Pacific Rim (2013)

Guillermo del Toro's Pacific Rim is big, dumb and a lot of fun if you do not mind the predictability and cheesiness. Right within the first few seconds, you see a giant Kaiju monster crush the Golden Gate bridge as if it were a 9 year old's science project. What must be noted is how irreverently the film handles a scene which is legitimately a money shot in most other blockbuster movies. It makes it clear that things are about to go big, and that we better buckle up. 

The one most amazing aspect of Pacific Rim is how this is not a battle between Magnited States of America and some supernatural threat. Look at all the apocalyptic movies since the beginning of time and almost every film's story takes place within a short span. Aliens arrive in Manhattan on Monday; are vanquished by Wednesday and life soon goes back to normalcy until the sequel hits two Summers later. The problems, however spectacular they may be, vanish just as quick as they appear. Most comic book film-adaptations are known offenders. Pacific Rim's victory lies in the fact that it has created a world which feels lived in. This is the film which leapfrogs over a couple of possible prequels- where each could have been filled with stories of valour, pain and defeat - to land in the present. By creating a vivid past and picking the story up a little over a decade later, the stakes are kicked to insurmountable levels. Humanity is staring at an imminent end, and, for once, you can feel it to an extent.

I watched this film with my cousin who just might be the smartest person in my extended family. After the first few minutes where the film established the history, he turned to me and said this to my awestruck face: "Don't tell me you like it till now." I couldn't believe someone could not like that. So in the interval, he still remained unimpressed and told me his problems were mostly concerning the film's science. His argument was that he had seen the same mechanised humans concept in a zillion cartoons. True, I had a faint memory of watching something similar when I was a child, but the fact remains Pacific Rim is an original story. I still think the problem was that he was taking the film way too seriously. It's not fair to ask questions like, "Why can't they remotely control the Jaegers when they have invented technologies which let them combine two people's brains?" The only answer I can think of is that that wouldn't be half as cool as this. 

I was a huge fan of the film up until the point where Kaijus were considered to be just some giant beasts which had accidentally found a way to Earth. Them being intelligent species also made complete sense. But turning what appeared to be just an incidental work of nature into yet another massive scam came across as completely unnecessary. The creatures scheming to take over the planet, something about terraforming and dinosaurs.. that stuff just didn't bode well with me. I know we all agree that the film is intentionally being dumb here. All I ask for is why is it necessary for everything to have a reason? 

After living under constant Kaiju threat with a doomsday clock looming over, the people have learnt to come to terms with the impending disaster. While there is a lot of opportunity to milk great drama from the world, the film concentrates only on cancelling the apocalypse. Although an underground market for Kaiju byproducts in a neon-lit future Hong Kong makes sense, the entire subplot involving the scientist channelling his inner JJ Abrams ends up becoming the film's weakest link. It appears out of place and fails at delivering the comedic relief it was required to provide. The science starts getting fuzzy and we eventually find ourselves surrounded with absurd theories mentioned previously. 

I like the idea of liking Idris Elba's Stacker Pentecost or Rinko Kikuchi's Mako Mori, these people with instantly legendary names. The idea of two blonde Russian pilots, three Chinese triplets, a Father-Son team.. a part of me understands how they are "cool". But the characters didn't make the impact I was hoping they would. I don't think I have to say I was let down by the Independence Day meets The Avengers climax. I probably would have loved the final act if I cared a bit more for the people inside the Jaegers. I guess I just stopped drifting.

While there's no shortage of spectacle in the film's duration, the one scene that remains most memorable involves a little girl running away from a Kaiju in the deserted ruins of Tokyo. Watching the child look at her knight in shining armor appear on the horizon is a sight to behold. Pacific Rim deserves to be watched for plucking the word 'epic' from the ubiquitous and giving it back most of its lost sheen. Pacific Rim deserves to be watched for filling one with so much awe that it becomes painful to criticize certain aspects of it. Pacific Rim is unbridled joy. 

P.S. I don't think I can ever forgive Warner Bros. for dubbing Mako Mori's Japanese lines into English.

