Pattathu Yaanai

Director Boopathy Pandian is known to deliver comedy based entertainers and when Santhanam comes aboard his story, it’s akin to gliding on a well practiced terrain giving the audience a fun time at the theatres. In Pattathu Yaanai (PY) produced by Michael Rayappan for Global Infotainment, Vishal joins the director after their last outing Malaikottai. Pattathu Yaanai also becomes special, for here is where, Action King Arjun’s daughter Aishwarya makes her on-screen debut.

These days when there is Santhanam, he takes charge of the opening scenes and Pattathu Yaanai is also no exception. It is also interesting to watch the intro scene of a hero without much fanfare; Vishal just surfaces into the scene without any hype or hoopla.

The story is as old as the hills; it is about how an ordinary person is forced into things that he may not otherwise venture and the offshoot of such event is all Pattathu Yaanai about. However, if you are that type who would expect a correlation between the title and the film, PY does not give you that till the end.

Comedy serves its purpose however much mindless it can be. Example is the scene towards climax when John Vijay is constantly being harassed by a call from a call taxi driver and the cascading events.

Some dialogues like “color Xerox edutha godzila maadhiri” and “ammavukku heart attack vandha kooda, doctorukku missed call koduppanga” bring the roof down.

The story travels on a predictable turf most of the time but for a nano twist just before the interval block. In other places, it is quite evident that the screen play wanders around in many directions. The biggest drawbacks of PY are the cliched flashback sequences and over the top villains.

Vishal has sincerely delivered what is expected from him. If you were to expect Vishal to showcase his six pack abs, you would be disappointed but the twist in the tale comes from the villain who removes his shirt to flaunt his chiseled torso. Action scenes though well choreographed, offers nothing new. More you see Vishal, more you would realize that here is one talented action hero who has not been fully utilized by directors till date.

Aishwarya Arjun looks emaciated but fits into her docile role. Pattathu Yaanai is an apt vehicle for the debutante and there is not much for her to demonstrate in the department of histrionics. There is a big line-up of supporting cast in the name of John Vijay, Murali Sharma, Seetha, Patti Mandram Raja, Mayilsamy, Jagan and many more. Of the list, John Vijay shines through his unique voice modulation and body language.

Santhanam rules in the first half but is missing in action in 2^nd half. The actor has improvised on his dialogue delivery and body language as the son of ‘Poongavanam’ in PY and has worked out well. For a change, there are no double innuendoes and women-teasing dialogues from him. His hairstyle is also different in PY. Usually, in Santhanam’s movies, it is he who would take others for a ride but in PY, he is at the receiving end most of the time. In fact, in second half, the villains also double up as comedians and fill up the void left by Santhanam.  

Thaman’s music satisfies the requisites of the film. ‘Enna Oru Enna Oru Azhagiyada’ and ‘Twenty-Twenty’ are good listens. Other tracks are just about ordinary.

Pattathu Yaanai would appeal to audience who would just want to come to watch a film without expecting much. In short the film does not promise much and hence does not disappoint much too.

Sonna Puriyadhu

ust about a month or so after the release and subsequent success of Thillu Mullu, Shiva is back to delight his fans with another of his typical comedy movies. The core team of Sonna Puriyathu, comprising director Krishnan Jayaraj, cinematographer Saravanan and music director Yathish Mahadev are new and Shiva felt happy introducing them to the industry.

Pre-release, the Sonna Puriyathu (SP) team had promised a light hearted entertainer which had no lofty intentions of delivering serious messages to society.

In SP, Shiva plays a unique dubbing artist who loathes marriage and leads a happy-go-lucky existence with his buddies. Buying a posh Volkswagen vehicle is his only motto in life for some trivial reason. But like 99% of other Indian movies, our hero has to fall in love with a girl and walk hand-in-hand with her, before the end credits roll.

Here, the romance isn’t the conventional ‘boy chases girl’ kind, but one which is kick-started by Shiva’s mother through a traditional marriage alliance.

Shiva oozes charm and makes us smile for whatever he does on screen. Such is his charisma! The scenes showing Shiva dubbing for Chinese action films along with his friend, are truly hilarious. He is in full flow in these scenes and even dubs for a little ‘monkey romance’ episode. The little references to Chennai 28 and Thamizh Padam are nice nostalgic trips down memory lane. Shiva’s ‘poker-faced’ dialog delivery style is his USP and his directors know it all too well. Also, watch out for his ‘Rosa Hai Dosa Hai’ Hindi song.

Vasundhara Kashyap has a sizable role and pulls it off pretty well. She must be hoping that SP proves to be a stepping stone for her career as a lead actress.

The actors who play the friends do a neat job with the fat young man given prominence. Sam Anderson’s cameo will surely leave you laughing. Such is his dancing prowess.

Vathsala Rajagopal as the tech-savvy Ipad toting grandmother gets a few entertaining lines while Mano Bala plays another of his quintessential roles. Meera Krishnan is another typical Tamil cinema mom who wants her son to get married at any cost. Gangai Amaran and Aarthi also do their parts in little cameos.

In all, though Sonna Puriyathu really peters out towards the end, if you are a fan of Shiva’s brand of comedy, it might just be the movie for you this weekend.

Maryan

Ace ad filmmaker Bharathbala makes his Tamil feature film debut with Maryan, which sees the return of Dhanush to Tamil films after a sizable hiatus post 3. With the best possible technical crew assisting the director, Maryan comes with the promise of delivering great music and visuals. Maryan also continues the recent love affair that Tamil cinema seems to be having with the state’s coastal areas.

