Tuesday, March 20, 2007

Mourning - BOB WOOLMER

BOB WOOLMER a great figure in the international cricket and one among the men who were passionate about cricket. He was murdered in WI for unknown reasons. Personally I had a great regard for him. I am shocked that he is no more. There certainly was some stress in his cricket life in Pakistan. But nobody imagined that it will take his life in the end. he will certainly be missed by the cricket world.

BOB
@}--

Mozhi




Monday was a Holiday in Karnataka for Ugadi, which is a lunar new year for local calendar. The day started at 9.00am with me getting a call to let me know that, sleeping until 9.00 was better on that day because of a solar eclipse :D First time somebody appreciated such a thing!

Ok it was later in the day that we booked for a show in PVR for this movie. I have been reading and hearing about this movie for quite sometime. I just could not wait watching this movie.

The movie starts with a sequence of usual Tamil cinema where a girl comes out a temple and falling in love with a poor guy. This is a scene which Prithvi and Prakash Raj make the BG music (musicians). The director is telling us that, this is the usual tamil movie and now look at mine.

Prithvi and Prakash are friends who play KBD and other instruments for Vidhyasagar(in the movie) and they move to a new apartment. Prithvi falls in love with Jo who happens to live in the same apartment. Prithvi finds out that Jo is deafmute, and falls in love more deeply. Prithvi and prakashraj take the help of Swarnamalya who is Jo's friend in the school. Jo is reluctant to commit to a wedding due to what happened to her own mom and the proceedings are the movie.

It is a very simple story, but it has been given an extradinory treatment.

Performances -
Prithvi is so sincere, Jo is perfect except a few scenes where he portrays anger, Swarnmalya is natural and Prakashraj is the best, I somehow suspect that, the character he plays is the true of his self.
Supportive characters have got a role to play and they just do it 100%. While the new comer from Andhra (Brahmanandam) makes us laugh to the core, our own MS Bhaskar makes us cry and laugh.
Other characters such as the paati, chips payyan, secretary's wife, including the karappaan poochi which scares Brahmanandham fit the script and play their role perfectly.

Music&Lyrics -
Usually in all Vidhyasagar's movies, there is great deal of importance and freedom given for lyrics and this time it is Vairamuthu who has perfectly seized the oppurtunity. Vidhyasagar has taken the BG music to some different which we have never heard. With leading roles playing as musicians, he has tried a lot of western instrumental for many kind of situations. The BG song for the scene where secretary happens to "see" Prakashraj is just an example. Whole BG score is just pure pleasure!

Dialogues -
Dialogues are done by Viji and they need a special mention here. It is just not just the dialogues, but also the perfect delivery which just makes many of them unforgettable.

One example is "Prakashrah to Swarnamalya - Naanga CBI, Swarna - Naanga epdi namburathu?" Prakashraj - Naan ippo nadanthu poren neenga CBInu koopidunga naan thirumbipaapen". It sounds very ordinary on the text, but you should watch it visually being delivered in the whole sequence. After a long long time all of the theatre was laughing from the beginning to the end of the movie.
Dialogues are crisp with comedy embedded in them through out. Maniratnam uses this technique on some of his scenes, but it is maximized to the best and through out the movie.

Editing & Screenplay -
It is tailored very well for the elegant story and direction.

Direction -
Radhamohan is the director. I have seen his Azhagiya theeye, even though it was a good movie it sounded like simple stage drama and some times artificial. But the success of his direction lies in the natureness he has induced in the character, script and comedy. Some of the comic sequences make us laugh and cry at the same time. That is something new for the first time I felt watching a Tamil movie. There are minor illogical things happening like the Parents of Prithvi and Prakashraj never showing up even for Prakash Raj's wedding. But +ves of the film makes us not to question about them.
One gem of a scene I liked is the experiment done by Prithvi to emulate his lover. It is a great imagination.

Verdict-
This kind of movies can only be made by some one who loves the quality cinema to the great extent than their own interests including money and their image.
I even doubt that Kamal Hasan with his present Ego can make such a wonderful movie, given the time, the artists, the director, the same story and more money than he actually needs.

In the end I want to thank Prakashraj, for something he has produced and acted. This movie might not get awards, but this is going to be a classic. I reserve a DVD now itself.

For the first time ever, I want to watch the movie second time.