Thuppaakki(2012 Tamil film) - one of the best movies of A.R.Murugadoss after Ramanaa(Ghajini still takes a back seat )

Poster design, trailer & the initial expectation:

For the first time A.R.Murugadoss collaborates with VIjay & Santosh Sivan for his Thuppaakki. When I saw the poster design, I was not that impressed as it looked just like any other poster design with Vijay having pistols in 2 hands.Even the same happened when the other poster (inspired from Richard Gere's movie) was released with Vijay carrying Kajal(wearing army cap) in his hand.Even when the trailer was released, I was quite impressed with the music & cinematography of Santosh Sivan, but I was quite nervous as it should not be one more dud like 7aam arivu


Storyline & its legacy::

Story line is a one liner. A hero/protoganist's effort in stopping the terrorist attacks along with this workforce.But this movie differs from the way Murugadoss has dealt with his screenplay & a acceptable execution.
There are many movies that dealt with Terrorism, TO name a few, I could remember Kuruthipunal aka Drohi omspired from Drohkaal , Black Friday, Aamir, Mumbai Meri Jaan,  I love India(Sharathkumar starrer), Terrorist (directed by Santosh Sivan),Wednesday/Unnai Pol Oruvan, Roja & Dilse(both being Maniratnam's flick)and not to leave a series of Vijaykanth's movie. Having Wednesday being an emotional reflection/outburst of a common man as an exception, I remember no other movie in Indian cinema has come up with depicting/portraying the practical solution to clean the terrorism.
Here comes one more Anti-terrorism movie. But A.R.Murugadoss's Thuppaaki dealt with eradicating the terrorist's attack in a very innovative, passionate & in a entertaining way.. Murugadoss doesnot promises to eradicate terrorism, but has has proposed an idea to cut the wings of terrorists and deactivate them. He in fact came back from who he was in Ramanaa which I feel is his all time best & one of Greatest movie ever made by him.

Jagdish(Vijay) from Indian Army comes to Mumbai on a vacation along with his Army camp mates. He encounters Nisha(Kajal) in a Prospective bridal meeting arranged by his parents & he intially gets deceived by her looks & rejects & then again gets attracts when he learns that Nisha is a modern girl with modern outlook & their love scenes are skillfully placed as a cool side of the Jagdish who is romantic & funny. Now initially say for 20 minutes murugadoss lets audience to conceive the lead roles Jagdish & nisha as a breezy starter. It is after first 20 minutes, the movie takes a serious path & we get to know the other face of Jagdish who is in a mission to stop the attacks from Terrorists in Mumbai. Then we get to see both serious racy scenes of Jagdish's mission with some cool romantic scenes & the movie ends on a positive note with A.R.Murugadoss's Dedication to Indian Army.

Characterization:

Vijay as Major/Secret Agent: Jagdish:

Terrorism has a big network & selective encounters can't help in getting to the roots & removing them. A.R.Murugadoss applied his emotional intelligence in framing & building the protagonist character & role very effectively. Character being evolved & built from Secret agent role Come veteran in Indian Army. Probably Only guys with this terrific combo can nail the terrorists along with the roots as they are damn good in planning & tracking the move of the opponent being a grandmaster & also good runners,swimmers(as described by antagonist in a scene) take huge risks & least bothered about their life when it comes to saving their country.
Vijay for a change has turned out an attempt in playing a subtle role although we get to watch his cliched acting as he used to do in his previous flicks. Vijay as usual does some awesome dance numbers & does some great stunts. What makes difference is vijay gets to portray his stunts in a very realistic manner & also Murugadoss has skillfully made sure that the role has some necessary barriers to limit the over acting expressions of Vijay as Murugadoss seem to have diverted the focus of audience in viewing the scene rather than Vijay's expression. Vijay might not be a method actor which was & is evident from his looks & body languages which is not changed except a french beard. Had he came up with ARMY hair cut & Commando's body language, it would have been more better, Murugadoss seems to have lived with it. But Vijay managed to carry his role very decently & surprisingly Vijay's Hindi is also too good. Vijay can be now proud of this movie & this movies easily enters into VIjay's all time best movies. A nice job by Vijay. I can say this inspite of not being a fan of Vijay. Thanks to Murugadoss for getting away from punch dialogues which is seen in vijay's other movies. To me it was like seeing Rajini in Thalapathy breaking all the cliched factors of Vijay's movie & at the same time using Vijay's Strengths. No offense I meant to see the difference in the treatment of actors. otherwise Vijay is no Rajini anyways.


