Billa 2 - Songs Review

Ajith's Billa 2, the sequel to the successful Billa(2006) is now ready for release. Yuvan Shankar Raja has scored the music again and the audio been released with huge buzz around it; thanks for the teaser record youtube hits and to some vast campaigning by SONY MUSIC. Yuvan has not been on top of his game with flops albums like Rajapattai. It's been a long time since he gave some scintillating numbers. Adding to the misery is Harris Jeyaraj, and G.V. Prakash has emerged with some good numbers, so Billa2 is surely a big ticket for Yuvan to get him to the top position and show his capability, let's see what he has done with it.

Billa 2 - Track list:

Track 1 : Gang Gang Gangster

Singers: Yuvan Shankar Raja, Stefany

Track 2 : Idhayam

Singers : Shwetha Pandit

Track 3 : Yedho Mayakkam (Club Mix)

Singers : Yuvan Shankar Raja, Suvi Suresh, Tanvi Shah

Track 4 : Madurai Ponnu

Singers : Andrea Jeremiah

Track 5 : Unakkulley Mirugam

Singers : Ranjith

Track 6 : Billa 2 Theme

Yuvan Shankar Raja – Instrumental

Lyrics : Na.Muthukumar

Track 1 : Gang Gang Gangster
This song, might be the introduction for Billa. It was in all praise for Billa, hopefully will have some stunning visuals in some beautiful locales. There are a lot of repeat portions in the song, mostly the club music.  Billa theme in the middle and stefany's final part makes it a good number.

Track 2 : Idhayam
This is surely the pick of the album; Shwetha Pandit has rocked it. It's a solo song a slow melody with some classical tunes in between and was paused at right moments. This is the only song where we can feel Yuvan in the whole album. This is surely a pleasant treat to all Yuvan fans.  One of the heroines seems to be in very deep love with Ajith. Watch out for this song; it will top the charts for few weeks.  I have been hearing it in repeat mode. 

Track 3 : Yedho Mayakkam (Club Mix)
This song has the best start up, unlike any other song in the Billa2 album. Starting music was peppy and the female voice just soothes us and makes us feel good. However, when Yuvan comes into the picture, it turns down. For a change, Yuvan has sung it in low pace, and he remains in the same pace all through the song. It could have become a great song; Yuvan was bang on, but missed it all by himself with repetitive tunes and low pace.

Track 4 : Madurai Ponnu
It starts off with a classical tone; Andrea has done it in her own style. Yuvan has given a lot of variations in this song. Its a kind of folk song with some breaks followed by techno. This song can be termed as one of the better songs in the album maybe next to Idhayam and Billa theme music.

Track 5 : Unakkulley Mirugam

This song, will come in the most important portion of the film according to the lyrics this could be the song where common man, turns Billa 2. It might have some stunt sequences or sequences where he trains to become Billa. Its contains some hard Rock portions, with some heavy music. Ajith's screen presence only can turn this song into a hit otherwise this song is a pure let down.
Track 6 : Billa 2 Theme

Billa(2006) theme music was fantastic; it created a lot of vibes and made us all woo for it, but here it starts off with "azeem o shaan" music, subsequently later move on to "The Dark Knight" theme for a small portion after that comes to the Original Billa soundtrack. It's just a variant to the old theme music, but this is the best of  the album. It still creates the same goose bumps which was created in the first edition of Billa.
To sum it up, Yuvan hasn't redeemed himself. This album lies between average and above-average type. Idhayam is sure to soothe your ears, while Gangster and Theme music will make you feel Billa. Other songs are kind of okay type. Many tunes have been repeated time and time again in the song. Hope Yuvan will rise in the future and recreates his magic, but he failed to create the magic with his music in Billa 2.

Rating: 2.75/5

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Oru Kal Oru Kannadi(OKOK): Santhanam as Hero, Villain and comedian.

     
          Oru Kal Oru Kannadi, third instalment of Director M.Rajesh and Santhanam duo after their successful SMS &Boss Engira Baskharan(BEB). It is yet again a comedy entertainer with no substance. Right from the initial promotions, Udhayanidhi has clearly set the expectations that Santhanam’s role will have equal importance in the movie. The immense popularity of “venam Machan” and tall expectations from Rajesh- Satnthanam combo have ensured tremendous opening. With no other big release planned for the next few weeks; Udhayanidhi has found himself as a winner in this.

