Tag Archives: Nasser

Ponniyin Selvan: II

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Ponniyin Selvan Part 1 was a sweeping epic tale of kingdoms, war, lost love and treachery, and I thoroughly enjoyed every minute. I’m happy to report that the second part is even better, although with less focus on big battle scenes and more nail-biting drama. But there are still plenty of sword fights and large-scale action despite the move to add some more emotional and dialogue driven scenes. The scale is just as epic and the scenery and costumes are incredibly stunning. I still haven’t managed to read the books, so can’t comment on how well the film follows the printed word, but as an all-encompassing action story, it completely worked for me.

The story starts with a flashback to happier times for young crown prince Aditya Karikalan (Santhosh) and the orphaned Nandini (Sara Arjun). The music here is simply wonderful and the Santhosh and Sara are both excellent in portraying the story of their romance and Nandini’s betrayal as she falls foul of Aditya’s mother and sister. This early focus on Aditya and Nandini ensures they are always kept in mind as the story moves back to the present day and the question over the fate of Arulmozhi (Jayam Ravi) and Vanthiyathevan (Karthi), lost in a shipwreck during a storm at sea and simultaneous attack by the Pandiya rebels. The betrayal and revenge featured at the start also sets the tone for the rest of the film as the story of Pandya vengeance and treason by the Chola chieftains threatens Sundara Chola and his empire. But behind the action there is always the doomed romance between Aditya and Nandini that taints everyone it touches. It also serves to explain exactly why Aditya (Vikram) is so tortured by memories of Nandini (Aishwarya Rai Bachchan) and his rage when he found her with the dying Veerapandiyan (Nasser).

All the threads start coming together as the various plots to remove the Cholas from power reach fruition. The Pandya rebels seem to be everywhere – they have infiltrated every palace and seem numerous in the city, all of which seems amazing since originally there didn’t seem to be quite so many of them. Even Vanthiyathevan becomes more serious as he tries to warn Aditya away from meeting with Nandini. The warnings are as clear as the bright red light in the sky portends doom, but both Arumozhi and Aditya prefer to face their enemies head on, which ensures plenty of excellent and well-choreographed fight scenes as they dodge each assassination attempt.

Throughout all the treachery and sneak attacks by the Pandyas, the tension between Aditya and Nandini is never far away. Aishwarya Rai Bachchan is simply magnificent here in the role of Nandini, and says so much with her body language alone. There is her deep and abiding love for Aditya, despite his actions when he slaughtered the Veerapandiyan in front of her eyes and her entreaties to stay his sword. There is also her deep hatred for the Chola royal family, and her promise to the Pandya King to look after his son as her brother that add spice to her interactions with Kundavai (Trisha) and her mother Vaanavan Mahadevi (Vidhya Subramanian). Nandini’s conversations with the Pandya leader are sharp and filled with her hate, but the final climax with Aditya is absolutely brilliant with Aishwarya perfect in the depth and range of emotions she shows. Thankfully Vikram has calmed down after his excesses in PS1, and here his betrayal of a man tortured by his memories is spot on, and just unhinged enough to understand his behaviour throughout the film. It’s fantastic, and really very sad, made even more dramatic by the intense close-ups and claustrophobic feel of the final encounter between the two.

Less successful is Aishwarya’s portrayal of Mandakini/Oomai Rani, the woman in the Sri Lankan forests who repeatedly saves Arulmozhi. Since Mandakini’s back story is only revealed at the end, her nervous flitting around the palace seems out of place. With so little to work with Aishwarya appears washed out and tired rather than ethereal and mysterious, which I suspect was more how Mandakini was supposed to appear. There is also a lot less of Trisha too, which is a shame as I think she nails the role of Kundavai. However her big romantic scene with Karthi is amazing and worth every second of screentime. Their chemistry, while more subtle than that between Aditya and Nandini, packs just as much of a punch. I loved both of these actors here and would love to see a spin-off focusing on just these two.

The rest of the support cast of thousands are all just as good as in PS1. There is no-one who seems miscast and all the various warriors, chieftains, rebels and assorted palace staff all excel in their roles and bring the story to life. A.R.Rahman’s music is just as perfect and enhances every aspect of the film, whether action, romance or drama. I especially love Chinnanjiru Nilave which plays during the romance of the young Aditya and Nandini, but I can’t find the video song. So instead here is the excellent Veera Raja Veera pictured on Aditya and the absolutely stunning Vaanathi (Sobhita Dhulipala).

The film looks amazing too. Ravi Varman’s cinematography keeps the film feeling real despite the often glamorous settings and historical action sequences. You can almost smell the blood and sweat in the battle scenes, while the palaces scenes bring the essence of perfume and lamp oil. The juxtaposition of battle and intrigue is smoothly captured while Mani Ratnam’s strength lies in bringing out the emotion behind every scene.

