Katthi Vs Tropic Thunder…Which Is The Real Spoof On The Audience?

Katthi Vs Tropic Thunder…Which Is The Real Spoof On The Audience?

So last weekend I spent watching two movies back to back- the Tamil film kathhi starring actor Vijay and the English film tropic thunder starring Ben stiller. The reason I watched them one after the other immediately is because they both run on a single topic- the second one being a spoof on the first. And the theme if you haven’t guessed it by now is “action stars Oscar aspirations”. Now I know that’s a mouthful but nevertheless that’s the theme of this post. Now we all know – in fact its never been a secret - that be it Hollywood, Bollywood or Kollywood- some big stars – action stars especially often have unfulfilled fantasies of turning thespians and giving in the performance of their lives- acting chops wise- to earn the adulation of carping critics and be recognized winners of the best actor awards rather than the most popular actor awards. This fever (or madness) more or less affects almost all big stars at one time or the other in their career- be it Schwarzenegger with his Kindergarten Cop, Stallone with any of his non-Rocky movies, Statham with his non-Transporter movies and even Jackie Chan with the Jaden smith starring Karate Kid.

What these stars seem not to realize is that the audiences come to watch their films precisely because they have a well defined sensibility of giving what the audience wants and not to watch pure acting or method acting or the ten hankies were drenched with tears kinda acting. And when the star becomes too trippy for his own good and forgets the audience and decides to satisfy only his critics he ends up doing a disaster movie of epic proportions which falls flat between two stools satisfying neither – the audience nor the critics. After all if the star had movable facial muscles he wouldn't be doing slam-bang action movies right from the start of his career would he? Audiences know the stars limits - their acting talents or lack thereof and still turn up to watch their movies for other things and so it’s quite tragic when the stars themselves don’t know their limitations or forget it in their ego-filled trips and choose awards over their audiences.

This aspect of the ego-trips stars take to end up in disaster is showcased in one of the greatest spoof-movies Hollywood made- Tropic Thunder where Ben Stiller spoofs this oscar mania in a movie-within- a movie called “Simple Jack” wherein he tries to show off his acting abilities to get that elusive Oscar award which is nevertheless denied to him for being , wait for it, too realistic a portrayal of retard…and as Robert Downey Jr advises him in a pivotal scene in the movie- never go full retard man, they don’t like it-  which advice is apt for all these action stars- never go full actor man- they don’t like it. This extreme limits to which actors go to be recognized by critics and peers as a, well an “actor” in inverted caps is what lifts Tropic Thunder from your average spoof movie into far higher realms. Every time you watch the film you get to see layers and layers peeled off the hides of action stars who want “respectability”. The movie ends very poignantly with a message- “know yourself man, know who you are and stay true to yourself”. Which advice is eminently applicable to actor vijay and director murugadoss and the entire katthi team.

When you go to watch a vijay movie you have certain expectations- the bare basic expectation of being entertained for the next two hours being the most primary one. But with Katthi the actor or maybe the director has forgotten this basic commandment and moved into award territory. They have taken a worthwhile issue and using a faulty screenplay which sags and drags for a large part of the movie and a wholly cinematic ending involving the hero fighting 50 bad guys etc have managed to shake the audience faith in the vijay “genre” formula. I am not saying that vijay shouldn't act in such films- after all as an individual its his right to decide the movies he is gonna make but as a member of the pay for tickets and watch in theatre public, I for one will hesitate to watch a vijay movie in the future without reading all the reviews- because now I know that it may or not be a typical vijay movie and can even be a preachy- social issues-artsy movie starring vijay as one of the characters.

This diminishing of the stars “star value” for want of a better term is what saddens me as a vijay fan and and as a fan of potboiler mass masala movies. If even vijay can compromise for the critics sake what hope is there for the average movie fan like me who expects and demands a non-intellectual “no-issues only entertainment” movie with the mandatory 3 duets and 4 fights screenplay? Or maybe I should just stick to watching Telugu movies henceforth- at least Mahesh Babu and Pawan Kalyan will never betray their fans like this. Or wait for the next Ben Stiller movie with bated breath – for there’s an actor who knows himself.