Kajal as Nisha(Boxer Nisha as she introduces herself in a scene)

Nisha is a modern girl, passionate boxer & often comes across with a dilemma in choosing her life partner & takes some time to come to conclusion & then strucks with Jagdish after weighing various parameters.
I felt Kajal has done her part in a very decent way as she could not surpass her performance as her character has nothing to offer. Her hour glass & solidly built physique loosely fits for a boxer although is portrayed in a very few scenes, She dances well in songs, wears some nice costumes, carries them well,  able to give sensible reactions when needed & cries where ever necessary. what ever it is.  Kajal was fun to watch & much needed as a cream layering for this action movie as we like to have a dessert in a spicy feast.


Murugadoss's  Awesome Story , Screenplay & Direction:

From the first till end, all we get to see is Murugadoss's direction. Terrorism might not be a burning issue in Tamilnadu, but a serious concern in Mumbai and various other parts of India. so Murugadoss has selected mumbai as a backdrop & roped Santosh sivan to capture the scenes. Murugadoss seems to have got glimpses of Mumbai when making Hindi version of Ghajini & scripted this movie. Murugadoss has introduced Sleeper cells terms to Audience which is not much known to common man. He also lets the characters to speak Hindi & English to maintain the realism. In Ramanaa Murugadoss told about the long term ACF network fostered by Protagonist as a solution to eradicate corruption and  bribery. similary Murugadoss seems to have applied his practical thought in nailing down the roots of terrorists and cutting their wings & has worked out well. He himself  has subconsciously placed a scene in Ghajini where a group of jawans in army save asin from kidnappers in the train. Now he has dedicated this movie to Indian Army thereby completing his long lost connection with Indian Army. We dont get to see any glimpse of Army scenes, Murugadoss tactfully tells the passion & patriotism of Indian Army with dialogues of Jagdish when he narrates what his fellow service man went through when trapped in earlier scene. Murugadoss has not tried to be over realistic by keeping commercial items away as he accepts the commercial elements & lives with it along with his signature style.

A wonderful story and Screenplay by Murugadoss with  a decent execution in his direction. I wish if he sticks to his core & original ideas like this going forward.


Harris Jayaraj Music:
I loved the background music , especially theme music when Jagdish is on mission. I also loved all the songs as it suited the mood & had a variety with some catchy & hummable tunes. Google google had a lot of attraction to pick one of them. A nice peice of work by HJ. He also has managed to get the rendition of Vijay's voice after quite a long time in Google google.song & has come out well.

Santosh Sivan's Cinematography::
We have seen his work in many movies mostly being off beat & semi classic ones. Thuppaakki being commercial main stream movie has nothing to offer this legend, but we could get a feel of Santosh Sivan's signature touch in few scenes. Since I was completely diverted with the scenes, I could not compeletely notice the work of Cinematography & editing. I felt it complemented the movie effectively without any doubt.


Overall I feel A.R.Murugadoss's Thuppaaki starring Vijay & Kajal might not be a classic movie or a great movie.But definitely a nice entertaining movie & adding to lists of one of the best movie of Murugadoss & Vijay to their list which was due for both since long time. But being a fan of A.R.Murugadoss I expect a lot from him although I'm happy that he has came out from the hang over of 7aam arivu & I'm Longing to see a classic like Ramanaa in his next works. Ghajini might be his classic that brought him much fame with his hindi version with his excellent direction, but the story and screenplay was not very original & native as in Thuppaakki. So Thuppakki takes front seat when compared to Ghajini. Well done Murugadoss
I do have a lot of logical questions, but I felt it can be ignored considering Vijay's presence & murugadoss seems to have left it as One man show at the same time making his signature style of direction.

Thanks to Kalaipuli s Thanu for producing this movie which was also a due form his side for a long time after a classic action flick Kaakka Kaakka

-Ethirajulu Bros

Salt N Pepper(2011 Malayalam movie) - A simple & fun movie to watch out

These days we see a lot of innovative movies in terms of its story, narration, technicalities & the treatment in terms of direction & characterization.
Salt N Pepper stands unique in terms of both story, narration & Characterization.
Movie's opening title credits proves that food plays a vital role in the movie. Probably
this is the first time that I get to see such a title credits.

What is this movie about?

Its about 2 food lovers Kalidasan(played by Lal) a bachelor working in Archelogy Dept  & Maya(played by Shweta Menon)  spinster working as a dubbing artist who are in their mid life crisis & in persuit of something which is missing in their lives. They get to converse by a Phone call done mistakenly & what happens later is the story told with fun & classy taste. Amidst we have kalidasan's nephew Manu(Asif) an youngster coming to town  in search of a job who is a fun lover & likes to flirt with good looking girls & stays with Kalidasan & helps Kalidasan in his lady love interest. Then comes Meenakshi(Mythili) again a cousin of Maya in a false representing meeting gets to meet each other & rest is fun.