The Iceman (2013)

Richie Kuklinski's life is absolutely riveting if you read through the first few paragraphs of his wikipedia page. But Ariel Vromen's The Iceman, based on his life is, well, rather insipid. The one aspect that sets it apart from other films about contract killers is that the protagonist's family is completely unaware of his misdeeds. There could be a few more movies which match the description for all I know. Sadly this one facet is hardly critical or unique enough to warrant our attention for two hours.

On the first date with his wife-to-be, Richie tells her that he draws cartoons for Disney. He may or may not be telling the truth. We don't know yet. The enchantment on the girl's face, who is giddy with excitement, is palpable. A few weeks later, Richie is seen playing snooker with a few men. One of them disrespects his future wife, he swallows his anger and decides it's not worth it. A few minutes later, he slits the throat of that person in a dark alley. So we have a family-man slash psycho-killer on our hands. 

Richie is an awful man who will kill anyone who is not a woman or a child. Anyone. When you read about him, you get a better idea just how abominable his actions were. He admitted to killing a large number of bums in New York to perfect his skill. That's plain horrific. But the film tries to humanize him a little too much. Soon enough, his conduct oddly doesn't shock us anymore. As he goes about killing major characters, you don't feel a thing. You don't have anyone to hold on to in this tale. Richie is simply too crazy to care for and you can forget about sympathy for his family. They are either stupid or really stupid for not asking where all the money was coming from. With no one to root for, this cold story fills us up with apathy.

Shannon gets to add another role to his growing collection of deranged characters. His performances in Revolutionary Road and Take Shelter have made him a personal favorite. Yet this particular, brooding performance lacks charisma. You are neither infatuated nor repelled by him. This was still an era of the great New York crime families and the film does throw a few popular American mafia names at us. But there's nothing larger than life about it.  Richie captures your imagination when you read about how he used to freeze his victims to disguise the time of death, but the impact the film manages to make is always subdued.

The Iceman also stars Winona Ryder, Ray Liotta, James Franco, David Schwimmer and Chris Evans. Despite the kind of talent this project has attracted, the film hardly does any justice to the material at hand. The film cries out loud for some glamour, for some Scorsese. I wish the late James Gandolfini had got to portray Richard Kuklinski. He would have been perfect the role. Instead we have this dull and uninspired take on the life of a truly fascinating contract killer.

World War Z (2013)

As I walked out of the theater, unimpressed, I heard a few people around me likening World War Z to the Resident Evil movies. A part of me immediately wanted to defend the film, but then I realised big names don't necessarily warrant leniency. Calling World War Z just another zombie movie is a high compliment. Based on a bestselling book which claimed to be 'An Oral History of the Zombie War', and which I am sure it was, this film is so ordinary that, besides certain big set pieces (which still do not justify the absurd production budget), there is nothing in the movie which pushes the envelope of the Zombie genre. Sure, the movie never promised us 'An Oral History', but then why else would they adapt that book if the intention was to make just another zombie movie? If the idea was to make a series of films, then they shouldn't have hired Marc "where-did-all-the-money-go" Forster to make the first one.

There are many kinds of outbreak movies. Steven Soderbergh's Contagion, at its core, dealt with the fascinating phenomenon of a virus outbreak in today's interconnected world inevitably leading to a pandemic. Then there are post-apocalyptic materials like The Walking Dead where the people have resigned to their new fate and learning to live again. WWZ tries to marry the globe-trotting element of the former with the sudden-coming-to-terms-with-the-dystopia of the latter. Here, our protagonist is at the center of the action and is expected to find a cure. As the action shifts from Philadelphia to South Korea to Israel to Cardiff, WWZ attempts to give us something which we never missed in the first place- magnificent Zombie action. In truth, maybe we haven't seen a zombie spectacle like this; if putting a zillion CGI'd zombies in a frame is epic, then WWZ  indeed is. But besides the 'zombie pyramid', the movie is not particularly inventive at it- not even as much as Warm Bodies.

A character tells Brad Pitt, a former UN employee, that Mother Nature is the greatest serial killer ever; like all serial killers, a part of her wants to get caught. There's a part of World War Z which, deliberately or otherwise, puts its cards on the table a little too soon and outs its secret. It is not entirely predictable, but once a scene gets established, it oddly becomes obvious to tell how things would eventually pan out. Instead of filling you with dread at the thought of the oncoming catastrophe, it braces you for impact, so to speak. In capable hands, certains scenes in this film could have whipped up unbelievable amount of tension. For example, there's one Argo-esque sequence involving a plane on the runway and chasing zombies which is shockingly tame.

