Thala Thalapathy!

Pongal 2014 is indeed special, as a Thala-Thalapathy clash is up for the audiences after almost six years, and what follows is a dual review of these two festival bonanzas, Jilla and Veeram.

First up, is Jilla, starring Ilayathalapathy Vijay, Mohanlal, Kajal Aggarwal and several others. Sakthi, orphaned by crime, is raised by Sivan, a ruthless don who controls Madurai. This paternal bond faces a major challenge when Sakthi goes against Sivan in an attempt to rid him of his criminal days after he is forced to become a cop. 

This formula film, contains such a weird and draggy screenplay, which coupled with its ginormous 182-minute runtime, feels like an eternity on screen, with several positions of the story being rather preposterous and songs being placed pointlessly. The first half seems to go on forever, and the second half picks a haphazard pace which fumbles and fizzles to the end. The most commendable virtue of the film is Ganesh Rajavelu's cinematography, which makes use of a lot of interesting angles. While Don Max's editing does no help to the already-slow screenplay, the overuse of slow motion sequences add to lack of the film's speed. Imman's music is rather forgettable, and the album is of two extremes, for it houses both the interesting 'Kandaangi Kandaangi' rendered by Vijay and Shreya Ghosal, and the horrendous "Yeppo Mama Treat-u".

Next, Veeram, starring Ajithkumar, Tamannah, Nasser, Vidharth and a multitude of others. Vinayagam, a violent altruist, is made to fall in love and faces a challenge when the heroine and her violence-shunning family are put under mortal peril. 

Another formula film - the film adheres to a simple story, scripted to mass. With a first half roaming around in nonchalant humour, the film turns toward the story in the second half and races towards the end. Vetri's commendable cinematography coupled with Mu.Kasi Viswanathan's editing keeps the film taut. While DSP's album is forgettable, his background score suits the film well.

Both films provide nothing new to the audiences, for they follow the age-old concept of masala films. While Jilla stutters in terms of its draggy screenplay, its failed attempt at humour and its requirement to share the "mass effect" between two stars, Veeram holds fort with the point-blank simplicity of its nothing-new-at-all story that rides completely on Thala's charisma.

And thus, both films are complete fan material, but in the race, it would seem that Siva beats Nesan with his lack of complexity, but only by a small margin.

Aditya Baskaran 

Khuskha.

The hype was large when Venkat Prabhu, who turned into a trend-setter with his debut Chennai-28 teamed up with Karthi, for his next project, and after a long wait, Biryani finally hits screens, also starring Premgi Amaren, Hansika Motwani, Nasser and several, several others.

Two buddies - Casanova Sugan and your-usual-Premgi Parasu lead a happy life filled with booze, parties and women, until things take a wild turn when their search for a serving of biryani traps them into a massive spiderweb of murder and deceit. Whether or not they prove their innocence and survive their ordeal forms the rest of the story.

Even with its very potent star cast and several guest appearances, the film fails to keep audiences engaged. With a deadbeat pace from the beginning, the first half is filled with the usual comedy and antics you'd expect from a Venkat Prabhu film, and shifts on to the crux, where it attempts to produce novel twists, but turns out to be a painful, mediocre run to the finish, with sprinkles of laughter here and there. While Sakthi Saravanan's interesting cinematography combined with Praveen KL-Srikanth NB's editing offers a decent visual experience, it does not support the lazy screenplay of the film in any manner. Yuvan Shankar Raja's 100th album fails to impress, while his background score is commendable.

Karthi, whose last hit was the 2011 masala entertainer Siruthai is rather facing a downward slope, with Saguni, Alex Pandian and All-in-All failing to impress; Venkat Prabhu, whose previous outing Mankatha succeeded because of its Thala factor, gives us a film that is nothing beyond the average, and nothing new from his usual. In fact, several sequences in the film almost remind us of his previous works.

Biryani is for fans who enjoy seeing the trademark bloopers at the end, or the bored weekenders looking for ways to kill time. 

Aditya Baskaran

Pallu Pona Raaja.

