Jun 26, 2022

VIKRAM - movie review

 

In the year 1986, Kamal Hassan acted in “Vikram” Tamil movie which was a failure. The plot of the film was adapted from a novel written by Sujatha with same name. The screenplay was written by Kamal Haasan and Sujatha. The film collapsed in the box office as its unrealistic climax was not accepted by the audience then, though it was the 100th film celebration of the popular star Kamal Hassan.

 



In the year 1986, Lokesh Kanagaraj was born, and turned to become a movie director from being a bank officer. His short films and proven track record in his 3 movies from the year 2017 was a great success. 

Logesh Kanagaraj being an adrent fan of Kamal Hassan's violent stunts and crying in dark.. inspired to use the title and make a movie in the year 2022,. 

“Vikram” (2022) released with massive promotions right across the globe and all over India as it was released in multiple languages...in Tamil it became a great success! (Second chance given for the movie to make money....though old...Kamal Hassan got a second chance to count his money and to buy house in Boat club instead of going to settle in USA. 

Vikram (2022) is a star studded movie was a dark thriller about drugs smuggling, cops, bad guys..guns and lots of killing, do not get me wrong. Everything about Vikram is good — except for Kamal Haasan. Why do you even need the man for this film? Why make a film with Kamal when you don’t even get to register and feel his presence? Why Vikram (1986) ? It could have been any other film. Of course, we get the logical reasoning behind using the brand Vikram. But does Kamal’s original film have any relevance to the new one? Absolutely not. You could have shown Kamal as an Agent and the film still would have worked big time. The new Vikram could have still been a standalone film where Amar (Fahadh Faasil who is absolutely terrific) carries on the legacy of Vikram, like in the James Bond movies. The open-ended climax hints at that possibility.

As fans of the original film and Kamal Haasan, you feel let down. The disappointment comes from the fact that Lokesh has failed to realise the true potential of his idol — both as an actor and action star.  Nevertheless, there is a lot to chew on.

“Vikram” has an unusual opening. Definitely unusual for a Kamal Haasan film. Commerically too… It begins right with ‘Pathala Pathala’ song, which feels like an afterthought that was inserted just for the sake of it. Except for this oddly-placed song, the film gets going and there is not a single wasted moment in the long-drawn first half. 

Lokesh must be as much a fan of Christopher Nolan as he is of Scorsese. A lot of scenes remind you of Nolan’s film. We, in fact, get a Tenet-like sequence and a Bane-like voiceover in this one. There are lots of references to masks and unmasking of identities. The man in-charge of this unmasking is Amar, who heads an uncounted team of Black Squads. They are assigned by the Police Department to investigate a series of high-profile murders in the department that leads to one man Santhanam (Vijay Sethupathi, who is, of course, terrific). Santhanam runs a drug empire. He faces the heat from a recent drug bust, which is a hark back to Kaithi. Anything more would spoil the fun.




There’s a certain taste, visual flavor and a certain style to the way he writes and directs. He accomplished this cinema experience with ease in the terrific Kaithi, that had the flavour of a wholesome Hollywood thriller. Like Speed on drugs. 

Vijay Sethupathi, on the other hand, is remarkable as Santhanam, helps the online sellers to sell all the old fashioned strips shirts….the real fun is when he takes the pills in between his teeth’s he gains the same power like Chota Bheem after eating laddoos…but at last he is also taking many peoples along with him to face the canon..

The usage of guns, canon can’t be compared to that of legendary efforts of KGF, which is far more superior and amazed us to the core…in this movie, the guns and canon are not as effective…the thrill factor of carrying the big machine is not like Kaithi or KGF..,missing the X factor!!! …nobody is finished with the massive bullets and canons as it been used many times, the child that was carefully carried by scarifying life’s to take away from the war field was bought again to the same place by Fahad Fazil??!!! Wondering why so? What’s the logic?!!! Wastage of bullets!!!

Funny is the entry of villain in the climax like school assembly… following the cliché by killing the person carries the bad news…come on boy. Its age old practices done already by Nambiyar in 70s…and even by Raghuvaran in 90s way too many times….when the crowd disperse…who is going to clean the corpse??!!

Let’s wait for the sequel….


