THILLALANGADI - a pinnacle of commercialism

The remake king is back ... after four remakes with his brother JEYAM RAVI... director RAJA is back for the fifth time.. and THILLANGADI is no different... an exact carbon copy of the telugu flick KICK...

Right from Tamannah( from Ileana) to the mediocre roles played by Santhanam and Manobala... everything is a replica from the original version.. the only change comes in the form of two extra songs(quite unnecessary)...

The plot starts with two characters ... krishna(ravi) and nisha(tamannah)... krishna is a lucky goer.. who expects KICK in each and everything in life... Ravi as expected gives his image profile of his telugu counterpart Ravi teja... well adding as a plus... ravi is more apt for this role than ravi teja... Tamannah delivers what is expected from a modern day film industry heroine... a glam show with few spooky dialogues with the hero... (don't forget the songs)...

coming back to the plot... this love-bond forms as one half of the plot... the other is summarised by the COP(shyam, fiance of nisha)- thief(RAVI) venture... which eventually merges with the first in the second half... the rest can be judged by any audience ...

STAR CAST-- one of the all tym high in the recent past... with 40 major characters including 5 comedians.... u expect this to be a laugh riot ... which eventually isn't....vadivelu's track is appreciable... but santhanam and sathyan's role could have been left to be their own's rather than trying for a dupe of telugu KICK...

PRABHU as ravi's father comes with a short and appreciable performance... SUHASINI ... RADHA RAVI... have done juctice to their roles... but the best of all is the

comeback man SHYAM... a perfect cop role ... neatly done by shyam... suits him the best ... the dialogue delivery and the posture was the highlight of his character...

To the other departments... yuvan's music has been one of the most positive attributes of this venture... SOL PECHAI & DING A DING songs are neatly composed... and are colourful to watch... especially the former consisting of 5 tamannahs and 10 ravis... other songs were neither necessary , nor suited the script...

Then comes the DURATION .. three hours and ten minutes..(190 min) is somethin you don expect for a commercial masala... the second half lengthens like a rubber.... but the last 40 minutes is worth your ticket money... RAVI's brisk action and shyam's witty dialogues improves the film's pace .. and the climax doesn lose the heat either... but what happens is... due to the lengthy second half... you will end up longing to get out of the theatre

In sum... DIRECTOR RAJA... comes up with another remake venture ... which has all elements of commercialism equally partitioned... sentiments... action ... comedy.... romance... songs... for all sections of the society... ... but lack of any innovation or creativity leaves a big question mark(?) on its BOX OFFICE outcome...

RATED 1.5/5

RAAVANAN-- Experience the WILD

--- RAAVANAN(tamil).. an aquatic venture from mani sir... first thing first.. Santosh Sivan- he is the person to be lauded for.... sure shot award winner for his extreme effort on cinematography.. next for the crew who got the locations.. the forests of Karnataka (Tumkur), the Athirappilly Falls from kerala , the Malshej Ghats in Maharashtra… and goes on... jus dumbstruck with the rain filled camera work..

later follows the maestro A.R.RAHMAN’s work… the music dances with the need of the movie… seriously no words to explain his BGM… leave about the songs… the background scores were chanceless… and the songs were fast numbers.. neatly visualized.. out of which usurey poguthey stands out(my best was koadu poatta … felt like dancing crazy)…

alas coming to the director and the crew… (from reverse).. prabhu, ranjitha, john vijay, priyamani.. all played their part well... now for the re-entries… karthik was funny enough to do crazy stunts(replica to LORD HANUMAN).. and prithviraj as DEV makes his comeback to kollywood fiercefully… he looks like the man to do this role…

and comingto VEERA(VIKRAM)… no wonder why he got the national award for pithamagan… mani sir knows how to use him effectively… and vikram outclasses mani sir’s expectations in every scene… and the ultimate is the role of RAGINI…one of top class performance given by AISHWARYA till date…

only drawback is the loosely held script and the slower pace in the later parts of the frst half… u cant call it a negative though… awesome treat for a fan of any department in the film industry.. must watch … RAAVANAN- a visual treat … am longing to give 4.5/5… but something inside says ABHISHEK-VIKRAM duo would have given a more classy performance than VIKRAM-PRITHVI… rated 4/5…

MADRASAPATTINAM-- a trip to old madras province

MADRASAPATTINAM--- a non-romantic love story after a really really long time… VIJAY, the director of KIREEDOM and POI SOLLA POROAM comes up with a period venture…. A film visualized during the pre-independence period… days before 15^th august 1947… Amy comes to Chennai(MADRAS) in search of a guy named parithi(ARYA).. and the Deja-Vu takes her to the past , the madrasapattinam during the britishers period…. this is where the tale begins .. the love between the governor’s daughter and the dhobi… followed by the vengeance of britishers , not on freedom fighters ..but on parithi.. what happens next is beautifully shown by VIJAY…

First of all a big hug to vijay sir ..for not only bringing tamil cinema to the world domain … but also for bringing AMY JACKSON to tamil industry.. she is sure to topple off other so called gorgeous ladies of kollywood … coming back to the crew.... Showering accolades alone cant explain what Nirav shah’s cinematography has done to the movie… one of his best… not to forget anthony’s editing…

and again the undoubted winner is G.V.Prakash’s music… "Vaama Duraiyamma" is neatly composed and picturised with the 1947 madras backdrop but "Pookal Pookum" stands out and is surely gonna top the list for many a months coming up..

As a whole… one of the best edge of the seat anticipated climax even though you would have known what is going to happen…. Rated 4/5..