World War Z doesn't take a moment's time to look back and think at what has happened to humanity. It mentions in the passing that entire cities were brought down to their knees and zombified, but it is very cold while doing so. I was bothered by how quickly the film took an Us and Them attitude towards undead. Entire cities are bombed and we feel nothing. I don't have the heart to call World War Z a bad film. It is adequately entertaining but there's less of everything. While the restraint in the climax, à la Skyfall, is commendable, the aforementioned predictability seeps in yet again hampering the tension.

Aval Appadithan (1978)

While interviewing a subject for his documentary on the state of women in India, Arun begins by asking, "Ungalukku yethana pasanga.."  before correcting himself and continuing with "..I mean, kozhandhainga?"  This one line with a simple correction may be easily taken for just a harmless slip of tongue on Kamal Hassan's part, but there was something extraordinary about it that caught my attention. I gave it some thought and it dawned on me how Indians have long had this habit of casually using a masculine term to collectively refer to children. I recollect from my days in Gujarat where parents unconsciously called their daughters 'beta'. The word pasanga has slowly eaten its way into our psyche and firmly established itself as a synonym for children. Arun felt the urge to correct himself because he is a compulsive feminist for whom political correctness is like oxygen.

Arun is where I personally wish to be in a few years' time. We can never tell what exactly kindled the feminist in him, but we can correctly assume that he has had it all worked out in his head for a long time now. He has reached a point where he no longer feels the need to have petty arguments with people who are simply never going to change their outlook. Though he does die a thousand deaths when he witnesses the level of misogyny and sexism prevailing in the mainstream. His frustrations and indomitable urges to do something that can bring about change lead him to make his documentary.

On the other end of the feminist spectrum is Arun's friend Tyagu, a male-chauvinist who is an embodiment of everything that we associate with sexism. He is the antithesis of Arun in how he whips out thathuvams describing women the way he sees them. He is a young and successful businessman with a very active sex life. Like with every sexist person, his words reek with double standards. Played by a perfectly cast Rajnikanth, Tyagu is irresistible despite the fact that I don't subscribe to his beliefs in the slightest.

When Arun needs help with his documentary, Tyagu asks his company's art director Manju (Sripriya) to offer her services. Through the days they spend together interviewing prominent women from all backgrounds, Manju ends up becoming Arun's single most fascinating subject. With a broken past consisting a cheating Mother, a subservient father, an abusive uncle and a bevy of disappointing lovers, she finds comfort wearing the mask of misandry. As Arun tries to peel layers off her to understand the real her, she keeps becoming even more inscrutable.

To quote Silambarasan, 'Jeans podra ponnunga ellam kettavangalum illa; chudidhar podra ellam  ponnungalum nallavanglum illa.'  While I have no idea what the definition of nalla ponnunga and ketta ponnunga is, I mention this line because Manju is a "modern" woman living in 70s Madras who can only be seen wearing sarees. Without any histrionics, Rudraiyya underlines that very same fascinating and yet simple idea with immense subtlety. Rudraiyya never feels the need to resort to handy character traits such as a drinking and smoking woman to highlight Manju's modernity. Not that there is anything wrong with a woman doing that, of course, but that would have been a lazy shorthand.

Manju's 'all-men-are-scoundrels' attitude wavers a bit every time she's around Arun. During an interview with an actress, Arun asks her if she feels servile for having to trim her eyebrows to look beautiful for the sake of men. While Arun's point that women try to look beautiful only to impress men is arguably incorrect, you might notice that Manju herself has her brows trimmed. The actress talks with disgust about the holier than thou attitude many outsiders take towards them.

At the peril of sounding like a gender-traitor, I have noticed how most men often resort to maligning an attractive woman when she appears ungettable. Rumors are started and jokes are said at her expense. I have been a culprit myself, though in a more harmless way. Manju is fodder for all sorts of office gossip because she intimidates men and women alike. Even Tyagu, her boss, is a scheming bastard who wants to bed her. Her being so hard to get makes her even more alluring to him. To be honest and fair to him, there are instances where he is surprisingly broad-minded. When he tells Arun that Manju is nothing but a sex-starved bitch, you can see that that's his honest assessment. He almost makes you wonder if that might be true.