Director's Characterisation:

Kalidasan
The extent that Kalidasan has passion for food is shown in his Flashback scenes & in his story narration about the making of multilayered  cake with its history  which is the high light. Probably this is is the first time that I get to see such a unique scene.(Lastly I remember a similar kind of scene where mammootty tastes a food in a hotel & heads to the kitchen to find out if she is his
same friend). Person's life is filled with food, drinks,Historical artifacts collected  until manu comes down to stay with him. A nice potrait of mid life crisis.

Maya
Maya is both a food lover & Great food maker. Director takes his own time in establishing gradually to get a feel of characters. When she is not happy, she fails but when she is happy, she just rocks in what she does. thereby depicting the philosophy of life & happiness. 

Manu
Its only after Manu comes, story leads us to curiousity & becomes more interesting adding fun part to Kalidasan's Life and to the viewers too.

Meenakshi,
Although not much character insight was depicted who is a partner in crime gels well in the scenes where she encounters Manu.

Lal & Vijayaraghavan
We get more of a mundane & neutral mood in the scenes when these 2 interact until the last scene revealing the seriousness & sweet part of Vijayaraghavan.

Lal & Asif
Great partnership. Director infact carefully used both of them designing a contrast characters & its their partnership which moves the movie to the forward. Lal seems to have performed effortlessly, yet adding full sense to the character he played anybody who saw Apoorva Raagam which has different face of Asif can see the difference in his expressions & looks in this movie.

Lal & Shwetha
Scenes are dealt with matured sense. Adding the French story narration really worked making perfect sense to the plot.

Asif & Mythili
I loved this scenes although the sequences were silly. Nice & cool acting by Asif & Mythili

Actually I do have some questions for director especially the probability of love happening to both the couples in the situations that they are put up, but I think the movies is all about those
funny never imaginable situations which adds more excitement to life and the movie viewers

I loved the background song "Aanakallan" played for manu's scnenes & unexpectedly played at the end as surprise with some peppy & cool looks of Shwetha menon. It worked for me. Also background song for Lal & Shwetha is simple although not craving for attention. I loved the locations of the duet song between Manu & Meenakshi. DOP has explore many angles
with crane shots.I loved Production design of the kalidasan's house & lovely Cinematography.

Not sure if this movie would have a repeat value.
But I enjoyed this movie when I watched one time.

This movie deserves an appreciation for its unique plot, story narration & characterization with sensible touch & fun. A sweet movie.

Aval Appadithaan (1978 Tamil movie) - Movie ahead of its times & a true cult classic

We call a movie a cult classic for various reasons. Few of them are first of its kind,Few of them are ahead its times & are not accepted at their times, but then accepted widely and appreciated later.

I was proud to be an Indian from tamil origin after seeing this movie to say that we have more cult
classics in tamil right from early ages of movies. Its just that most of today's people aren't aware

Aval appadithaan is a movie about the contemporary society which tells about the various views about woman's liberty. Hold on!! Now that doesn't mean that this is some chick flick or any woman centric one like other cliched ones.thas where the director is different from other junkies who take movies more seriously & make it over dramatic with preachy attitude.

First shot itself tells the boldness of the director & what kind of style is adopted by director in terms of handling this script. Director just went ahead & broke the cliched means of story telling. Full of a realistic feel that you get through out the movie.

Story & Characeterisation
Here is the story in a nutshell without spoiling the interest of never watched audiences.

Arun(The meaning of the name Arun is 'Rust-coloured; red; passionate') a documentary filmmaker, genuine hearted, straight forward, respects woman's liberty. well educated & cultured is making a movie about how women are exploited & the various point of views. Always looking forward to make some progressive change through this work. Serious & Aggressive, but shows mostly in his work & walks the talk.
Director has been careful in naming the character.
As a matter of fact there is a scene in which arun says that "whats wrong if I'm a communist" to manju. Before that we see Manju saying with his irritating tone that "She hates red" for which kamal gives a sarcastic reply "that might be a problem with the eyes"

Arun's friend on the other hand is an ad agency boss, sub urban youngster, womaniser, male chaunistic, sarcastic, very straight forward, least bothered about woman's liberty & has his own opinions about the facts of some which can not be denied & a happy go lucky fellow who takes life as it comes. I hardly remember if rajini's character name was revealed in the entire movie.
Probably director might have thought that is irrelevant as we see many guys who has almost the same opinion & outlook towards life and woman.