பாண்டிய நாடு - திரை விமர்சனம்

பாண்டிய நாடு  - திரை விமர்சனம்

                

நேற்று எக்ஸ்பிரஸ் அவெனுவில் உள்ள ஈஸ்க்கேப் திரையரங்கிர்க்கு நண்பர் கோபால கிருஷ்ணருடன் சென்றிருந்தேன்- தல அஜீத்தின் தீபாவளி ரிலீஸ் படம் “ஆரம்பம்” பார்க்க. ஆனால் டிக்கெட் கிடைக்கவில்லை. என்னடா கிளம்பி இவ்வளவு தூரம் வந்து விட்டோமே, அதுவும் நண்பரின் பிறந்த நாளாச்சே வெறும் கையோடு போவதையும் விட டிக்கெட் கெடைக்கும் வேறு எந்த படத்திற்க்காவது போலாமென்று விஷால் நடித்த “பாண்டியநாடு” படத்திற்க்கு டிக்கெட்டை வாங்கிக்கொண்டு உள்ளே சென்று அமர்ந்தோம்.

படத்தைப் பற்றி ஒன்றும் தெரியாது, விமர்சனமும் படிக்கவில்லை, அதலால் முற்றிலும் ஒரு புது அனுபவம் தான் எதிர்பார்த்தோம். எதிர்பார்ப்பை ஏமாற்றாமல் நிறைவேற்றிவிட்டார் இயக்குனர் சுசீந்திரன். ஒரு நடுத்தர வர்க குடும்பம், பாசக்கார பெற்றோர், காதல் செய்வதிலேயே முனைப்பாக இருக்கும் மகன், அவனுக்கு உறுதுணையாக நண்பர்கள் என்று போன படத்தை – நான் மகான் அல்ல- படத்தை முற்பாதி ஞாபக படுத்தினாலும் இடைவேளைக்கு பின் கதை பெய்துக்கொண்டு ஓடுகிறது.

விஷாலின் அண்ணன் மற்றும் நண்பன் – விக்ராந்த் கௌரவ வேடத்தில்- தொடர் மரணங்கள் (அறிமுக வில்லன் ஷரத்தின் கையால்) பயந்தாங்கொள்ளி ஹீரோ விஷாலை சண்டக்கோழி விஷாலாக மாற்றுகிறது. வீறுகொண்டு ஹீரோ ஒரு பக்கம் வில்லனை போட்டு தள்ள மாத கணக்கில் தொடர்ந்து கட்டம் போட்டு கொண்டிருக்க மறுபக்கம் மூத்த மகன் சாவிற்கு காரணமானவர்களை பழிவாங்க தந்தை பாரதிராஜா வெளியூர் கூலி படையை ஏவ படம் விறுவிறுப்பாக செல்கிறது கிளைமாக்ஸ் நோக்கி. கடைசியில் வில்லனை உயிருடன் புதைத்து தன் வஞ்சத்தை தீர்த்துக் கொள்கிறார் ஹீரோ.

சாதா மசாலா கதை தான் என்றாலும் திரைக்கதையை பட்டை தீட்டி நமக்கு அலுப்புத் தட்டாமல் எடுத்து செல்கிறார் இயக்குனர் சுசீந்திரன். ஒரு மாஸ் ஹீரோ விஷால்லை காதலியை கேலி சேய்யும் ரவுடிகளிடம் சண்டை போட தன் நண்பனை அழைத்து வரும் அளவிற்கு கோழையாக காட்டி இருப்பது நல்ல டச்ச். அதேபோல் கிளைமாக்ஸ் சண்டையிலும் ஹீரோ கராத்தே, குங்பூ எல்லாம் கட்டாமல், கைக்கு கெடைய்த்ததை எடுத்து அடிக்கும் சராசரி மனுஷனாக காட்டியது வரவேற்கத்தக்கது.

