Billa

Being an Ajith fan, let me try to write an unbiased review of "Billa 2007" which hit theatres two days after the birthday of the real Billa and more than two decades after the release of the original Billa. To begin with, the whole crew of the movie has to be lauded for providing such a visual extravaganza new to Tamil Cinema. Everyone knew even before the movie shooting began that Ajith was the perfect choice for acting as Billa in the remake, but after the movie release, one will also whole-heartedly agree that Vishnuvardhan was the perfect choice for director too. He has pleased Ajith fans by presenting Thala at his stylish best ever. One wonders if the director too became an ardent Ajith fan while shooting the movie. Right from the introduction scene Ajith shines as the new look Billa. However, the number of ramp-walk sequences with Ajith advertising Rayban and Raymond could have been reduced.

The story need not be reviewed for a movie which is a remake of a remake. Vishnuvardhan cannot honestly say that his movie drew no inspiration from SRK's Don. A lot of visuals remind you of Don, but the story remains consistent with the original Billa and has no major twists as in Don 2006. This is a minor disappointment, but after seeing such a stylish movie one must realise it would not have been without reason that the director didn't introduce the Don twist, or something similar. By remaking a Rajni movie, he had to make sure he didn't hurt the sentiments of Rajni fans by deviating from the original plotline. SRK could afford to do it, as Amitabh is not as huge a demi-god as Rajnikanth is considered. Having said all this, Billa 2007 sure surpasses SRK's Don in terms of music, style and technology. Well, not that it's a pen drive here instead of a CD or a diary, but Nirav Shah's cinematography stands out in several shots. The stunt sequences deserve mention too, notably the car drift-chase scene which has been directed brilliantly, what with Ajith himself doing the stunts having been a Formula-3 racer.


In the acting department, Prabhu and Rahman play their roles in a dignified manner, and you don't have to guess who will turn out to be the villain. The heroines - Nayantara and Namita have not been given considerable screen space, naturally, but they are as slick as and infact more glamorous than Priyanka and Isha respectively. Nayantara's intro is as good as Ajith's and Namita's character even has a twist associated.

Yuvan Shankar Raja's music must be hailed as one of the biggest highlights of the movie, be it in the songs or in the background score. The theme music has been composed in so stylish a manner that it adds more value to Ajith's looks and style whenever he walks on the screen. "My Name is Billa" and "Sei" have been picturised wonderfully, each of them following a unique style which was not in any of the older versions.

To sum it up, Billa 2007 will be a trendsetter for Tamil Cinema in terms of filming techniques, quality and style and will no doubt be a very significant milestone in Ajith's career.

Om Yawnti Om

Picture this. Om Shanti Om at PVR Bangalore 10 pm show, Even before the movie starts, in fact, just when the censor certificate is shown on the screen, a 2-year old girl right at my left starts crying so loudly and keeps crying in spite of being pampered by her parents. I had to resist this terrible urge to comment out loud, "Abhee picture shuru nahi hua hai mere dost." I resisted, but nobody could resist the urge to laugh. Perhaps similar thoughts were on their minds too. The parents of the kid could have no shanti during the movie, and wisely took the kid outside the hall during the first half and they themselves left during the interval, saying "Om Shanti Om". Let's talk of the film now. It is a well-made spoof of Bollywood making the best use of SRK himself, the biggest star in Bollywood now. Farah Khan, the director and the writer, Mayur Puri have shown a good understanding of Bollywood, both of the olden days and of today. The dialogues are witty at several places.

The first half of the movie is loaded with humour, be it the scenes where Om(SRK) and his mom(Kirron Kher) exchange dialogues intentionally cinematic, or the scene where Om in his attempt to woo Shanti, becomes a south indian superstar(no points for guessing who) and performs daredevil stunts interspersed with lines like "Enna Rascala" and "Mind it". That particular sequence is rip-roaringly funny. If the first half is a spoof of the 80s Bollywood, the 2nd half starts off as a spoof of today's Bollywood, making fun of item numbers, of ambitious young directors who want to make the hero entirely disabled, and of Award functions that too with the help of many of the industry's bigwigs including Abhishek Bacchan and Akshay Kumar, making fun of themselves. It is indeed a great achievement for a choreographer-cum-director to bring more than 40 huge stars to feature in a single film, though not under the same roof at the same time. The song "Deewangi" serves this purpose, but doesn't really fit in the movie. The last half-hour of the movie is gripping, Arjun Rampal doing one of his better acts in his career and Deepika looking spooky as hell.