The trailer gave us the perfect gist of the tale with elements like love, separation, struggle, survival and hope being the pivotal emotions. We have to admit that the movie is exactly what the trailer led us to believe.

Maryan is a spirited young man who shares a deep bond with the sea and calls himself the ‘Prince of the Ocean’ as that is where he plies his trade and earns his livelihood in an adventurous manner. Circumstances surrounding his lady love Panimalar, force him to seek employment as a construction worker in Sudan. Just as he is about to return home, things take a turn for the worse.

Will the power of Maryan’s love for Panimalar cross geographical boundaries and prove to be his elixir?

The movie’s pace is leisurely all the way and the director might have deliberately slowed it down for the audience to feel the intensity of the emotions longer. The first half is mostly used to set up the deep bond between Maryan and Panimalar and whether this bond can withstand all the pain and suffering, is what the second half narrates.

Marc Koninckx’s visuals are poetic and out-of-this-world as he has fully exploited the wide visual canvas that Bharathbala has offered him. You might be reminded of Kadal and Neerparavai though, as the setting is the same.

A.R.Rahman has used the tunes of the magical ‘Enga Pona Raasa’ and ‘Kadal Raasa Naan’ prominently as part of the movie’s background score and this will resonate in your heart, long after the show is over. The wizard has brought his A-Game for the movie’s BGM score. His songs for the movie need no further mention but their visual treatment is mostly similar due to the repetitive situations and surroundings.

Dhanush has mastered pain and suffering on screen and he has apparently gone through an extraordinary physical struggle for the second half. His emotional prowess is displayed in the scenes when he mourns his dear friend’s loss, during his lovelorn phone calls with Panimalar and when he overcomes his starvation with an imaginary feast of seafood. When he bursts out and expresses how workers such as him are impoverished and helpless, you can feel his agony. Expect more awards to knock at the star’s doorstep.

His looks don’t have continuity at times and his hairstyle undergoes a noticeable change even within the same scene. The long production duration of Maryan shows.

Parvathy Menon is all oomph and looks really attractive in authentic native costumes. She is a terrific actress and shows her emoting range in Maryan. Her chemistry with Dhanush is really intimate and adds a lot of depth to the movie.

Among the support actors, Appukutty and Jagan have their moments as Maryan’s close friends while Uma Riyaz Khan is too loud and boisterous. The African villains are over-the-top and their modus operandi isn’t too logical and reasonable.

Ultimately, there is no questioning the crew’s hard work and the lead cast’s outstanding work. Maryan might not appeal to the common man seeking unadulterated entertainment but it is worth a trip to the theater nevertheless, for the very reasons mentioned above.

Singam 2

Hari’s Singam was about an honest small town police officer who is an embodiment of all virtues and values. He loved his Khaki more than anything else. And he operated within the indigenous shores to nab criminals and weeded out unwanted elements of society and to a large extent he remained a local domicile. In Hari’s Singam 2, the honest cop expands his horizons to bring peace to his place.

From the word go, Singam 2 clearly establishes that it’s fulcrum is only action and the quantity of romance, sentiment and comedy that occupied equal proportion in Singam is less here. The film opens up with an item number of Anjali with a vigilant Suriya who also keeps her company in waltz but conveys to the audience that he is a man on a different mission.

Director Hari adheres to all his usual ingredients from music to method of action scenes to the cavalcade of four wheelers to the structuring of sequences. He is known to string the various elements of commercial cinema viz. romance, action, sentiment and music in an entertaining fashion and he does the same in Singam 2 too with a racier screenplay that gives a lot of scope for action.

Suriya shoulders the film big time. The sincerity and dedication of this artist is something that needs to be lauded. Suriya with his dialogue delivery, eye expressions, body language and live energy has redefined screen presence! What a show! The biggest challenge of doing an action packed ‘mass’ role is not to over do it, as its a very delicate thin line to cross. Suriya in Singam 2 pulls it off with consummate ease.

The actor brings in a majestic and a respectable color to the police attire and his dexterity over action sequences is remarkable. Dialogues like “appa amma solra pechai kekkaama vera yaar pechai keppanga” when mouthed by Suriya brings out the earnestness of the statement. The efforts the actor has put in to his dancing is also visible with the ‘Singam dance’.

The rain fight in front of Suriya’s house, revved up by DSP’s RR, Suriya taking charge as Deputy Superintendent of Police, Thoothukudi and Suriya making the first arrest of Danny are all power packed sequences.

Hansika is effective and her role is meaningful and integral to the plot. Anushka is charming and has screen space in the second half. Santhanam is an enjoyable addition to Singam 2 and his sequences livens up the proceedings be it in the Arabian Kudirai episode, the Viswaroopam Kamal sequence or the Kadhal Vandhale scene. He makes us ask for more of him in the film.

There is a long list of ensemble in Singam 2. Mukesh Hari and Rahman as the key antagonists supported by Naan Kadavul Rajendran deliver neatly. Danny Sapani, the London based artist as the international drug dealer is fearsome initially but tapers down towards the end. Sankarabaranam Vishwanath also makes a cameo.

Music director Devi Sri Prasad soothes the audience with a melodious ‘Puriyavillai’ number. Rest of the tracks sound like an extension of the earlier enterprise. Kannukkule number suffers from wrong placement. Cinematographer Priyan neatly captures the Tuticorin and the South African soils and the car chase sequence in Durban has been done well. V.T Vijayan and Jay, the editor duo have worked in tandem with Hari to keep the proceedings pacy.

The predictable nature of the plot and the climax could well be the downers of this otherwise well packed action entertainer.

To sum it all, with Hari’s racy screenplay and Suriya’s terrific screen personality, Singam 2 strikes big time. Mass masala guaranteed !