Jul 2, 2021

First Half- Year 2021

It was felt that the first half of 2021 went very fast, as it was mixed with online and offline mode as the year started with positive vibe. Days were getting better from the deadly impact of Covid-19 right from March 2020 where everyone of us in the world though we might be the carrier of corona virus, washes out hands frequently, had kabasura kudineer, took vapor, eat healthy stuff...as all of us worried for developing symptoms of corona virus even for a sudden sneezing, slight throat pain or normal cough...fear was gripping all of us as there was no prescribed medicine for it...if got infected, hospitalization, if with slight symptoms then the quarantine periods were much worst with total isolation, and bed rest with strict diet and exercise but after November 2020...slowly regained the real positiveness in the Covid-19 as the cases in Tamil Nadu (India) dropped to low level and the situation getting into control, with full fledged routines getting back to normal in the hey days with the need to revamp the economy, it was lovely to start our usual way of living...going to office, schools for 10th and 12th re-opened and colleges with students in the campus, crowded buses and railway stations marked the return of normalcy ...along with the schedule of state assembly elections campaigns. 

Saddened by Rajinikanth's withdrawal from politics due to health reasons backed by possible effects of his fans been exposed to the Covid-19...Superstart Rajinikanth said no to politics, but election has to go on...as others candidates like Kamal Hassan were using helicopter, cars, bus, walking, talking and meeting people with their political mandate without much stern warning from the election commission. Though some were forcing the importance of SMS (Social distancing, Mask and Sanitizers) along with the crowded rallies and meetings..It was the need of the hour as the election has to happen as per the timeline given and all the TV channels were busy with the political debates and coverage of their political favorites. Not much about Covid-19 till the election news faded.

Meanwhile, Government of India has taken due care by giving free vaccines like Covidshield and Covaxin for people above 45 years..at least for the first dose...the duration of the second dose was extended from 4 weeks to12-16 weeks...not exactly satisfying the question whether this for shortage of vaccine or the advise from the professional medical body. As the surge in Covid-19 happened again from April - Central government has given the state government power to go for lock down / any measure as required to control the spread of Covid-19 - News about the shortage of bed, shortage of oxygen in the hospitals killed more people. The second wave affecting with full spree in Delhi, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and Madhya Pradesh. 


Around the world the vaccine has reduced the spread of Covid-19 as USA been successful in vaccinating and reducing the spread. European countries too has reduced the spread but still precious methods are followed as the mutated virus might need another booster vaccine. With the mutated virus..turning around as Delta plus variant getting a serious note for the future or so called third wave...!!!

Tamil Nadu Election results were declared and DMK came to power !!!

I personally met Mr.Udainidhi Stalin and congratulated him for his new endeavor as MLA,  seen him as the CEO / Director of Snow Bowling, Snow Housing with friendly, enthusiastic, administrative and great leadership skills. As his transformation from the low profile successful business man to kollywood producer, successful promising young actor and now as the new dawn for the political party is really a great journey.. he represented the common man..carried himself to newer heights with more responsibilities and duties along with his progression...I really admired him and wished him more success !!!

PS: There is no any political inclination in this meet





My favorite list of OTT - Lock down special January  - June 2021

- The Family Man (Season 1 & 2) https://www.imdb.com/title/tt9544034/ 

One of the best Hindi web series with super amazing script and action packed scenes, proven versatile actor Manoj Bajpayee aligned with wonderful direction by Raj & DK makes this series to see all the episode continuously...
  

Season 2 made it more interesting as it had more interesting characters with in depth virtues along with the Srilankan impact.



- Panchayat (Season 1)   

When a city-bred youth Abhishek Tripathi is forced to take up a job in a village called Phulera because he has no other option in hand, his new life and how he faces the situation along with his MBA - CAT exam preparation 



- Dhrishyam 2 (Malayalam movie)

The mega walk of George Kutty (Mohan Lal) with his clever moves made this crime drama a sensational hit....it carried the weight of Father as protector trope more thrilling...



- Kalki (Malayalam movie)

The power of police added with the charm of Tovino Thomas made this mass entertainer a great success.



Kilometre and Kilometre   https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7268736/

Following the good movies of Tovino Thomas is this one. in which Tivino Thomas as a poor village young man takes his bike to show around for the newly rich American traveler...added with interesting events...



- Middle class melodies (Telugu movie)
Brother of Vijay Deverkonda (Anand Deverkonda) acts as the young village boy who is fond of his Bombay Chutney and wants it to be world famous in his Guntur tiffin center.

- Playback (Telugu movie)

Something really different has to come from other place...yes this is the movie about the Tele conversation between a girl and boy but in different time zone, the girl is from 1993 and the boy is from 2019.

Though its inspired from the German Webseries Dark has lot of local flavor which is worth watching...





- Panchackaram (Tamil movie)  https://www.imdb.com/title/tt11493124/

Five youngsters with difference in their paths and personalities struck together with mystical book that turns their life into serious incidents makes it worth watching....





-Kalavu (Tamil movie) https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7257718/ 

Gripping thriller with unexpected turns in the bike ride as well in the life's trust....