இசை சுமார்தான்- அந்த முதல் “ஒப்பாரி” பாட்டை தவிர. விஷாலின் தந்தையாக நடிக்கும் இயக்குனர் பாரதிராஜா, நண்பர்களாக நடிக்கும் விக்ராந்த் மற்றும் பரோட்டா சூரி கொடுத்து பாத்திரத்தை கனகச்சிதமாக செய்திருக்கிறார்கள். விஷாலின் அண்ணி வேடத்தில் வரும் நடிகை சிறு பாத்திரமாக இருந்தாலும் நம்மை நெகிழ வைய்கிறார். தேவையில்லாத ஒரு சில டூயட் பாட்டுக்கள்தான் அங்ககங்கே தலை நுழைத்து கதையை தடை செய்து ஆடீயன்சை வெருப்பெற்றுகிறது.

தீர்ப்பு : பாண்டிய நாடு– கட்டாயம் ஒருமுறை பார்க்க வேண்டிய படம்– 4/5

Film Review –Needhane Enn Pon Vasandham – A Realistic Take On Urban Love.

I happened to catch up on the movie NEPV recently. After all the reviews bashing the film, it was a considered decision on my part to brave the critics’ scathing opinions and go see for myself. I had always considered Goutam Menon as one of the very few directors (along with SJ Suryah) who had a clear realistic take on modern day city based romance. And it was a welcome relief to watch an urban centric movie after a long time, the recent trend in Tamil films being a surfeit of rural romances with bearded, scruffy, dirty heroes, clad in lungis, brandishing sickles and threatening village belles to fall in love or else “you will see the macho side of a man” kind of thing. And Goutham Menon doesn’t disappoint.

NEPV is a neat little movie, showcasing urban relationships and male female dynamics in the modern world. All natural and nothing contrived about the story. There are no goons going around in a dozen Tata Sumos, threatening to kill the couple but allowing the puny hero to single handedly bash them up in minutes. In fact there are no villains as such in the movie and only circumstances play the villain as in real life. There is no hero introduction song with village women showing Mangala Aarathi to the hero and praising the hero as the savior come to rule the land as chief minister in the coming elections. The first song is actually sung by the comedian/second hero of the movie- Santhanam, who does a neat job as usual.

With such a refreshing beginning, the film had a great potential for turning into a entertaining hit. But what lets down the movie are the screenplay and the music. The screenplay sags a bit after the interval and I am astonished that as accomplished a director as Goutham Menon wasn’t a bit more ruthless at the editing table. And as for the music, the less said the better. After the highs of VTV, when GM combined with AR Rahman to create a blockbuster album, NEPV with Ilayaraja helming the music comes as a sad disappointment. There is not one single hummable song (like the eminently likeable Hosanna from VTV) and the music score is completely forgotten by the time we walk out after the end credits. A failed experiment musically and I hope GM goes back to ARR for his next film.

The story as such is simple, boy and girl meet, fall in love, have a misunderstanding and break up. After a suitable time interval boy and girl again meet, rediscover feeling for each other and continue their love, till again a misunderstanding crops up and they break up. Repeat/Rinse for half a dozen times till you come to the climax. At the end the boy decides he has had enough from the girl, no point in waiting any longer and goes in for an arranged marriage. And girl walks in on the day of the wedding to wish him. There is not much novelty to the story if told blandly like that. The difference is in watching the performances, for both the actors Jeeva and Samantha have performed creditably bringing the personalities of the characters alive. The second pair of Santhanam and new introduction Vidyalekha have some of the best lines in the movie and provide welcome relief with their comedy act, especially the spoof in the second half on the directors own earlier hit movie VTV.