Shahrukh Khan is his brilliant charming self in the movie, first as Om Prakash Makhija and later as Om Kapoor, shortly OK. Deepika Padukone is stunning and is bound to have several more fans after this movie. The role of a beautiful actress Shantipriya fits her like a shoe. She does look awkward in a few dance sequences which is mainly due to her height. Otherwise she has carried herself with aplomb. Shreyas Talpade has played a decent role in the film as Om's friend, Pappu. Two or three of the songs are noteworthy. "Ajab si" tops it all, absolutely. When KK sings "Dil ko bana de jo patang saansein ye teri woh hawaaein hein", one cannot help wondering how his voice lends depth to the lyrics. I personally couldn't determine the reason my chest expanded when listening to these lyrics - whether it was due to my lungs filling with air or my heart filling with emotions. The final song, "Dastaan" is wonderfully picturised in a theatrical manner, and the tune is good too, leaving an impression after the film's over.

So much for the positives of the film. It is a commercial entertainer, but has several lapses and inanities in the screenplay and the storyline. Stunning as much Deepika is, the chemistry between the lead pair doesn't work out that well on screen, naturally. But one must say Farah Khan has improved in this aspect - considering the awful chemistry between Zayed Khan and Amrita Rao in Main Hoon Na. Overall the movie starts off and ends well, but in between it is a huge yawn. Om Yawnti Om.

Pollaadhavan

The latest sign of my little village Vellore developing is the renovation of two theatres or rather reconstruction of two theatres which can boast of standards as good as a Sathyam or a PVR. When I thought that the first movie I had to watch at one of the theatres this Diwali was Dhanush's Pollaadhavan, I didn't feel all that good. But after watching the movie, I had to admit it was "quite a good first movie to watch at the best theatre in town".

Pollaadhavan has no extraordinary storyline. Infact it is one of the very ordinary storylines of a regular rebellious youngster happening to face and ultimately win a battle against the atrocities of the city's gangsters. The storyline may be ordinary, but the screenplay is not, considering it is the debut movie of director Vetrimaaran. The central object of the movie's plot is not the hero but his bike, a Bajaj Pulsar. If Bajaj was a major sponsor for the movie, the movie has done great justice and more to the company. Infact after the movie's success, Bajaj dealers in Tamil Nadu could very well see more sales. Bikers will love this movie, but at the same time will heave a sigh of relief after the movie only if they find their bike where they left it in the stands, especially if it's a Pulsar.

The story is narrated by both the hero and the villain, which is a cinematic technique not new to Tamil Cinema(Remember Virumandi), but a technique well utilised in the movie. The plot doesn't revolve totally around Dhanush who initially is shown as a jobless vagrant who pays no heed to the rebukes of his father, but later on becomes more responsible and learns to respect his father, played by Malayalam actor Murali. The villains in this movie are not the normal kind, who are in the movie solely for the purpose of being beaten up by the hero. Their characterization, especially that of Selvam, played by Kishore adds more value to the movie. Not often do we see a Dada who knows and stands by his business ethics, somewhat a tribute to the legend of Vito Corleone. Daniel Balaji, of Kaakha Kaakha and Vettayadu Vilayadu fame has been utilised well, and his voice in the narrative has great depth.

The heroine, Divya Spandana, or rather "Kuthu Ramya", as we better know her does look more sensuous than in her last Tamil flick. The love track is not all that noteworthy save a few scenes like the shopping scene where the heroine chooses a bright orange coloured skirt, which Dhanush cannot understand how it appears attractive to her, and hence she doesn't buy it. This results in a huge mood-out for the heroine, which is settled after a long time only when Dhanush buys the same orange dress for her. The songs in the movie are one too many, but are worth being a part of the movie except the one that was in the "one too many". The pick of the lot is definitely "Engeyum Eppodhum" which looks so much better on the giant screen than on TV. Yogi B and whoever has done the music, either G.V.Prakash or Dhina have done a great job. This is one of the best remixes that have been made in Tamil.

