Sunday, April 15, 2007

Maayakkannadi: A Spell Cast Wrong

What to expect:
1. Cheran as urban youth. Who wants to go boling and eat pissa with his gaerlfrend. But they are 'yezhai' lovers unable to afford pissa after bike gets punture and maama takes mamool.

2. Cheran changing before the camera, revealing his diaper-like underpants. Though this scene happens in the background, the sheer imagery shocks you with its lucid irony. Though he's urban youth, he still wears lungi tied up as diaper inside his pants. Whatta statement: You can take villager to the city but you can't take him outside his pants.

3. Cheran as style icon. He plays a hair-stylist at upmarket salon. See pics for proof. His yezhai lover/gaerlfrend is also hair-stylist and together, they make-out in changing rooms at Shoppers Stop. If you spot him wearing sleeveless, beware of gross sights... or what he has up his (missing) sleeve.

4. Cheran as Superstar wannabe. Yes, he borders on blasphemy insinuating that to become Superstar you just need to learn to chuck the cigarette into your mouth. Just because Boobman Sarath Kumar (not seen Pachaikili Muthucharam yet?) tells him anyone, including him, can become an actor.

5. Cheran as break-dancer. Oh, there's this one minute long shot of Cheran dancing that's supposedly choreographed to bring the roof down. It surely does. God bless Ilaiyaraja. It is a kickass track nonetheless.

6. Cheran indulging in more obscenities in the pretext of duets. The comic above is self-explanatory in that regard. Also, Cheran doing kaamedy. Intentionally and otherwise.

7. If you are going for the night show at Rohini complex like I did, the interval break happens at 12.20 a.m. And Cheran finally decides to get to the point around 2 a.m.

8. Radha Ravi's two minute long monologue in the end that delivers the message of the movie. Very effective. Saving grace of the film. Oh yes, even the actor playing Cheran's workaholic roomie is quite good. One of the rare credible performances in the film.

9. Anti-rich propaganda: All rich people are evil rapists or ganja smugglers. All good rich people call themselves poor because they struggled to make it.

10. Guest appearances: Malavika, Sarath Kumar, Arya, Director Raj Kapur, Balachander's office, Cheran's armpit...

What went wrong:
1. Cheran as actor. What was he thinking when he cast himself? There are so many scenes with the mirror in the film. Did he bother looking into it just once?
No doubt he did a decent job in Autograph as an actor but here he should've gone in for a younger actor like Bharath. The movie would've at least been watchable and probably even effective.

2. Cheran as director. It is time he stopped being indulgent and realised economy of scenes. With merciless editing, this might have been a fine film, with a different actor in the lead, of course.

3. Cheran as casting director. It is not essential to pack your film with ugly people just to give it a realistic feel. I wouldn't mind unattractive actors as long as they are effective in their roles. The guy playing wannabe rapist couldn't even act to save his balls. And did you really direct that scene, Cheran? Ham-fest!

4. Cheran as dialogue writer. There are some very good lines in the film no doubt but there are some equally corny ones too borrowed from Nayakan-rejects. And that actor playing Nayakan, I assume, is the producer. Can't imagine any other reason he was cast for the role.

5. Navya working overtime. She seems to be a talented actress but here, she goes way over the top. Or maybe it was Cheran pushing her for an award-winning performance.

What works:
1. Ilaiyaraja.

2. Ilaiyaraja.

3. Ilaiyaraja.

(Even if he insists on singing most of the songs himself these days)

13 Comments:

Blogger Kavitha said...

Man! I love the title on the collage! Haven't had the opportunity to watch the movie yet, though. From bits and pieces of the trailer, it looked like an interesting movie...hmm!

Oh, did I tell you how much I liked your title??? Brilliant! :)

9:51 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

well.. I haven watched the movie. And dont intend too. Whether the movie is a laugh-riot or not (wit all its KAAMEDY secenes), ur review sure is!! Way to go Sud!

Diva

12:24 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Cheran as youth? Again?
That itself warrants a title like the one you suggested. LOL.

10:03 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Aiyo! Pochchu!
I thought this guy was the last of the good directors...and he's done this? Tcha! SO disappointed.
Shelob.
PS - but what a review! And what a collage! Super Sudhish!

1:06 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

this collage idea is damn good:) are u gonna reserve it for ripping apart the worsht movies or for all??anyway had fun reading the review :)

9:52 AM  
Blogger Unknown said...

Every word of this review was so evident in the promos that they show in sun TV :D…

12:52 AM  
Blogger Marutham said...

Nice review..
but cheran has done a smaaaaaaaaaaaal mistake i wud say! :P
Better luck!! ;)

11:38 AM  
Blogger குழலி / Kuzhali said...

one review about this movie in Tamil

http://kuzhali.blogspot.com/2007/04/blog-post_28.html

9:50 PM  
Blogger Sandhya Ramachandran said...

Lol!!!

That was terribly funny![:P] esp the 'boling and eat pissa with his gaerlfrend. But they are 'yezhai' lovers unable to afford pissa after bike gets punture and maama takes mamool'
Lots of ppl told me the movie wasn't too good! :P

Wats up wid Tamil movies?! We don't seem to be getting good ones after 'Veyil'!

Waiting for Sivaji!!! :D

9:33 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Hey. Just one line about Navya? She was overacting so badly that after a point I had to turn away from the screen whenever she came.

2:06 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Hi sudish...i guess u were the guy in air @ radio one (nariya radio channels aint sure which one u were actually :P)...But anyways read ur blog :))...i accept that one point(though i accept all,this one kinda very strong :D )..cheran as hero:yup he didnt suit for the role, would have gone for some one else, the film would have been more watchable :D..Might if he would have asked mirror "mirror mirror on the wall who will be the best actor for this movie" would have saved the role..Now waiting for ur review abt sivaji pilmmmmmmmm....

7:52 AM  
Blogger Bharadwaj said...

Wow... the collage was awesome... comic book format, and above all the title... was sniggering for straight five minutes... guess this movie is rejaet!

11:08 PM  
Blogger DIPAK RAGAV said...

hi sudish i also saw this movie at rohini 1st day matinee(actually went to c only unnale unnale i did not get it)so went to this crap... oh god wt the hell was cheran doin.... i could not even sit for 30 mins... i actually felt embarassed cos i argued wit my friends tht a cheran film will b nice... 50 rs total waste.. i think he conceived the concept well.. but the screenplay was horrible... to add fuel to fire the lead actors perfomance was disgustin.... many people say navya has gr8 talent.. frankly she fails to impress and she doesn't look good either like gopika or padmapriya... i agree wit ur comment tht bharat cld hv been roped in... i felt the same within 15 mins of the film .... it was a bad tamil new year...and also birthday eve... so i had to follow it up wit unnale.... tht same evenin.... to return with some sort of satisfaction....

9:40 AM  

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