A few scenes especially stand out for the deft touch of the director. Like the scene where the hero shows off his brand new car to the heroine (bought from his first job) and asks her why she hasn’t yet changed her old car. This despite the fact that earlier throughout the entire movie the heroine is the one who goes around in a car and the hero borrows it from her and drives around without any compunction treating it as their common property (in Tamlish- Osi Gaji adikaradhu). In that single moment of gloating, the director shows us all a different aspect of the hero. The depth of his inferiority complex about his financial state which he had hidden from the heroine (and us) all along the movie, allowing her to spend lavishly on him and pay for everything, till he finally reaches a state of financial independence when he shows up his true feelings about their mismatched financial backgrounds. For too long Tamil films have perpetuated the myth that people can fall in love despite vast differences in financial backgrounds with the hero being a slum dweller who falls in love with a millionaires daughter and when the heroines father objects to it, the hero in the space of a single montage song becomes a business man who has makes enough money to buy out the girl’s father and humiliate him and teaches him the value of true love over money.

Unfortunately, such things don’t happen in real life. Almost all the mismatched relationships in real life end up in tragedy. Girls who elope with auto drivers and bus conductors end up regretting their stupidity sooner rather than later when the love of their lives turn into parasites who prey upon their earnings while lazing about.  Only real achievers who are comfortable with their own lives (sans ego) can bridge over any such mismatched financial backgrounds. The rest will definitely exhibit inferiority complexes and try to take out their frustrations on the very person who loves them. Don’t believe me? Ask any celebrity woman achiever and you will learn the truth about how male ego demands that the woman’s status always be lesser than the man’s ego can bear, even when the woman is paying all the bills.

The next scene which shows the typical Goutham Menon punch is the terrace scene just before the interval, when the hero informs the heroine that no, he would not be marrying her as he had decided to go for higher studies to improve his career prospects. And when the heroine goes all clingy and desperate and talks about sacrificing everything in her life for his love he shows a bit of contempt for her and advices her to find something else to do with her life, get a career or an outside interest like him. This is so true to life but till now has never been shown in any film. When men chase a girl, they put aside everything else and concentrate only on the chase. But once they are satisfied that the girl is indeed theirs (all opposition vanquished), then they slacken off and start considering all the other work which has been put aside till then in the heat of the chase. Suddenly all the lavish attention which was enjoyed earlier seems to be smothering and they want space (this is a universal truth known to all men). So they end up giving unwanted advice on how to find a career or a hobby or something which will allow them to moderate the time spent together to manageable levels. In defense of the guys, it is because they don’t think over much about anything in the initial euphoric phase of love and only when the girl is firmly attached that a guy starts thinking about the next part on how to settle in life, how to earn enough to support the girl with him and suddenly time seems a premium and career or education becomes all important.

The outstanding scene of the film for me is the climax scene where the heroine comes to the hero’s wedding reception and sees him standing with a different girl beside him and realizes the extent of the folly of her ego when she finally realizes that he is not hers any longer, even to fight with or to show anger. Too many people in relationships let their ego ruin things by not realizing that circumstances can change anytime and time waits for no man or woman. They mistake the trees for the woods and forget the big picture and are intent only on punishing their partner without realizing that sometimes they may push away the other person beyond an irretrievable distance. So every time anyone in a relationship feels that their ego is hurt they should just imagine their person of choice standing beside someone else at their wedding reception. Just picture this in your mind and see whether the issue at hand seems as big as before. Fighting is all very well but only when there is someone still left to fight with. That for me was the take home message from the movie. Something which Goutham Menon has nailed in his inimitable style.

So my verdict is NEPV's a movie worth watching at least once. And if you haven’t till now, better head to the theatre before it’s taken off.

My Favorite Tamil films

I was deep in sleep, dog tired after a hard day’s work and the power had just been restored (after the daily scheduled power cut), so I was off to noddy land to freshen up a bit before evening duty and my mom was shaking me awake “your favorite movie is no Raj TV….” I slowly came awake and murmured “how far is the movie gone?” she said “it’s just got to the interesting part” and I woke up completely to head to the TV in the hall. The movie playing on the screen was Vedala Ulagam. And the hero had just about reached the Vedala Ulagam after singing a dozen songs along the way and the story was about to get interesting.