With interesting promos, debutante Prasanna RS managed to pique audiences towards Kalyaana Samayal Saadham, starring Prasanna, Lekha Washington, Raghav and several others, opened to good expectations.

An "arranged marriage" set-up brings Tambrahms Meera and Raghu together. Realizing their compatibility, the couple soon fall in love with each other, and things are sweet and happy, until a major twist exhibits a certain physical inability of Raghu, which goes on to threaten the entire marriage and their relationship. Whether they succeed or fail in their marriage forms the rest of the story.

Performances. Prasanna, after multi-starrers, supporting roles and cameos, finally comes back to centre stage with KSS, and so does Lekha, last seen in 2010's Va Quarter Cutting. Both of them do complete justice to their roles, and so do the rest - Raghav, Uma Padmanabhan, Delhi Ganesh, the hero's friends, and the wonderful Crazy Mohan in a cameo. Krishnan Vasant's interesting camera handling coupled with Sathyarj's editing and Arora's music, truly enhance the viewer experience, though the film feels very long with its 132-minute runtime.

KSS brings to screen a rom-com fresh in its approach, and while revolving around a subject that is rather "adult" in its nature, the film manages to not go overboard or turn it vulgar. The film attempts to keep you entertained and laughing, though it is not completely successful. The film fails to keep the audience involved at times, and loses its pace at points during its runtime, but ends as a warm film overall.

KSS is a good weekend break, and if you're a Tambrahm with modern ideals, you'll probably dig this one. Beyond that, it is your usual rom-com with a fresh edge to it.

Aditya Baskaran

Fomantic Rantasy.

In recent Tamil cinema, very few directors have established themselves as experimental creators foraying beyond an usual formula. Selvaraghavan, one of this rare breed, has carved a niche for himself with his dark, intense style of film-making. While his previous outing Mayakkam Enna received lukewarm success, the failure of his bombast experiment on historical fantasy Aayirathil Oruvan remains fresh in audiences' mind.

Irandaam Ulagam, is a story where two worlds - Earth, and a distant Tamil-speaking human-populated alien planet are connected by an individual - Madhu Balakrishnan, in search of his love. His journey - him falling in love, and its loss that takes him to the Second World and how he affects that planet forms the rest of the story.

While it is a story that would look great on paper, IU ends up as a complete drag, unable to convey its probable depth and intensity to audiences. While the first few minutes start with great promise, the film spirals down a path of slow death with post-interval feeling almost like ultramotion, and the screenplay makes one wonder whether it was the same man who made the stellar Pudhupettai. While comparison of our native cinema's CG to films like Avatar, to which global audience have been exposed is a bit unfair, the quality of the work done, though commendable is not entirely appealing.

While the lead cast and their support have performed to the mark, the use of foreign artistes to speak Tamil combined with their pitiful lip sync suddenly makes you feel like you're watching one of those English-to-Tamil dubs on TV. While the album is forgettable, Anirudh Ravichander's background score is impressive.

Irandaam Ulagam is indeed a daring experiment, and while director Selvaraghavan's attempt is commendable, the film ends up being disappointing. Only for fanboys - be it the director, Arya or Anushka.

Aditya Baskaran

Pa Pa Paba.

With a hat-trick victory, each one bigger than the previous, Thirukumaran Entertainments' C.V.Kumar portrayed the image of recent Tamil cinema's Midas. And by taking the brand of their 2012 sleeper hit Pizza, Pizza-II The Villa, starring Ashok Selvan, Sanchita Shetty, J.Jayakumar, Nassar and several others, opens up to a lot of expectations.

Plagued with debts post his father's demise, aspiring author Jebin, comes across a sudden property of his- A villa. While he and his girlfriend Aarthi look forward to a happy life in the villa, strange and morbid happenings begin to occur after he finds out a series of paintings that depict his future. Whether Jebin escapes from the evil behind those paintings or does he fall prey to fate, forms the rest of the story.

The lead pair, both seen in TE's previous outing Soodhu Kavvum, deliver to requirement, though they still have a long way to go in establishing themselves as fine artistes. Notable performances include Jayakumar and Nassar, who manage to garner attention in their short screen-time. Santhosh Narayanan, who has impressed audiences with his work probably does not strike gold with this album, though the background score enhances the visual experience.