Cast:

Udhay as “saravanan” and santhanam as “partha” play the role of ticket collector and food dispenser at Sathyam Cinemas. Hanshika plays the role of an air hostess as “Meera” at Kingfisher Airlines. Saranya Ponvannan aptly fits into the role of hero’s mother. Azhagam Perumal plays the father of Udhayanidhi. It is odd that he never spoke a word for more than twenty years with his wife, Saranya,  just because her family cheated him during their marriage claiming that, she holds a bachelor's degree. Aarya; Sneha and Andrea have done guest appearances along expected lines.

Story:

Story is very simple, Just like any other hilarious movie of Rajesh. It is all about how Udhayanidhi woos hanshika; the problems that he faces during the course of it. Udhay will fall in love at first sight in a traffic signal. Eventually, he follows her, leading to a warning from Hanshika and her father Sayaji Shinde, who works as  Deputy Commissioner of Police, Chennai. As always it is Santhanam’s witty one liners which makes the film a happy ride. When udhay settles his problems, Santhanam comes in and spoils the relationship. He does this spoiler act thrice knowingly and unknowingly at different times. Finally, what happens to Udhay is the climax

Positives:

The Unique selling point for the movie is Santhanam; Udhay has sensed it skilfully and he has a keen awareness of what he is capable in his debut movie. Udhay has done well in his debut, the way in which he converses in English with Santhanam was hilarious. Timing sense of Santhanam was impeccable, this time it's not just the dialogues, he woos us with some comic body languages too. Santhanam is really at his peak of his career. Cinematography by Balasubramaniem  was superb; he has excelled in the song sequences.

Negatives:

When you consider negatives, there are myriads of logic loopholes to name a few, one between Udhay’s dad who haven’t spoken to his wife for twenty years will precisely speak on a day, when she went out for few hours without informing anyone, it doesn’t gel at all with the characterisation.  Talents wasted in the form of Azhagam Perumal. Sluggish dance movements by Udhay and Hanshika tests our limits of tolerance.  Harris’s tracks are not so fresh and the tunes sounds repetitive.

Final word:

Santhanam is the Hero,  Villain and The comedian, it is his comic relief which makes us forget logical loopholes and shallow storyline in the film. he just comes in, makes us laugh out loud(LOL) all through the movie. Director Rajesh has made it clear that you should not expect a serious or message oriented story from him; One cannot help but appreciate Rajesh’s guts for remaking the same wafer thin story line from BEB & SMS. It's a movie made for pure entertainment, and it DOES entertain you all the way, on that basis alone it’s a good movie.

P.S: Maybe you shouldn't be surprised if Rajesh casts santhanam alone playing a Triple role, without any other artists in his next venture.

Rating: 3/5

My official review links:
Network18 - in.com : http://www.in.com/news/entertainment/oru-kal-oru-kannadi-is-mindless-fun-22804713-in-1.html
Moviecrow: http://www.moviecrow.com/News/846/oru-kal-oru-kannadiokok-review

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Masters- Malayalam - Review

Image credits; channel7movies.com

Masters is a murder mystery and the story revolves around five people who swap identities to cover their tracks. They also use their covers (of mistaken identities) to take revenge on the villains. The two big stars Prithvi and Sasikumar obviously are the main attractions in the film and they have lived up to their expectations. There's one good thing about the narrative – the two biggest stars are not introduced in the film at one go but they appear on the screen (along with the other main characters) as the story unfolds gradually.

What's it about?

The first half is very slow and the plot mainly deals with introduction of the characters. The first half clearly tries to set the base for an action-packed second half. In the first half, three people get killed and the audience is not sure whether it is a murder or a suicide. The people who are murdered seem to have no connection with each other. Enter Prithvi, who again plays a cop after his critically acclaimed 'Indian Rupee' where he dons the khaki too. It becomes clear that he will unravel the reason for each murder (suicide?) and the identities as well as the relationships between the dead and the living. The film gets into some pace from here. The length of Prithvi's role has much less scope for great performance when compared to his earlier flick, but he has managed to do a good job of this. This film is Sasikumar's debut in the Malayalam industry and he has done justice to his character too. The only minus point may be his shoddy dubbing which surely could have been better. Talking about the two heroines Pia and Ananya – they just reprise a very short but pivotal role, exactly what is expected out of them in the script. Salim Kumar walks away with the prize of the best actor in the film. Actually, his character is the only saving grace in the otherwise slow paced first half.


