraswathi Sabatham in which Naradar (Mano Bala) tells Lord Siva (Subbu Panchu) that the story isn't progressing and by this time, people will be posting on Facebook and Twitter that the first half of the film is super while the second half is mokkai. It is delivered as a knowing wink at the audience, suggesting to us that the director, Chandru, knows he has hit a dead end. Sadly, it is also the most profound statement in the entire film — not only on the audiences of today but also on the films we get these days, including this one, which just turns dreary, minutes after we enter the second half.

The film does begin in a promising way, with Naradar showing videos of the main characters to Siva on his iMac! This Mt Kailash resembles the version we have seen in AP Nagarajan's mythological films from the 60s (including Saraswathi Sabatham) down to the costumes but with a difference — its inhabitants seem to be passionate consumers of Apple products. So, you see Parvathi using an iPhone, and Muruga playing Temple Run on an iPad (though the director fails to exploit the oddity of a God playing a game called Temple Run) and so on. We are thus introduced to the film's Earth-set characters — Ramarajan, a quack of sorts, who is in love with college student and reality show contestant Jaishree, his friends Gopi, a corrupt politician's son, Ganesh, a hapless husband whose wife does katta panchayat, and Krishna, a wannabe film star. These four characters are normal when sobre but turn into a nuisance when they get drunk, and that, Siva explains, is the reason he has chosen them for his thiruvilayadal.

So, in The Hangover style (which the movie acknowledges), the four go to Bangkok for a bachelor party after Ramarajan's wedding is fixed, get drunk there but, then, they wake up to find themselves on a remote island with no recollection of how they ended up there. They are clueless when it comes to getting out of the place and so does the movie itself. What was a mildly amusing affair turns tedious and we are left with the sorry sight of witnessing the antics of VTV Ganesh, a sloppy effort to integrate the original Saraswathi Sabatham into the plot, and an even cruder attempt to wash all this off with a "message" (about drinking) in the end. And, this takes the fun out of what could have been dismissed as pointless fun.

 

Rating: **1/2

 

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/entertainment/movie-reviews/Naveena-Saraswathi-Sabatham/movie-review/26593007.cms