In the final stages of production, Arun questions a bunch of female college students about their thoughts on premarital sex and legalized abortion. The answers are unsatisfactory and muffled. The giggling girls do not have an opinion on issues which stare them in the face. As a stark contrast, Arun talks to a group of women who appear to be poor and illiterate. This time his questions range from patriarchy to male infidelity and the response is startlingly heartening. But there's also a section of women which ridicules the entire demand for equality. I spoke in length about my own experience with my mother because I believe women are their biggest enemy in this battle. Their apathy and willingness to remain docile is also what's making it harder for them to blossom as they could.

One of the film's masterstroke- a very cruel joke on Manju- is making her fall in love again on her own terms. She slowly gets there, but not soon enough. I was always on her side, but there came a point where even I wished she would let her guard down. Despite all attempts from Arun to give this phenomenal woman the happiness she deserved, it is her own stubbornness which leads to her doom.

"What do you think about women's liberation?"

"Atha pathi yenakku onnum theriyathu.."

"Romba safe answer. Athan neenga santhoshama irrukinga."

The film probably wouldn't have been as special without the heartbreaking turn of events in the final minutes. In the end, she does exactly what she swore she would never: stand in a corner, filled with regret.

"yerinthu pona veedu.. murinthu pona uravugal.. 

kalainthu pona vanavugal.. sumakka mudiyatha sogangal.. 

meendum oru murai Manju iranthu ponal.. 

intha saavai sagitthu kolla Manju vaal thaanga mudiyavillai 

hm.. aval pirappal irappal; irappal pirappal.. aval appadithan."

Aval Appadithan is very easily one of the most shockingly great Tamil films I have ever seen. That this film released three decades ago in this very industry starring our very own superstars is what boggles me. Imagine the fate of Tamil cinema had it taken this alternate path of realistic films. In a word, Aval Appadithan is uncompromising. It lays in front of you the naked truth without having two thoughts about it. It seamlessly switches between English and Tamil to create an image of a Madras I never imagined existed. It cannot be bothered to dumb itself down for the least common denominator. The stellar script contains lines brimming with honesty. The three lead characters are fully realised individuals, magnificent in their own way.

It never once becomes an issue movie giving us a big moral science lesson. For most part, I only had this feeling that someone out there had made a movie that totally gets me. I now wonder if this film managed to bring in a change of heart in people who believed otherwise. It is bold by all means and very much ahead of its time. There was a time when Tamil films had titles far more poetic than anything else in the movie. (Manju asks Arun if the title of his documentary Muzhubaagil Oru Paathi is also on the same lines.) But unlike those others films from the period, Aval Appadithan is truly poignant.

Twenty three years after the release of the first color film in Tamil, Aval Appadithan was probably shot in black and white to achieve a style or due to monetary constraints or both. In 1978, Rajini acted in 21 films (including Bairavi, Priya and Mullum Malarum) and Kamal in 16 (including Sigappu Rojakkal). The numbers are shocking to say the least. There are two big scenes involving them where they don't even share a frame. Even Sripriya was doing nearly half a dozen films. It is quite amazing that these top stars have given performances of their lifetime under such a schedule. The credit must go to Rudraiyya or whoever came up with the idea of casting these three. 

The close-up shots, the background score and songs (I decided to watch this film only after recently discovering Uravugal Thodarkathai), the offhanded acting.. everything I love. This one film has made me sit up straight and look for more such gems from our past. They are definitely there; we just have to look closer.

YouTube: http://youtu.be/jJR5Fl377vM

Theeya Velai Seiyyanum Kumaru (2013)

Every time a film comes where Santhanam is its saving grace, we often joke how he is the actual hero holding the film together, while the supposed lead actor is merely a supporting character. This film's posters showed him off prominently, and I thought to myself : 'here comes another movie trying to make some money off Santhanam.' But watching him play a love guru who has brought romance into the lives of scary looking henchmen to popular film stars, it became clear that Santhanam was indeed, in every which way, Theeya Velai Seiyyanum Kumaru's real hero. 