The twist in the movie of who did it...as the mysterious death gets more complicated



Updates about Superstar Rajinikhanth's new movie....Annathe




Dec 30, 2020

Year 2020 - Covid19

 There is more to say about the year 2020, but photos and hints of happenings will fill this page...

With its beginning in a grandeur manner with the family get together. Trip to SriLanka, Madurai and Kancheepuram happened with the new experience in Yalpanam and meeting of family members for the wedding in Madurai. And later part of the year which happened to be parted away due to no flight services and the pandemic Covid - 19 at its peak made people to stay home.

Deaths within close relatives were shocking and Covid-19 at the residence opposite to us made things worst. Besides the entertainment of terrace planting, walking and watching TV nothing was notable besides cooking..Restriction even to go out for buying groceries were counted. The ritual of going out and coming back to home had many things to do like washing hands, taking bath, not touching anything... Work from home culture were made mandatory and kept us busy.

 

April 2020 & May 2020

 











 August 2020





 
 
Come November, flight to Bangalore was booked to make it as the reunion day after such a long delay...the announcement also came on the same day for reopening...which was again postponed... but all our plans happened luckily. When the work from home were happening with the visit once in a
 while officially...






December 2020

Rajinikhant was about to announce his political party on 31st December 2020 but went sick and declared no politics hereafter - due to the pandemic situation and his health condition. Disappointed Rajini fans were able to understand his condition, with so much of support and capable of making the change in politics, the sudden set back was shocking.....bold decision indeed in Rajini style.



Jun 11, 2020

Netflix's Money Heist

"There is no such thing as failure, only delayed success"

When a Spanish show premiered on 2017, which had good rating in the start, as it gradually reduced and it was about to cancel till it reaches to the attention of Netflix. The rest became history!!!

Delayed success, just like the photocopy machine when introduced had no great success, when Xerox took the business of the same photocopy machine was a great success...the rest became history…. instead of calling photocopy – people started calling Xerox copy!!! same way the La Casa De Papel, became Netflix’s Money Heist.

Money Heist undergone such a transformation by Netflix, gaining the world's attention and becoming the most watched successful series worldwide. It became so popular that celebrity like Neymar called the director and wanted to be a part of the series, hence he acted in the series for a short while as Brazilian monk.


(Neymar is Brazilian footballer- considered as the best player in the world...for dummies in football)

I personally see the success as the effort from Netflix for a quality program. When the quality in the program given a serious note, all things falls in the right place. I would recommend all of you to watch the Money Heist series (Adults only) !!!

I am not adherent fan of long series, and I had no such patience for it, but when I happened to see the first episode of Money Heist - things changed for me. The dialogues, action, editing, screenplay were so focused to the theme which gave all the promise for the quality plot...the moves, the planning and the way it was executed made the story line stronger that I finished watching all the parts in a short span of time (till Part-4) due credit needs to be given to the lock down due to Covid-19.

My younger daughter was asking me “Why you want to see the story of robbers, they are bad people” Even with that understanding I was glued to each and every characters in the series. I tried to explain her about the European central bank printed 171 billion in 2011, 185 billion in 2012, 145 billion euros in 2013…and told her Liquidity injection is not a crime, and we can’t say it as robbery – tired my best to narrate the image of Robin Hood in modern era and sang Bella Ciao…Bella Ciao…which made to feel that Dad having a great day during lock down…let him enjoy and she forgave me…

The beauty of the series is the characters and their narrations, all the characters made a deep impact in their characterization, The Professor -  the brain behind all the code named robbers programming the heist in a Hi-Fi technique with the typical classroom teaching - where the heist had the beautiful exit plan without harming anyone during their operation.




I personally liked the Professor, Denver and interesting character of Berlin – who at one point will declare his illness as he would die soon, worried by this,  his brother would then say let’s stop all this and start medication for you…at that time – Berlin would say…” Would you have told Michelanglo to stop sculpting his David?

There was depth and inspiring confidence with the skill in playing the Heist like a metaphor of chess game by planning ahead…ahead way ahead. Makes the Professor character as cool minded, intellectual with the martial art skills aligned with romance. Interesting plot during the last moments of Nairobi who will be executed cruelly by Gandia in the presence of her beloved heist members, I repeatedly watched that part many times and amazed by how the plot designed by Professor to use Gandia  - where he will be given the only option to show his bravery -  is to see his son alive...I was glued to the TV while watching it for the first time fully involved ignoring my mom call for dinner !!!

Awaiting season - 5 and avoiding all the spoilers - I have great faith for Alex Pina. He will make the season as interesting as the rest of the parts. I would recommend all of you not to get any hints about the season 5 as it will dilute the interest. The waiting begins....