'Pollaadhavan' has justified advertising Bajaj Pulsar by being 'Definitely Ahead' in the Diwali movies' race this year.

The Simpsons' Movie

Ever since I started watching The Simpsons, I've always believed the writers of the show are the wittiest people on Earth. After watching the movie, I had more reason to believe so. Who else can start parodies right from the appearance of the 20th Century Fox logo. And when Homer says at the start of the movie, after watching an Itchy and Scratchy movie in the theater, pointing to every member in the audience, "I can't believe we're paying to watch something we could see on TV for free! If you ask me, everyone in this theater is a big sucker! Especially, you!", one can't help but laugh out loud, and wonder how true that is, and be amazed at the nerve and sarcasm of the writer who wrote that. This was just a sign of how witty the things were gonna be throughout the movie. It was the best joke... SO FAR, as Homer would say in the movie.

The plot of the movie is a parody of several action films and at many places more than subtly critical of the U.S Government. The writers have understood the fact that fans of The Simpsons don't like it for the plot, but for the intelligent humor and the witticisms. However, since this is a big-screen movie that they are making which has to run over a length of one and a half hours, they needed a plot that can carry the movie to such a length. So it ends up being highly cinematic and partly loses the charm of the episodes. But this doesn't take any credit away from them. There were plenty of laugh-worthy moments in the movie for all sections of the audience. For the younger lot for whom it's just physical humor that's the attraction, there was Spiderpig walking under the ceiling. For the teens, there was Bart skateboarding naked across town in what was a very well animated sequence, taking enough care to hide Bart's willy for most of the sequence, and showing it for one split second, which was enough to evoke a collective roar of laughter from the audience. The scene that topped it all was the one where a robot faced with the task of defusing a bomb, succumbs to pressure and destroys itself. It was intelligent humour at its best. Screw Asimov's three laws. This is possibly what the future would be like.

The portrayal of the characters was good, but not exceptional in the movie, with Homer getting most of the screen time with his goofy nature and irresponsibility being highlighted too often. It must be appreciated that as many side-characters as possible were included in the movie. One of the best lines in the movie was The Comic Book Guy saying "I've spent my entire life doing nothing but collecting comic books... and now there's only time to say... LIFE WELL SPENT!" One significant sidekick who was missing was Sideshow Bob. He could have been given some screen space at all, if not none. Maybe he will be, in the sequel, which is shown to be Maggie's first word at the end of the movie. At the end of it all, it was a movie well worth spending money on, rather than downloading it illegally on the Internet, which Bart himself had to promise not to.

The Prestige!

"Every great magic trick consists of three parts or acts. The first part is called 'The Pledge'. The magician shows you something ordinary: a deck of cards, a bird or a man. He shows you this object. Perhaps he asks you to inspect it to see if it is indeed real, unaltered, normal. But of course... it probably isn't. The second act is called "The Turn". The magician takes the ordinary something and makes it do something extraordinary. Now you're looking for the secret... but you won't find it, because of course you're not really looking. You don't really want to know. You want to be fooled. But you wouldn't clap yet. Because making something disappear isn't enough; you have to bring it back. That's why every magic trick has a third act, the hardest part, the part we call 'The Prestige'."

This quote is all the more relevant to the making of the movie, than to the movie itself. The brilliance of Christopher Nolan lies in the fact that he has presented the movie itself as a great magic trick. The Prestige, the hardest part of the trick, is as hard to interpret as it would have been to conceive and present. The more you watch the last segment of the movie, the more interpretations you get with each time you see it, at least that's what the director intends you to. You should not be satisfied with being fooled. "Now you're looking for the secret... but you won't find it because you're not really looking. You don't really want to know the secret... You want to be fooled."