In most of his movies, Santhanam's part is almost completely redundant - always playing the guy who tags along with the "hero". But in this case, there can be no TVSK without him. He is to TVSK what Will Smith is to Hitch. The story involves Kumar (Siddharth), a software engineer who is either disinterested or tongue-tied around girls- thanks to his past experiences. When a new girl joins his workplace, he seeks the help of Love Guru Mokia (Santhanam) to help him woo her. As hurdles keep coming their way, the rest of the film sees Mokia help Kumar to surmount them. While the story is very simple and even the directions the screenplay takes are hardly novel, the film works because Santhanam works. He overshadows every other actor in the film, who are merely left saying things so he could respond with a spectacularly timed one-liner. Just when I feared he was getting monotonous with his brand of nakkal-based comedy, he yet again proves me wrong by giving a hilarious performance. 

The one good thing the film's marketing campaign did was to keep away all the good stuff away from promotion materials. I walked in right after watching Man of Steel, and expected to see a nonsensical trash.  I was happy to be surprised. As the film's narrator in the first few minutes, RJ Balaji, who debuts on the silver screen, is rather decent. It is when he shows up in front of us that he begins to disappoint. Most of his lines appear to be self-written and he basically rehashes the things he says on air and to not so good results. Besides Balaji, director Sundar C. assembles a large ensemble of comedy actors we have admired in the recent past: the plump girl from Neethane, Dilli Ganesh playing Bombay Ganesh, Bosskey, Manobala, Chitra Lakshmanan and also an actor each from Neram and Soodhu Kavvum. In spite of them, Santhanam, with a joke hit rate of over 80 percent gets all the deserved laughs. It's a Santhanam show all the way, but let's not forget Siddharth for channeling his Boys days. His appearance and a certain scenes will often remind you of his Munna. Oh, the film also stars Hansika. 

The film is hardly a comedic home-run. I would recommend it, but with a conditions apply sign. It has nothing else to offer besides Santhanam at his career best. The central love story is itself a big yawn. Kumar knows nothing about Sanjana but goes to the extent of killing himself after facing rejection. Since when did suicide become the pinnacle of displaying love? I chose to ignore these issues because at that moment it felt like I was nitpicking. Also, I had a rather swell time. Despite the fact that the film follows the 'Rom-Com with a Liar' template, complete with an airport climax, to the tee, it salvages itself solely by being high on laughs. 

Beneath all the humor, the film finds a way to make a point about the male hypocrisy. Be it the double standards brothers display upon knowing that someone loves their sister or the way Indian cinema has taught us that it is okay for men to accost and creep a woman into submission, I found TVSK to be a welcome respite from the unbearable 'intha-ponnungala-ipdi-thaan' attitude. For that, I must tip my proverbial hat to Sundar C. But then the film throws an unfunny homophobic joke at us; so I don't know what to make of the film's worldview. 

After Earth (2013)

Shyamalan is not new to making movies about parent-child relationship. I have seen two other films of his - The Sixth Sense and Signs - and both had a strong family component. But sitting through After Earth, there's always this inescapable feeling about how superficial the family drama was. This is a particularly big problem because the film doesn't have much else going for it. Without a strong story or even some high concept set pieces worth talking about, the film crumbles. 

Kitai Raige (Jaden Smith) witnesses the death of his sister as a child and has been scarred ever since. The sole purpose of his life is to fill his father's over-sized shoes and make him proud. The only problem is that his father Cypher Raige (Will Smith) is a celebrated Military General who is absolutely fearless. Not fearless in Taylor Swift terms, but the kind of fearless that could be used as an excuse for his minimal vocabulary of expressions. After the Father-Son duo crash-land and get marooned on Earth, Kitai is required to seek a transmitter which is their only hope for survival. On this supposedly epic journey, Kitai must fight the demons - both personal and the kind that senses fear and tears one apart - to eventually become the Karate Kid. 