I loved this film. Every single scene is amazing and the whole is perfectly pieced together. Every character is beautifully realised, so that even those who only appear for a brief moment are still seen as important to the story and have a reason to be there. With fantastic performances from the whole cast, the mesmerising soundtrack and sublime images, this is surely the best film of the year. 5 stars!

Kuttrame Thandanai (2016)

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After Kaaka Muttai, M. Manikandan’s second film is a crime thriller where the sole witness to a murder is a man who is gradually losing his vision. Despite some dodgy medical diagnoses, the story itself is gripping with the identity of the murderer kept hidden right until the end. With plenty of twists and a great performance from Vidharth in the lead role, Kutrame Thandanai is an interesting film that deserves a second glance.

Right from the start we learn that Ravi (Vidharth) has a problem with his eyes. He has tunnel vision (due to retinitis pigmentosa according to his ophthalmologist), but the retinal image shown does not show the condition, and the symptoms don’t quite match up either. Ravi is told that he needs an eye transplant to ‘cure’ his problem, which is also impossible (there is no possible way to treat the retinal damage from retinitis pigmentosa), but the sum of money he needs for the operation becomes the central point of the story. The camera often shows Ravi’s view to accentuate his limited vision, which works effectively to help understand his very real problems.

Ravi works as a collector for a credit card collection office, where his co-worker Anu (Pooja Devariya) appears to have a crush on him, and as a result smooths his relationship with the manager (George Maryan). As his vision is getting worse day by day, Ravi starts to try and raise the money for his operation. He starts by trying to get a loan at work, but the amount is much too large. A glass-blowing friend (Nasser) is also unable to give him the money he needs, and it seems that Ravi is doomed to eventual blindness with the added misery of no longer being able to drive and at risk of losing his job. But then a girl who lives in his block of flats is murdered. Ravi sees a young man Arun (leave her apartment in a rage, and subsequently meets an older man at the scene. But which is responsible for the murder? 

As first Vijay Prakash (Rahman) and then Arun’s father offers Ravi money for his silence, it seems possible that he might be able to fund his operation at last. But in his search for what he needs, Ravi has to turn his back on justice for the murdered girl, Swetha (Aishwarya Rajesh). It’s a moral dilemma and writers M. Manikandan and Anand Annamalai have built the story around the question of moral ambiguity. Either of the two men could potentially be responsible for the murder, while Ravi is blackmailing them for his silence. There are also questions raised about the morality of the health service, which demands payment in full before even putting Ravi onto a waiting list for his operation. Even the other residents in the building appear to have double standards, being reluctant to speak to the police and get involved, but discussing Swetha’s death among themselves. There is also the issue that Swetha was being visited by several men, with an unspoken but inferred social agreement that she had contributed to her own death. The police are the least morally corrupt in the entire story, as they continue to look for justice for Swetha, despite being hampered by uncommunicative residents of the apartment block, and a general lack of clues. 

The crime is treated rather lightly, and the plot instead focuses on Ravi and the gradual change in his ethics as he becomes ever more desperate for money. Is it OK to demand money for his operation from a man who may potentially be a murder. As more details are revealed, Ravi’s actions become ever more questionable as we find he know who the real murderer is, and yet continues to auction his silence to the highest bidder. His actions also cause consequences for those people that he drags into his scheme, although these are only seen from Ravi’s point of view. Essentially the film shows how selfish we become when faced with a problem such as Ravi’s blindness. Not only is he losing his sight, but he’s also unable to see anything other than his own problems.

Although Kutrame Thandanai doesn’t have the instant appeal of Kaaka Muttai and the plot is also slow to develop, it does have great characterisations. It does take a long time before the crucial murder and the blackmail story also develops later in the plot, but what I like is the moral ambiguity that threads through the entire story. The characters are inherently normal people with the usual mix of corruption and innocence, and what works well is the way that we only tend to see their reactions through Ravi’s eyes. There is a good sense of Ravi’s thought processes and why he decides on blackmail as the solution for his problems, even though this is possibly the worst decision he could make. Vidharth puts in a great performance that ensure we see Ravi as a typical low-income worker who is desperate to save his sight and therefore his livelihood. I really like how he stops driving when told to do so by the doctor, but then makes more questionable decisions when faced with the potential to change his fate. In real life, many patients would not do the former, at least not until they have worked through the consequences, but few would decide to follow Ravi’s later decisions. Here too, Nasser works well as Ravi’s sounding board and source of moral counsel, even though he doesn’t really seem to understand the reality of Ravi’s vision loss. The cast all provide solid support and although Aishwarya Rajesh only has brief appearances, she still makes an impression while Pooja Devariya ensures that her character is memorable for all the right reasons.

Ilaiyaraaja’s background music is beautiful and soars above the grimy streets that M. Manikandan captures so well. The ambiguity of the characters is well depicted and the story raises many questions about morality and how it applies in different situations. Ravi’s tunnel vision is literal, but also applies to many of the other characters in the way they view the world as well as to Ravi’s own interpretation of his situation. Interesting and more complex that it first appears, Kutrame Thandanai is a worthwhile watch and highly recommended. 4 stars.