The second half starts off on a quicker pace. Prithvi quickly proceeds with his investigation and finds out how the murders were engineered. The film also has Biju Menon and Sandhya in a cameo but both of them come at a very crucial moment in the story and carry the murder mystery forward.


The climax scene is the best part of the film. In the last 20 minutes of the film, you will get a feeling that you are watching a true action-thriller as there are some genuine edge-of-the-seat moments. The main cast has done a very good job of the climax.


To sum up, the ends has positives like Prithvi and Sasi's acting, no commercial surrogate advertising and a good story. On the downside, there is basically no strong bonding between the five main characters as the film progresses. In the end, we find out that all the murdered were school mates. We also feel that there could have been a stronger reason to lose their life than what is shown in the script. Director could’ve changed the guiding leitmotif of thee film which goes, "The enemy of my enemy is my friend."


Film has an omnipresent voiceover carrying forward the story and it sometimes slows down the pace of the film. The film lacks heart - except for Salim, we neither get pleased by someone nor annoyed with the villains. The audience doesn't get involved too. Furthermore, every time Prithivi interrogates someone, he just has to hold their collar and they start spilling the beans. These high-voltage interrogation scenes start looking unrealistic when the same thing is played out again and again.


John Antony has done a fair job of directing the movie. The story, screenplay and the dialogues have been written by Jinu Abraham. Jinu is a young talent and somebody to watch out for. He has cooked up the story-line in such a way that the suspense is maintained until the end of the movie. He surely deserves credit for that. Gopi Sundar's music could've been better and it is irritating when one hears the same background score getting repeated all the time. Couldn’t there be another tune too? Madhu Neelakandan's camera work is good and Kevin Thomas editing could have been sleeker – he doesn't seem to be editing a thriller in the first half though one must admit that he has done a good job of the climax.


What to do?
'Masters' is a pure family entertainer with some good performances from Prithvi, Sasi, Salim and a few other character actors. The film has a good story but fails to involve the audience. You may definitely watch it once but it certainly doesn't have any repeat value. Prepare yourself for a painfully slow first half.


Rating: 3/5

Link to to my official review @ in.com:
http://www.in.com/news/entertainment/masters-is-worth-a-one-time-watch-22660007-in-1.html

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Kadhalil Sodhapuvadhu Eppadi(Tamil) & Love failure(Telugu) – Review

     Here is the first breed from short film maker's era and the winner of reality show “Nalaya Iyakkunar”( Future Director- Tamil reality show in Kalaingyar TV). He has not just come in with a brand-new way; he has also come up with a fresh way of story telling by narrating the story through talking with the viewers all through the film; he took the most repeated genre in world cinema and has given a refreshed and new look to it. The team has furthermore had a new marketing strategy with sweet talkie paper advertisements. The film is a hit from day one because, the film was shot in a record 35 days and with a production value of five crore rupee.  New producer's duo Sidharth and Nirav Shah can multiply their vault size with this sleeper hit movie.

     Now let's get into the film, it starts off with a simple example of how a fight begins and the protagonist narrates his love story with a flashback sequence. The film is just not all about that, there are totally four different story. One is break up and patch-up of sidharth and amala Paul; one is about siddu’s friend and his frightened approach towards his love. The other is in the amala Paul's parents misunderstandings, which lead to file a divorce; amala's father Suresh goes to siddu’s father for divorce paper works, siddu’s father Ravi ragavender, who is a law practitioner by profession. Ravi is a lovable father at home who leaves no stone unturned in bringing up his boy siddu along with her wife, and this couple lives a happy married life. Furthermore, this film also shows the penetration of social-networking sites in our life with siddu’s father creating a FB account and browsing through siddu and amala’s photos and commenting about it were cute and fresh sequence.      The film makes you think that in the later part, Ravi will play a prominent role like patching up the young and the old pair but instead the film moves and teaches the viewers what exactly is “Made for each other." The film takes a turn when amala’s mother surekha vani arranges a sadabishegam- 80th marriage anniversary for her parents, which makes the characters and audience to think as how they made up to 80 years of marriage life. From here the film deserves a standing ovation, one for the self-realization of within all the characters and the way each character approaches the other was simply fantastic. Suresh's performance in love letter sequence and in the scene where he explains about “made for each other” was outstanding. Take a bow director Balaji for showing that words are more important than action in a relationship, by keeping the scene where he shows his LIC appointment order after patching up in the relationship was a great and a brilliant move. 