Among the many questions you are left pondering at the end of the movie, the one I consider the most important is "Was Borden a better magician than Angier?" My answer would be No. The director has let the viewer know the trick behind The Prestige of Borden, with no ambiguities about it, but what he has shown to be Angier's prestige is only meant to fool the viewer. And the average viewer wants to be fooled. He doesn't want to introspect anything beyond what the director(in this case, the magician) has shown him. If you have seen this movie and truly appreciate it you would prefer not to believe that the Transporter machine works, plainly because of the fact that the beauty of magic lies not in science but in clever deception, apart from the fact that a cloning machine is impossible, that too in the 1890s. Come to think of it - which magic trick used in the movie, or even otherwise employs scientific methods to achieve the means? Every magic trick is the fruit of shrewd deception on part of the trickster. Deception is the essence of magic, and is the essence of this movie, too. I do not wish to delve too much into the argumentative aspects of the movie, I just want to reaffirm my stand that a cloning machine cannot work, considering that the movie attempts to dignify the dirty tricks behind magic, and does it quite successfully. After watching this movie, one sure will develop a heightened opinion of the directorial skills of Christopher Nolan whose previous works include Memento and Batman Begins. This movie certainly is one of my all-time favourites.

Sivaji's da Boss!

"Style is the man himself." This quote can't apply apter to anybody but Rajnikanth. The top priority this June, of any die-hard Rajni fan in Tamil Nadu or worldwide, would have been to see his Thalaivar in his latest style-personified avatar, Sivaji the Boss, on the first day of its release in theatres. After watching the movie, the priority would have changed to watch it a few more times. Such is the charisma of the man. Shanker has given every Rajni fan a visual treat which none other than himself can give. All the hype surrounding the release of the movie with the greatest combo ever, has not gone unjustified. An obvious disadvantage with so much hype is that a viewer goes to the movie with amazing imaginations and great expectations, and expects these expectations to be justified. In the likely case that the movie falls short of his huge expectations, comes a blessing in disguise. Having watched the movie once, and his expectations now set in place, he is tempted or rather induced to watch the movie again to appreciate the many nuances present in the movie., which range from the technical brilliance achieved, the dialogues(which he most probably could not hear the first time), to every costume that Rajni wears and every gesture that he carries out with his own impeccable style. No wonder that the man himself has called Shanker the master director.

One could have various interpretations of the phrase "A master director." An Ayn Rand fan would call a director who never gives up his principles and constantly comes up with genuine works of art that satisfy his fans, as a master director. But, a Rajni fan would call a director who adjusts his directorial skills to suit Rajni's image and churn out a mega block buster, as a master director. In the former case, Shanker would not classify as a master director. But in the latter case, he comes out all trumps. It's the latter definition of a master director that Shanker has preferred and justifiably so, considering it's a Rajni movie, and the audience that he's catering to. One can only laugh at the guts of people who dump Sivaji as "Just Another Robin Hood story" For an egalitarian society, the world would always be in need of a Robin Hood, and who better to play Robin Hood in India, but Rajnikanth. Also, the theme of the movie is quite significant to the overall development of a nation, and if considered by the government seriously, it could lead to a much more prosperous India.

Coming back to the movie, one of the biggest pluses of the movie is the way the songs have been picturised. A.R.Rahman's music demanded with such authority that the songs be picturised extraordinarily, or else it would have been a visual disaster. Nothing close to that has happened and can happen in a Shanker movie, especially when Rajni is in it. The sets Thotta Tharani has come up with, and the lighting and camera work that has gone into the shooting, and the visually stunning Shreya(if you care to watch her in the songs), and of course Rajni's get-ups make the songs a strong reason to watch the movie at least 5 times in the theatres. One must say the editing work has been pretty remarkable, what with the delay in the release making the fans very impatient. Shanker has made it a point to cover all segments of the audience, be it those who appreciate comedy, or the families who appreciate sentiments and moral values, or those who are spellbound by gravity-defying stunts. Above all, he has quenched with the best potion the thirst of the universal lot who believe, or rather know that Rajni's style and class is inimitable. Sivaji is certainly the Boss in Kollywood for many more months to come.