The science (Scientology?) in this sci-fi is specifically vague and unimaginative. Set a thousand years in the future where humans have left Earth behind and colonized some distant planet, the mythology in After Earth is severely under-wrought. Sporting some bland whale-shaped spacecrafts with bamboo interiors and awful looking seat-belts, the sense of wonder so essential to sci-fi is clearly missing. It may or may not be an esoteric Scientology propaganda movie, but it definitely is one lazy, lifeless piece of work. After Earth looks and feels like a Smiths star vehicle under which Shyamalan unceremoniously got caught. 

Apparently, every species on Earth has evolved to kill Humans. Through the film, we learn that that might not entirely be true. We see instances of intelligence and compassion displayed by animals, but this sub-plot is never completely explored. I hope the idea isn't to address these issues in the sequels. Wait, who am I kidding.. did you see how much money this film made in its first week? LOL.

It is like watching the Scientology version of The Karate Kid. Danger is real, but watching this movie is a choice. 

Kutti Puli (2013)

There's one way to enjoy Kutti Puli and I am not even guaranteeing that: it is by accepting the fact that this isn't a film too interested in scenes that take a story forward. It begins with a mass hero's mass entry, then meanders for two hours with pointless fights, a few random attempts at humor and a bit of old-fashioned romance, before ending with an absurdly WTF-esque climax. Unlike Sundarapandian, a film which I loved quite a lot, Kutti Puli can happily lose huge chunks and still not be misunderstood; there's hardly anything in it worth misunderstanding. I couldn't even tell what this film was about until the final few seconds when it mildly became clear.

I am a sucker for a good masala film, but Kutti Puli is a weakly written excuse with enough scenes to pass it off as a movie. It is an Amma sentiment film of the worst kind. Saranya Ponnavan, typecast as ever, plays an illiterate, doting, widowed mother who breathes for her son Kutti Puli's sake. After losing her husband Periya Puli to violence, she intends to bring up her son her own way. Alas, the apple doesn't fall far from the aruva-weilding, blood-spewing tree. As he thwarts her every attempt to get him married, she is left with no option but to visit the wish-granting temple. In his defence, Puli is so much in love with the concept of being in love that he chooses to remain a bachelor, not wanting to bestow a life of violence on his future wife. He's a gem, I tell you.

Kutti Puli is a film filled with fight scenes which will make you go, "Gee, that escalated pretty quick!" When an infinitesimally petty altercation inflates into a full-blown fight, Puli inadvertently makes a few more enemies; the kind that stabs a 13 year old kid in the throat for making a speech in a political rally. Yeah, I am not oblivious to Madurai's reputation of being a rather violent place, but the amount of bloodshed here is ridiculous. Saranya's friend swells with pride when she talks about Puli's speciality of slitting Adam's apples. Assuming that the old hag is not making it up, a couple of questions: a) when exactly did that happen? b) why is he not in prison? and c) why is he freakin' killing people? The writing is so messed up, the film doesn't even bother to bring closure to the subplot regarding the political figure who apparently prodded the aforementioned 13 year old.

I find the basic notion of classifying audiences' intelligence based on where they live very offensive. Saying a film like Kutti Puli is targeted at the so called "B and C centers" is downright demeaning. Paruthiveeran was a Madurai film, but it worked across all these centers because it was a good film. Does it take the hero to wear a lungi for people in villages to like the film and relate to the characters? It must be noted that people at my screening were cheering and whistling through most parts of the movie. So does this mean we deserve movies like these? This is a deeper issue which calls for better understanding of people's psyche; passing off bilge as cinema of the rural masses is insulting the audience's intellect.

I was bored stiff for most parts of the film. The comedy sidesteps very far away from whatever little story the film has. Relying on popular romantic songs from the 70s/80s for the purpose of comedy has become a thing. Sasi Kumar tries to recreate something on the lines of  'Kangal Irandal' and embarrassingly fails. I will admit the 'Akka Maga' bit had me laughing for all its silliness, but the rest of the usage was so exhausting. Offering lame reasons to believe that an educated looking Lakshmi Menon can fall for someone like Puli, the film degrades its own worth even further. That the film would liken its grotesque climax to something on the lines of female empowerment is what boggles me to no end.
Kutti Puli is Tamil cinema's sincerely mediocre answer to Bollywood for Himmatwala. If you must watch this movie, remember to carry Tiger balm along. 