Even with a commendable run-time just over a 100 minutes, the slow screenplay makes it feel like much longer. While the first half unfolds slow and steady, the second picks up speed, crashing into an interesting climax. It seems pointless why the film would use the Pizza franchise as there seems to be no connection, expect for its genre. Deepak Kumar Pathy's attempt to produce interesting angles to amplify the horror coupled with Leo John Paul's taut editing are commendable, but with a storyline muffled by a draggy screenplay, The Villa falls flat trying to garner up the scares.

With debutante Deepak's work, one does wonder whether the film is a horror flick, or a mere "message-movie" that uses the supernatural as a ploy. Nevertheless, The Villa is your average Friday boredom killer, and not exactly on the same level to Pizza.

Aditya Baskaran

Unna Partha Neram.

Dubbed as "the man with the Midas touch", director Rajesh.M went on to strike gold thrice with three comedies - Siva Manasula Shakthi, Boss (a) Baskaran and Oru Kal Oru Kannadi. And thus, amidst much expectations released All-in-All Azhaguraja, featuring Karthi, Kajal Aggarwal, Santhanam and several others.

The yardstick for bad cinema seems to have fallen to extreme depths over the last decade. Such is the lack of content in fresh movies, that a film that seemed to be bad last week, seems exceptional in comparison to today's release. And such is the case with this film here.

Azhaguraja, opposed to marriage, falls in love with random stranger, only to realize that her family has a feud with his. Does he solve this issue and marry her, forms the rest of the plot. Seriously, how many million films of the same line, with some variation more or less have we seen over time? While Rajesh's films are known to be complete comic capers with no solid storyline, All-in-All fails miserably both in terms of comedy and story. The USP Santhanam seems to have turned stale, as his performance fails to evoke even the slightest of laughter, and it is sad to see veterans like Prabhu, Saranya Ponnvannan and M.S.Bhasker being wasted on menial roles. Even Karthi's attempt to recreate an image of yesteryear Prabhu during the flashback does not have the suggested impact.

With an almost 3-hour runtime, sitting through All-in-All is painful - A plain, stupid story coupled with a snail-paced screenplay where editing and cinematography seem to be of no help. S.S.Thaman fails to impress with his album, with songs acting as blocks of time-murder in an already slow world. One honestly does wonder whether the film was handled by the same man whose previous outings were so enjoyable.

Well, All-in-All is for those who are really, really devoid of a form to kill time.

Aditya Baskaran

Thala Diwali.

It's a Thala film, so yes, its natural that the hype surrounding it is massive. And thus releases Thala 53 titled Arrambam, featuring a stellar star cast in addition - Arya, Nayanthara, Tapsee, Atul Kulkarni, Mahesh Manjeraker, Kishore, Rana Dagubatti and several others.

Grade-A hacker Arjun is roped into a terrorist operation, led by the sinister Ashok Kumar aka AK, to remove a large sum of money from the accounts of a number of elite citizens. Who is AK, what is his motive, and does Arjun complete the task under AK, forms the plot of the film.

Given the cast, I don't even want to talk about performances. The film rides on Thala's shoulder, through and through, with Arya and Nayanthara playing perfect secondary fiddles. Special mention to Tapsee who is very convincing as the drama queen Anita. Om Prakash's cinematography is commendable, and combined with Sreekar Prasad's editing, produces an interesting output. Director Vishnu Vardhan, known for his stylish film-making, best seen in Billa and Sarvam, gives us nothing less than usual in Arrambam.

But given all that, Arrambam is your usual "revenge+mass+social message" story, oomphed with a lot of glitz. Beyond the fact that the film contains nothing new, the film's screenplay is haphazard, rising and falling throughout the runtime, and the movie reminds us a bit of the Travolta-Jackman starrer Swordfish. Yuvan Shankar Raja's background score enhances the visual treatment, though the album is forgettable and songs also act as pace dampeners through the film.

Arrambam, is a treat for Thala fans, but if you are regular movie person, this is nothing more than the regular.

Aditya Baskaran