     The small part of SS music VJ’s Pooja and shyam with her Ex-boyfriend were more realistic, and many people, in reality, do that very often. Sidharth’s friends vignesh and Arjun are a livewire they provide the much needed comic relief. After all these good performances from various characters siddharth played his role to perfection, as an ever young college guy with millions of questions about his love and just lived as Arun all through the film. Amala Paul has to be given a special appreciation for picking up a role which is more performance oriented than a skin show performance. She was neat and decent all the way, there are no commercial elements like a fast beet kuthu song, exotic foreign locale or high-octane stunts. It's just a normal love story. It’s a perfect cocktail for this valentine's weekend. People who expect a romantic movie then this is not your film; this is a love story for all the age group; in fact, a learning curve for all film goers.      Debutant director Balaji has struck gold in his first attempt of transforming his short film to a feature film. He had confidence in his script, which was visible right from the beginning of the movie and avoiding the usual commercial elements is a welcome change to both Tamil & Telugu industry. As a whole complex story telling made simpler with flawless editing. It’s a complete family outing for a sweet and warm valentine weekend.

Rating 3.5/5

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Nanban Review

The story of how 3 fellows became thick mates, the story of a man who opposed the education system, a sweet love story, the search for a lost friend and with many more, the official remake of 3 Idiots in Tamil, Nanban (Friend) is an immensely gratifying experience.

The story basically revolves around a college, and everything that grows into life from it; Events stringed over a non-linear screenplay is what it’s all about. Just like Hirani’s earlier ones, there’s life in most events, events that you would relate to, events that paint a smile on your face, present in plenty. Well-sketched characters, and a neat flowing screenplay make this journey immensely delightful in more than a single way.

The highpoint of this flick, definitely is Vijay. Surprisingly, turns out with one of his career-best performances, after a long hiatus of cliche-filled roles. Aamir’s performance has clearly been taken as gospel, but still Vijay adds to it, a zing of his own. Jiiva again is a delight to watch, while Srikanth bounds leaps into commendable territory, from all the silver-screen debacles of his past. Sathyan is a livewire, whereas Sathyaraj is perfect in place. Ileana, sadly is the huge disappointment for an otherwise performance package; Varied scales of performance, with generous usage of her hip ( there’s even a song praising it! ).

Technically the film is top-notch. Manoj Paramahamsa’s cinematography makes you totally fall in love with the lush locales of Ooty as well as Andaman, as well as offer an undeterred visual experience in the emotional sequences. The CG work, though in bits, is done neat. Harris’s songs are peppy and hummable, though, the score falls short of being truly lifting, dramatic considering the movie’s emotional curve. Songs could have been shot better, though the director’s outrageous take on his very own ways has to be given a pat on the back. Antony’s edit falls short of expectations, for the few bad transits and a painfully long second half.

Finally Shankar; Probably the best thing he did, once deciding to remake 3Idiots, was to add nothing. To just replicate it, almost. Wise move, because most directors try remaking films in their own way and tamper with the original’s impact. Sadly, it’s not being appreciated much, audience somehow want Shankar to add as many new scenes he could possibly do. I’d rather commend him for the guts, a director of his stature could have, to photocopy a film ( officially! ), and to declare openly that every single appreciation Nanban would fetch, would truly belong to Hirani and not himself. Kudos! That tight slap struck every single one out there, shamelessly remaking under the alias of inspiration.

Nanban, is the perfect cocktail you need this Pongal. Laugh, learn, love and cry through this bittersweet experience that only leaves you wanting for more in the end.

Rating : 4/5

P.S: I am not a fan boy of vijay's mass masala flicks, this is completely different for him. He is back with a bang, and yeah the vijay that we liked in the old ages like ”Thulladha manamum thullum”,“kadhalukku mariyadhai”..... times are back. And he has performed exceedingly well when compared to his recent flicks.

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This-could-be-a-spoiler-to-The-Dark-Knight-Rises

 Yeah, this does has a few spoilers, but I am getting into some more detail after lots of Wiki’ing. So in effect, I might have almost explained a small percent of TDKR’s story. In points,

<Spoilers ahead>
1. Batman’s fall. From what the poster says, he’s gonna whacked big-time by Bane.