Neram (2013)

For Tamil film audience, good films very rarely come their way. If a film worth the admission price releases at least once a month, we'd still be a happy lot. The month of May has already seen the release of Nalan Kumarasamy's riotous Soodhu Kavvum; I am guessing our nalla neram has started because we have another film that's very similar in spirit and almost equally competent in entertaining. Debutante Writer/Director Alphonse Putharen's Neram is a bracing rollercoaster ride that bleeds with finesse.

Neram begins with a very heavy and almost overwhelming mood. Vetri (Nivin Pauly; an amalgamation of every Malayali boy I have known) goes to borrow money from a person named Vatti Raja to get his sister married. Soon enough, we learn that Vatti Raja (played by Simhaa) is a feared money-lender who would go to any length to see his money back. With a jarring bassline blowing from the speakers, the film unsettled me so much in its first few minutes that the arrival of Vetri's doe-eyed girlfriend Veni (Nazariya) felt like spotting an oasis in the middle of a desert. The juxtaposition turned the subsequent song (Kadhal Ennule) into the sweetest thing I had ever heard. It's a gorgeously picturised number that effortlessly makes you fall for the leads. 

     

The film opens with Tarantino's famous words, 'I steal from every single movie ever made.', with an added note saying that director Alphonse agrees to it. While Neram's story has a lot of commonplace elements like unemployment, trouble from girlfriend's family, sister's wedding and loan sharks which we have previously seen in older films, it is the delicious non-linear screenplay that steers it aparts. After the backstory is deftly taken care of, we wake up to the day Vetri is required to repay all his debts. And it is at that moment the film begins to pile all those problems and a couple of new ones on Vetri's head. While some moments lack the sparkle, the adequately intricate writing makes up for such missteps. 

Neram is a film that revels in coincidences. If a film like this cannot carouse on chance, then I don't know which one possibly can. Not all stories have the liberty of feasting on serendipitous plot elements. Neram works to earn that right and puts it to such a good use that we never crinkle our nose in discontent. As characters keep running into each other in different parts of Mandaveli, it only gives way to some other unexpected delightful occurrence. 

Without smothering us with a boring lesson on justice, Neram, instead, brings out the beauty in karma. By the end of this rollercoaster of a day, our thirst for justness and the need to see the wrongs being righted is partially subdued. But the sight of Vetri running in slow-motion to pumping music and beating up a few of the culprits is wonderously cathartic. 

Neram is filled with a surprisingly good dose of humor. For a film which started off on a very brooding note, its very late comic turn was, both, unexpected and effective. Supported by a very good cast consisting Thambi Ramaiah, Nasser and John Vijay in prominent roles, the film also features some very fine cinematography and sound design. Alphonse gets another pat on the back for his editing. Rajesh Murugesan's music is fabulous, energetic and atmospheric. I hope the days of technically inept directors fumbling with their work is behind us. Good times have begun for Tamil Cinema.

Star Trek Into Darkness (2013)

I remember watching Star Trek on the first weekend of its release and forgetting most of it by the second weekend. I liked the movie quite a lot and IMDb tells me my 18 year old self gave it a rating of 9 -- something which happens very rarely these days. I never even got around to giving it a second viewing. Four years later, keeping alive the new Hollywood fad of using the word 'Dark' in a film's title, J.J. Abrams' Star Trek Into Darkness beams into Indian screens an entire week before its American release.

One of the nicest things about Into Darkness is how there aren't any bad guys per se. The ones who are are either covering up for their past mistakes or are driven by love. For most parts, I even found myself rooting for Cumberbatch's Khan, who is more an ally and less an adversary. My non-Trekkie self, oblivious to Khan's reputation, wished for things to forever remain peaceful; which might explain why I felt Khan's evil turn forced and sudden. The film itself had to rely on Spock Prime to spell it out to us why Khan mustn't be trusted and why he's the "Supervillain" of this film. That's just lazy, man. All the Sherlock fans out there weren't given enough reasons to snap their allegiance to Benny.

