Film / Documentary - Recently watched & worthy of some discussion

[mappi]

The tongue is like a sharp knife, kills without drawing blood
- Buddha



Four Friends ... wait, let's restart ... A mysterious man lands up in Mumbai, gets a gun from the black market and looks for Mudhaliar, the Mumbai God-Father. Soon, an attack puts Mudhaliar wounded in the hosiptal, but he will live. The mysterious man watches Mudhaliar who is now waving to his devotees from the Hospital terrace. Thus begins a tale of the hunters and the hunted - how their roles mingle and make them stand before each other without a clue who is hunting and who is chasing.

Yagavarayinum Na Kakka (YNK), a home production from Adhi Pinisetty-the actor, is a Thriller. Written & Directed by his brother Sathya Prabhas Pinishetty, the film locks itself inbetween Suspense, Mystry & Drama and rides on with it's wonderful title. YNK is loaded with awesome cast - Mithun Chakraborty [Nariyal Wala from Agneepath (hindi)] & Pasupathy (who jointly played with Adhi in the film Aravan), including Adhi taking the prime spot by narrating the story of Saga (meaning Friend), the character he is playing in the movie. There are several artists playing brothers & sisters, parents, friends, goons, side-kicks etc., making the whole story crowded with characters who are vital to the sub-plot.

Satya Prabhas uses fragmented narrative style in a very convincing manner. He juggles with the ample sub-plots, takes in or out the events, when and where he finds suitable, without hindering the flow and allinging them well with the flash backs & forwards. Its a complex narrative structure and when the suspense is releaved, it gets riveting - the way its visually told is gripping. The mystry and the way its gaurded thru memory bits, makes the movie interesting as the writer jumbles up various sub-plots and arrange them in an order that slowly extracts the story.

For some reason I was reluctant to watch 'Mirugam', but when I did I was glad to see a promising artist, Adhi. Eeram was under my favourite genre, so I liked it instantly. In YNK, Adhi remided me of a gangster character called 'Baby Face' from a spanish film. If anyone out there looking to make a gangster film, just put Adhi inside and make him do nothing terrifying, he will still look terrific. His physique bends well in the two well choreographed stunts. He looks massive at the same time like 'a rabbit before the headlights' whenever the respective moment demands. Pasupathy casually plays the 'Don with a heart'. Still love his awesome accent. Mithun Da as Mudhaliar is pacific at the same time undisputed, that mix is a terror and when you include his sunken eyes, he immediately becomes the only one to be dreaded. His short dialogues folds the screen into darkness. It's sad that these guys don't do much films anymore, but at the same time glad that they are still rocking.

The director should have kept away from romance. How many more films are going to be made where a female is going to get slapped or been given a moral lesson on how she should lead her life ... or with all these clichés. Not going to rattle much on that, think the message is passed. As for the technics, you cannot miss any of them as all the work was so neat including sharp cuts, sets & the way each scene was filmed. 'Oozhi Koothu' song is pulsating & 'Thozha Thozha' is gloomy.

YNK is a 'non-hasty' film, well stuffed with thrills and twists.

Yagavarayinum Na Kakka : 'Ab Tera Kya Hoga Saga'*

*Adapted from Hindi Cult Film Sholay dialogue 'Ab Tera Kya Hoga Kalia' meaning 'What will happen to you now, Saga?'

[mappi]

Aduthathu yenna nadakapokuthu nu theringita vazkha swarisiyama irrukadhu. Sagura naal theringiduchi na, Valra naal naragam ayiudum.
- Rajinikanth



2065 to 2015 to 2012 to any millenium year is just 30 seconds away, thanks to the time machine designed by Scientist Arya with flashing specs. Demo goes wrong only when the initiator is in trouble, but its a sucess if the end user could manipulate the demo material. Ilango & Puli are typical youngsters who wish to make easy money. When they stumble upon the device which could make them rich, they use every possible way to correct and re-correct their lives suiting to their materialistic desires. But everything comes with a price tag with it, and the charges they pay are heavier than what they earned using the Akshayapatra (inexhaustible vessel).

Death can be funny. One guy knew when and how he is going to die. So he traveled through time, corrected few things and returned. Happy, he went forward but was shocked to see him dead but in some other way. He tries to recorrect, but each time only the ways he died were gruesomely different, but he never escaped death. Adding horror to his over enthusiam is that he died all the gruesome deaths several time. And then there was another guy, who tried to cheat death thinking that the death operates on the time discovered by man. He knew the minute exact, so he hid in a time zone where either that minute is past or yet to arrive. What a fool, he got stuck in the new time line eventually, where everyone are strangers, a suituation more dramatic than death itself.

Indru Netru Naalai (INN), treats Death in a similar manner on a Sci-fi background using Time Machine concept. A bad guy who escapes death is the potential danger to the one assosiated with Ilango. Correct it, but remember one must die. The humoristic narration gives a 'light-vien' experience to such a dark tale, very well adapted for TFI audience.

The beauty of INN is that the whole episode is just 40 secs long, where all the events starts and stops within 10 secs. In that 10 secs, the medling with time by Ilango and Puli triggers other events and it gets into a long chain reaction within time itself. Just like the Newton's Cradle (you could see that under the Title Logo in posters), when time in its equilibrium position - suspended straight, is distubed by the force from the Bob's trajectory, impact on the other side known as Massive Bob, as the name suggests, would be massive. Thus, from present, our Duo travel to the past which in return changes the future which is actually the present time they initated the travel. This basic concept of time travel is well handled in INN, eventhough its nothing original in the making, but certainly a grand Sci-Fi film from TFI loaded with tingling drama & smart suspense mingled with comical events.