So started the idea for this post. Which were the movies I loved watching again and again- every time they showed on TV?. Which ones I even had cd’s off at home to watch when the mood struck me?  Being an absolute movie buff- there were literally dozens of films which fill these criteria and I had to whittle it down to manageable limits. So here goes.

Vedala Ulagam:

Lets start with this huge favorite of me- from my childhood days. An absolute cracker of an adventure movie for one made in 1948…it contains an iconic song..and one of my ever green favorite- Ayyo Ayyo Pakka Kannu Koosudhe…..sung by the comedian Sarangapani at the Demons or Vedalams. Another favorite from this movie is the mantra “Rajeevi” as uttered by the Hero T.R.Mahalingam whenever he runs into trouble……got a problem? Call Rajeevi- is now a standing joke in our family. The movie is even scientific for its times- the hero threatens the villain the demon king- with Anu Gundu or Atom bomb….think nuclear weapons in 1948? But more than the other hero its Sarangapani, a now forgotten comic actor who plays the hero’s sidekick who gets away with the best gags and lines always starting with “ada mada vedalangaley”…..and one scene in the movie is vaguely reminiscent of the Micheal Crichton Book/Movie- Sphere- where a Sphere from outer space manifests as actual whatever you desire. The same is shown as part of Indian Mythology- the Sanjeevani Tree below which Sarangapani sits and asks for food and drink which he gets immediately and while enjoying them suddenly gets fearful and thinks about Vedalams and they turn up in droves. This one is a must watch for all Tamil film aficionados.

Anbe Vaa….

I actually almost ate a whole finger nail, chewing over the decision to include this movie on the list beating out my other MGR favorites like Guleb-Bakavalli, Alibaba and 40 thieves and Ragasiya Police 115. Guleb-Bakavalli has a great story line, Aliababa has outstanding music – remember Masilla Unmail Kadale? And Ragasiya Police- was a typical MGR action thriller. But Anbe Vaa beats all this…story, humour, music and action. MGR’s fight with Sitting Bull would have the theatre erupting in claps (I watched this movie in Select Theatre, George Town in the company of my mother and aunts- as the mandatory male escort – at an age of 7/8 years) when MGR bodily lifts the huge villain – Sitting Bull -over his head with absolutely no graphics. And the music- Once a Papa, Met a Mummy is so ingrained in our family’s subconscious that even my 6 year old neice can hum it. And to top it all the outstanding Nagesh-Manorama comedy duo took this movie a notch above everything else. Punnaku Puniyakodi, anyone? Every scene, every dialogue of this movie rocks and remember this was not a typical MGR movie..he was not typecast as the usual do-gooder character he always played but as someone who almost loses his girl to his best friend Asokan, before everything comes right at the end. This movie was  the ultimate romance film of the olden days.

Thunive Thunai…..

If there is one tamil movie which can be said to be of Hollywood standard this is the one- made in 1976 the movie deals with the busting of superstitions-a Vampire film before Twilight became famous. The opening sequence before the credits is one of the best horror sequences in tamil films ever. And the movie has the mother of all punch dialogues- way before Rajnikanth- “Maapla, alavedukkava maapla?” uttered in his inimitable style by SA Asokan….when he wants to measure Jaishankar for his coffin. Let me confess that I am crazy about Jaishankars “Bond” films and I had a tough time choosing between Nilagiri Express, Yaar Nee and Thunive Thunai….but this wins out for the sheer gripping screenplay. Jaishankar’s bold replies on the cart journey to the haunted village has to stand out for the sheer brilliance of dialogue writing. And SA Asokan absolutely rocks among the whole host of villains – as does CID Shakuntala.

There are lots of other movies I enjoy greatly too- Adhe Kangal of Ravichandran, Edhir Neechal of Nagesh- a sadly underrated actor compared to the more hyped NSKrishnan/ChandraBabu, and Pattinathil Bootham of Jaishankar and Nagesh combo with the incomparable Javert Seetharaman of Andha Naal as the eponymous ghost….but those have to be for another day. 

Now tell me which are your favorites?

(Pics: courtesy Google Images )