To know more, download DC Comic’s Knightfall on http://goo.gl/4JW7d ;)


2. Batman would get severely hurt, and need almost a resurrection of sorts, and I think that might explain the 8 year jump in the story, other than the fact that he has to be hidden for a while for Gotham to recover from Dent’s loss, considering the sacrifice Gordon and he make at the end of TDK.


3. Ra’s Al Ghul is almost an immortal character in the Batverse. That’s because he cheats Death everytime, by using Lazarus Pits, read here 
P.S: His League of Shadows is closely tied to Asia.


4. <From Wikipedia> Lazarus Pits were accidentally discovered by Ra’s al Ghul in an effort to cure a dying prince of the sultan he worked for. Ra’s al Ghul dug a pit where he discovered the restorative chemical pools that he dubbed Lazarus Pits for their abilities to heal those at death’s door. After using the pit to save the life of the prince, a side effect of the pit’s restorative abilities revealed itself as the prince went mad and killed Ra’s al Ghul’s wife, Sora. Blamed for his wife’s murder, Ra’s al Ghul was left to die, buried in the desert, but was soon rescued by his own tribe and a boy named Huwe. Afterward, he used the tribe to gain vengeance for what happened to him and proceeded to call himself the “Head of the Demon“.


5. Now, if Batman has to be saved, Nolan would have to explain what a Lazarus Pit would be, and how Ra’s Al Ghul survived over centuries. That implies the above story would be inevitable. Known fact that Nolan shot in Jodhpur. Here’s what The Times of India said about The Dark Knight Rises’ Rajasthan schedule..
  The director will be in Jodhpur to shoot “The Dark Knight Rises” with none other than Christian Bale. However, no other Hollywood actors from the film will be part of this shooting schedule in India.
“Incidentally, Nolan had come down to India in December to scout for locations in Jodhpur. That was when he chose to shoot in Jodhpur’s Mehrangar Fort. The main crew will start arriving from May 1. Christian Bale is expected to arrive in India on May 4 or May 5. Though permissions have been sought for shooting the film for the whole of May, the unit will shoot in India for only two days – May 6 and May 7.
Incidentally, hotels in Jaipur and Jodhpur have been booked for the crew. Says a source, “Nolan had scouted locations in both Jodhpur and Jaipur. But, he fell in love with Jodhpur and decided to return to film here. They are coming with a very small unit of around 15 people and will be shooting here for two days. There are no Bollywood actors being cast in the movie. But, local actors and crew members might be roped in. The unit wants to use the beautiful fort as the background for the movie. However, nothing is known yet whether Jodhpur will feature as an Indian city in the movie or not.”
This here isnt much known, a set still from Jodhpur of TDKR

6. That is definitely a pit, and the green screening tells you that it’s gonna undergo a lot of CG work. The backdrop of the fort brings you to Point 4. The Sultan and Ra’s Al Ghul. The story of Lazarus Pits. How in India? Lazarus Pits exist mostly in points spread over earth where positive energy is concentrated, under Ley Line intersections, a protege of the famous Vile Vortices, read the wiki here  . Jodhpur doesnt exactly come under a Ley Line intersection. But the fact that there existed an equivalent Indian system of lines, called the Shakti lines and that it was right there is intriguing . Read on here . It’s just a small point in the article, but of magnificient importance to our story. Need to research more on why Nolan zoomed into Rajasthan, but for its palaces.
If you keenly went through all recent updates on TDKR, Nolan had very clearly mentioned he would be returning back to where it all begin, the first movie of the trilogy. A lot of things unanswered over there. And hence, I strongly feel a part of TDKR’s come to light and the Lazarus Pit part seems inevitable while moving the story. But of course, Nolan wouldnt just make it look like mythology. Science would closely tie with everything in his stories and that’s how its been throughout his version of the caped crusader.
Okay, how much logic I have written above? Only July 20, 2012 can answer that.


P.S Do bookmark this page or subscribe, will keep updating on anything and everything I come across that could be spoiler-worthy. 


Next post: The difference between the Batman as a comic and Nolan's batman and it will be a post for all the new fans of The Batman's franchise. You can get all the information which you missed out in the previous editions of Batman.



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