Here comes Manju
Manju(one of its meaning is "a feel that cannot be expressed") is the central character working as an art director under Arun's friend(Ad agency boss). synching to her name, she is the one character who had transformed from a regular sweet girl to a cynical, sarcastic, very bold in expressing his opinion & views, male hater because of her bitter past that he had both with men & women. Most of the times unpredictable

Its about the chronicles of various moments when Arun gets to meet Manju through his friend who refers Manju to help arun in his Documentary & here is Arun who is intrigued by her attitude & way of behaviour.
Story just moves forward & more of a character study, confrontation, revelation of the true facts
vs the idealism that is being practised which is still in the world of illusion. thereby leaving no answer for the
objective of Arun & Manju & the missing thing that they are looking for & in still in persuit.

Rajini & kamal

This is the most interesting part of the movie where two contrasting characters have a friendly chat
in which most of the times Rajini is a speaker and kamal being a listener who is calm, poised & keeps thinking about the root cause of the behavior of manju & at the same time
sensitive & responds to Rajini stating his view as a counter back. Mostly the topic is about Manju & women in general.
Director used Rajini very well giving a philosophical touch towards the realistic & vulgar (for that time) dialogues without bothering about the Censor Board. We get to hear more English words in this interesting conversation between them. There is a dialogue where Arun calls his friend "A Prejudice Ass" in English. All I would say is Directors has got real guts.Never the less to mention about the performance. I'm a die hard fan of kamal & rate him as one of the finest actors in the world & undoubtedly the best actor in India for various reasons.But I frankly felt that Rajini simply outbeats kamal in most of the scenes Through his style, dialogue delivery Although Rajini plays more of a supporting role & gets less screen presence compared to kamal..
& Thanks to Rudriah for the characterisation.

Director simply establishes the character & its attitude through his dialogues brilliantly.
there is scene where Rajini says " Rasikka pada vendiyadhu, rusikka pada vendiyadhu rendudhaan, onnu madhu innonnu maadhu,  pirappilayum sari, pazhakkavazhakkathilayum sari, padukkai arayilum sari".

This plot is the USP for the movie

Kamal & Sripriya
Well here in this stage, we get to see almost an equal space for both kamal & Sripriya. This is where you get to see the character study, revealation, confrontation & especially a debate kind of conversation as most of the times Manju would start getting cynnical about all the things that she sees & handles. At a stage you would start feeling that these both are made for each other & you are looking forward to see them both to sort their issues & live together.

Rajini & Sripriya
Almost most of the scenes would be in high voltage as conversation is between aggressive characters who just pours their views without bothering about the outcomes. But director has brilliantly dealt with this as we see both the sides falling. Time when Arun's friend shows his bossy attitude and the at the same time frankly tells about his wish to bed with Manju & thereby falling shamelessly before a Rock like Manju.Sripriya just rocks through out the movie & equally scores with Kamal & Rajini. By nature her voice has that essence of sarcasism which just bursts out in free fall & adds more intensity to her role.

Director seems to have a great control over the scenes with the help of Cinematographer. Shots tries to show the mood the characters & came out well. Although giving the limitations of monochromatic version which can just show either brighter mood throgh white, sober,trance mood with black & a surreal,sarcastic mood through grey.

Three soothing songs from Ilayaraja "Uravugal thodarkadhai", "Vaazhkkai oru odam" & "Panneer pushpangale". Since all of of them are sung either to sooth Manju in her various stages or sound of  manju's inner feelings, song has a sober mood in which Manju is still living & trying to hide from that.
Uravugal Thodarkadhai is my favourite. Thanks to Gautam Menon to reboot this song for today's audiences in Vaaranam Aaayiram which might have made many music lovers to dig out this song and its historical stamp that it carries.

Superb Climax & well justified again by the implicit expressions and dialogues.Arun always talks about the woman's liberation & ends up in almost a contrast character to whom he is gonna spend his rest of life. He doesn't want to be in a cliched world,  but ground reality which makes him to handle the cliched ones is inevitable & Arun's story ends up some thing like that - cliched. As the title says "Aval appadithaan" you see the never ending answer to Manju's persuit of life.

Almost all the scenes are my favorite & picking some would make me guilty.

I plead all the fellow movie goers to watch this movie. This movie deserved more acclaim.

My Salute to Director Rudraiah for a bold movie in 1978 & at the same time with true & frank
approach towards dealing with social issue without a preachy attitude. A true Cult classic!! I enjoyed this thoroughly. No questions for Rudraiah.