Ravi Kumar writes & directs INN for C.V.Kumar (What a Man !). Thirukumaran Entertainment streak for proposing and delivering quality films is going unstoppable. They are a threat to my PS3 Headshot Kills Streak, as they are closing in with 9 released films and 5 more filming. Ravi Kumar & team's writing is extrodinary. They have tabulated the events with the characters and they played to their strength. For exemple, the complexity is when more Ilango & Puli are in the same time zone, and handling them with the occured events with respect to the occurence which eventually turns into an incident, is not that simple. There was another man who embarks to change the present, by altering the past. Each time he went he wanted to perfect it more. But eventully he finds more than 5 other selfs in the same time zone, and he could not take it anymore. So he deciedes to go to the 'time-spot' when the first event was triggered and tries to kill his oneself there, so that he can stop once and for all the entire alteration of events. Funny guy ! But in INN, they have it limited, and don't complicate to make them meet in not more than 2 or 3 sequences - the wandering in the alley was funny. By this strategy, the film gets neat else it would have become nasty.

There is a 'over-show' of the Time Machine. All the flashes and disappearences in the begining were excessive. Similarly, all the 'stolen-found' episode were funny but turns out hazzardous for the concept on hand. See you change the past, you alter the present. The variated time of the victim & the stealer is crossed by Illango who directly affects both their lives. There are consequences. If they do many, it just gets multiplied. Similarly the Stock Market episode. Could have avoided such (too much) elaborations, but I don't think anyone is going to raise their eyebrows over it as they all are carefully masked. And the romance is the only tragedy in the film. Kind of felt that the movie had a rushed ending - could have taken the time from the inutile romance and added few more thrills to the climax. But the ending suits the mood of the film. The film is visually appealing, catchy and with a neat musical score makes it look brighter and more beautiful.

To understand INN, we got to see what concept of Time Travel Ravi Kumar has used. There are 3 categories of time travel - Fixed, Dynamic and Multiverse.

Fixed - The point of time they start the travel cannot be altered. How ever the past is altered, the present adopts to give the same result.

Dynamic - You alter the past, you pay or reap the consequences in the present. It may land yourself non-existant.

Multiverse - Lost in time as there is a new time line created where returning to the original time line is impossible.

Then there are various theories using which materails for entertainement are made be it novels or films.

Time Travel and multi-dimension were present in our tales (and Puranas) even before anyone talked or wrote or made a film. Everything co-extits, the floor on which one is walking could be a bed of water in another dimension where one is swiming at the given point of time. The great architect Mayasura who constructed Indraprastha (from Mahabaratha) is still a mystery that one can awe at. It is said (or beleived) that the Siddhars, the Saivaite Saints, had the ability to walk through time. Thiru Gnana Sambandhar once met up with a rich merchant. Sambandhar listened to his pain and could understand the agony of a father who witnessed his 12 years old daughter Poompavai's death by snake bite. Sambandhar made him bring the ash pot, and prayed. Before him now stood a pretty woman Poompavai - she was 12 years old when she died, and now several years after Poompavai has become a lady when Sambandhar brought her back. This is the best and the most ancient Time Travel episode.

INN takes the Dynamic Time Travel and adds its own theories and laws to narrate an interesting story that is span across several years and mixed with major interlocking events.

Indru Netru Naalai - Matram Ondru Thaan Marathathu

[interz]

Kaaval - Dissapointment all the way.

[balaajee]

Inimey Ippadithan - totally unexpected climax and I liked it.. But very very predictable till the climax.. I could guess what happens next scene from scene 1.

watched Stonehearst Asylum over the weekend - very good recommended..

Interesting movie...Thanks for recommendation

[ilayapuyalvinodh_kumar]

Masss - Nice Attempt Sri Lankan Tamil Suriya Comedy Duke Yuvan Why the Hell Nayan was included.... No reason ! Pranitha was

Bottomline - Things which are meant to be twist of the tale don't seem to be like one.

[VinodKumar's]

Meegaman - Liked it. IMO Vishal would be the right choice for the lead role. Arya was the only negative in the movie. His dialogue delivery was terrible as usual.

Magizh Thirumeni should learn how to project himself in TCC. Even after two good films he has not seen the limelight. Look at Mr.Atlee.


Salim - Time pass. Nothing new but never boring.

[mappi]

What is TCC please ?

[rsubras]

Masss - Nice Attempt Sri Lankan Tamil Suriya Comedy Duke Yuvan Why the Hell Nayan was included.... No reason ! Pranitha was

Bottomline - Things which are meant to be twist of the tale don't seem to be like one.

yes, Maass was very good...... for a change Premji was one of the strength of the movie.....it is a good thing that certain serious things were narrated in a lighter vein and not made fun of.....good intentioned movie.....

[VinodKumar's]

What is TCC please ?

It's a typo. * TC - Tamil Cinema

[Mahen]

Magizh has made 3 good films.. His first was mundhinam partheney.. Started following his films after watching mp