Feb 28, 2020

Yalpanam - Srilankan Trip

Yalpanam - is the northern part of Srilanka, once the prime location for the Tamil Liberation movement during the civil war, as it was under the control of Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE)  from the year 1985 to 1995. Beautiful landmarks like fort, library building with war stricken bullet wounds and the memorials of civil war are in the state of deep sorrow as it has lost many valuable human lifes in this place – there was sickening silence and anger buried in the soil which has lost war against the Srilankan army – that resulted in more check post for checking the movements and identity of the travelers, as most of the time it is only the Singhalese dirvers were used in the buses like ours from Colombo to Yalpanam.




I am from Chennai, and not fully understood the struggle of the Tamils in Srilanka, but during my younger days in schools, I use to hear about LTTE and their fight against the Srilankan army, as there use to be protest and slogans during that time by some political parties extending their supports to the Tamil in the nearby country, their protest gave us school holidays and support for LTTE Captain – Prabhakaran – was taken as a symbol of braveness among Tamils in Tamil Nadu too…I could remember the videos of LTTE warriors surrendering their weapons  - machine guns, missiles in movie theaters during the interval.

I was moved by Dilipan memorial, which is in the main area of Yalpanam with his photo, which I witnessed for the first time in my life, His life was heart wrecking story of a freedom fighter who died in the fasting protest adopting Gandhian style of non-violence moment for the liberation of Tamil elam from Srilanka unlike LTTE..….but he too failed!!!

Besides the impact of civil war, the city is now renowned with more promising future and development that are been brought up by the Srilankan government for the people who are intelligent and focused on their well being with their duties and daily routines, with their excellence in academics and improvement in the life after years of civil war – I could still sense their deep rooted pain and agony in the hearts and minds of Srilankan Tamil as they have not forgotten their struggle which ended as failure, they are in their prayer songs and in their thoughts as their fellow citizens  sacrificed their life!!!

Pictorially, I personally felt Yalpanam as an extension of Tamilnadu in terms of the climate, culture, location, its ethnicity along with the people, places, temples and the language spoken (of course with Srilankan  Tamil ascent ) where the majority of them are Tamils, I could hardly find anyone talking Singhalese. Yalpanam has the beautiful green and fern of Kerala even in the style of talking Tamil language in the Malayali style...or been spoken as esai (musical)  Tamil. Local transports in Yalpana, such as buses, auto rickshaws plying like our Chennai city only with the different currency. 









Nallur Kandaswamy temple gave the divine feel, it was the center of the city and the main area around which we stayed and roamed around – I could spend very less time for shopping as it was all busy day in the official process, we could make it only after 7 PM and couldn’t make it lively in the shopping spree and visiting more prominent places nearby…as I experienced the journey from Columbo to Yalpannam – the landmarks and the temples on the way was been cleverly scheduled. 



I could see the tamil people are very devotional people and proud to declare themselves as this is the land of shiva (Shiva bhoomi), prayers are in Tamil and detailed in all the temples I visited. Even in the eelam chindambaram temple in karai nagar which was in the large area with mini zoo and lots of greenery...









Every country has it's unique food  - though Jaffna / Yalpanam is almost like Tamil Nadu - it has its variance is some food items besides the usual banana leaf food of south Indian style, I tasted Pal appam, spicy sambal and fried rice, along with the Orange Barlie drink. Tea was very good even though we had it in a small shop called Kannan Lodge which is quit old and has seen the different shades of the war sticken Jaffna but now returning to normalcy.... I was in a habit of buying newspaper but was shocked to see the price of English newspaper  Rs.30/- (1 INR - 2.48 Srilankan Rupee) but still...spending Rs.30/- for a newspaper!!! Naaa...





I did the last minute shopping in a hurry during the late hours of the day in the main bus stand area where I have seen  very few shops opened at that time..one among that attracted me is the Malayan Cafe (photo below) - may be its referring to the native Malaysian had their business in Srilanka..quite an famous outlet...I could pick up some authentic Jaffna special stuffs like candy, coconut oil, tea powder, Rani sandalwood soap, woodoo...with all these purchase as a sovereign from Jaffna / Yalpanam...another memorable last ride was to Jaffna international airport which is just a make shift building having only 2 international flights a day...hence we were received with more smiles and warm greetings as we are from India and the people there were mostly Srilankan Indians..but before that there was a very lengthy process of security check in the entrance which is again a shed with young Sinhalese security giving us through check for our luggages and also givings us friendly adieu .... with all these memories studded with varying wonderful thoughts, gaining afresh experience in this land has given me a new bliss.