118

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K.V. Guhan moves from DOP to director in this paranormal thriller starring Kalyan Ram and Nivetha Thomas. It’s fast-paced, to the extent that at times plot points feel rushed as K.V. Guhan packs a lot of story into the 2 hour runtime. This dilutes some of the tension, as do some rather gaping plot holes, but for the most part 118 is an entertaining and even occasionally surprising tale.

The film opens with the graphic and violent beating of a woman which is quickly revealed to be a dream so shocking that it wakes up investigative reporter Guatham (Kalyan Ram). The time on the clock is 1.18am so Gautham wipes his fevered brow and goes back to sleep before heading out the next morning on a jeep safari. He doesn’t appear to think any more about the dream, until 6 months later when he has exactly the same dream again, waking at the same time in the same room at the same resort. The room is #118, the time is again 1.18am and this time Gautham takes it as ‘a sign’. It’s never explicitly mentioned that this seems to be some sort of ghostly visitation – not even when Gautham tracks down other guests who stayed in the same room, but the implication is that this is an imprint of a horrible event rather than a foretelling of one that’s yet to come.

Gautham has a helpful police officer friend, courtesy of a big political money laundering scam he helped to bust previously. This lets him track phone calls and find out confidential information that he would never manage to elicit by himself. A missing girl in the same location eventually gives him the information to identify the woman in his dream as Aadya (Nivetha Thomas) and aided by his fiancée Medha (Shalini Pandey) and friend (Prabhas Sreenu) he starts to investigate what happened in room 118.

One of the problems I have with the film is that everything happens a little too easily for Gautham. As an investigative reporter, stories just seem to fall into his lap, and there are a few too many coincidences during his inquiries that lead him to various clues. He finds the site where in his dream he saw Aadya’s car being pushed off a cliff rather too conveniently, and then, without even stopping to consider the consequences, he jumps into the water to see if there is indeed a car at the bottom. And even though the police are aware of the missing persons cases, they don’t seem to be investigating at all, giving Gautham free rein to trample all over potential evidence and alert possible suspects at every turn. The villains too are rather clichéd, resorting to the usual threats, ineffective ambushes and intimidation by road rage. Their grand plan is also nonsensical and would never have had any chance of succeeding but then to be fair that does apply to most filmi villains.

There is also some very shonky pseudo-science as Gautham consults a ‘dream-doctor’ (Nasser) who helps him experience what he calls ‘lucid dreaming’ (which is an actual phenomenon, although not quite as described here) to help get to the bottom of his dream. This involves wires attached to his head (of course) and pretty pictures of neurones firing but is really just a way for Gautham to quickly find the answer without going through some more rigorous investigative processes. Nonetheless, it’s a novel approach and works reasonably well given the paranormal theme of the film.

Kalyan Ram is good as the man trying to get to the bottom of a nightmare and at least his job gives him most of the skills he needs to be able to track down clues. However, the speed at which he discovers key points doesn’t leave much room for character development since the film moves quickly from one action scene to the next. He manages to get across the idea that Gautham is a man dedicated to discovering the truth and does a good job with displaying various emotions as the details of the case some to light. I don’t think I’ve ever seen Kalyan Ram in a lead role before, and he carries the movie easily with good screen presence and enough charisma to make Gautham a likeable hero.

Although she doesn’t have much screentime, Nivetha Thomas is excellent in a flash-back sequence that explains exactly what Aadya was doing and how she ended up in room 118. She has the best developed role since she gets some back story, plus she has morals and principles which are a sure sign she is going to suffer for them. She’s an accomplished actor and has a serene presence that helps to explain why Gautham is so passionate about finding out what actually happened to Aadya. I really liked her in Chaappa Kurish and she’s even better here where she gets to take on a meatier role.

Prabhas Sreenu is fairly subdued in his role as Gautham’s friend who’s always that step of two behind, but he fits well into the role and provides a good sounding board as required. However, I couldn’t see the point of the romantic track with Shalini Pandey or why it was necessary to add some scenes with Gautham’s mother (Geetha Bhascker) since neither contributed anything to the story. Both are absolutely fine in their small roles, but they had little to do and even less relevance to the story.

While there are some issues with the film, the overall story and the performances of Kalyan Ram and Nivetha Thomas make this worth a watch in the cinema. The story moves along quickly and although there are some clichéd ideas, the investigation itself is different enough to be interesting. I enjoyed watching this, and did even jump once or twice although I did also laugh a few times at some of the more ridiculous notions. The film is well made, it generally looks slick and polished and Shekar Chandra’s soundtrack is better than average although this is mainly background music as there is only one song. At only 2 hours this one feels short and snappy too. One to watch for Nivetha Thomas , Kalyan Ram and the novel puzzle he has to solve.