While throwing a character in harm's way at every available opportunity, the film almost never builds enough tension to put us in a spot. Even as we look at Spock and Kirk stuck in places where death is certain, we are seldom convinced that it has the guts/balls to bang in the last nail. How can they expect us to fear for their lives when everyone knows that you simply do not kill off a leading male character in the second instalment of a trilogy? I'm just kidding. It wasn't as bad as I might be indicating but I wish it was more tense. You just roll your eyes and move on.

Help me understand this: if the purpose of Enterprise is to go where no man has gone before, how will they do that if they keep getting called back to Earth? Should we be concerned by how this new series has spent so much time on Earth? At a time when Abrams is jumping ship to helm the new Star Wars movie, I find it a bit weird that the third installment of this apparent trilogy will have all the characters at their personal best. The long gestating five year mission appears to have finally cleared all checks and the prospect of reaching out to the unknown worlds and civilizations excites me very much. I just learnt that the film is filled with esoteric references to older Trek works which fans are likely to devour. Or loath. One can never tell. 

Delving deeper into the Kirk-Spock bromance, Into Darkness has Kirk maturing from a cocky hotshot Captain to someone feeling unsure whether he's cut out for the job and Spock trying to stop being uptight about protocols, learning to go with the gut-feeling and developing an instinct to leap without looking. Their clearly etched out arcs progress neatly, but no matter how much it tries, the emotions only run skin deep on almost all the occasions. Set within a very small span of time, the film does just about enough to develop Uhura and Spock's relationship, while hinting at a possible romantic interest for Kirk in the future. Also, the film isn't even half as intellectually simulating as its immediate predecessor, which at least had a subplot going on about alternate timelines. While its 'not-so-intelligent' plot doesn't hurt it much, I wish it had packed something to work my brain more.

A word on the presentation- I loved the 3D in Into Darkness. I am starting to believe it all comes down to where one watches a film, but the technology was put to a good effect yielding a surprisingly unobtrusive and passably immersive results. If you are still not convinced, let me assure you that the dark glasses will protect your eyes from Abrams' lens flares. Into Darkness isn't as dark as it tries to convince us of but helped by Cumberbatch's performance and gratuitous amount of action, it offers adequate Summer entertainment. 

Soodhu Kavvum (2013)

Joblessness is the most common profession among Tamil film characters. Being vetti and drinking alcohol is usually all they do. The three characters we first meet in Soodhu Kavvum are cut from the same cloth, but debutant writer/director Nalan Kumarasamy gives them a fresh twist and makes this commonplace element appear interesting all over again. Pagalavan runs away from his town and lands in Chennai after getting in trouble for building a shrine for a Tamil film actress; Sekar loses his job as a valet after an incident with a Jaguar car; the third, Kesavan, has a psychotic female aiding in his getting fired from his IT job. Fate, monetary desperation and the lure of easy money would have them meet a person named Das who's currently working full time as a petty kidnapper. Helped by his hot, imaginary girlfriend, he recruits these three jobless folks. After a series of insignificantly small abductions, they eventually go big, thus starting a series of hilarious events which would change their life- for good or worse.

The screenplay is least predictable and completely stuffed with goodies. The narrative fluidity in Soodhu Kavvum- as it neatly establishes each character and hints at the arrival of new ones- deserves a mention. The players are not bumbling idiots pretending to be ace criminals. There's a never-ending struggle to make the best of the situation and try to rise on top. I feel the confidence, the relentless desire to plate a product brimming with finesse and the sharp vision exhibited by this new breed of filmmakers (most of them Naalaya Iyakkunar alumni; except the very talented Balaji Tharaneetharan and Thiagarajan Kumararaja.) While some of them haven't thought twice before shunning songs sequences in favor of narrative demands, Nalan Kumarasamy beautifully infuses tiny fantasy interludes to his film's benefit. Also, I hope this film makes so much money that he gets a bigger budget for VFX (which was hilariously bad here) in his next films.

I cannot recall the last time I laughed so much watching a Tamil film. There are so many lines which will be quoted forever in every friend circle. This is cult stuff. Unlike Santhanam's brand of comedy which is so conspicuously aimed at laughs, the jokes here are delivered so wryly that they sound all the more funnier. The scene which I laughed the most for is one which wouldn't even have been funny on paper. Set in a dark room made visible through greenish night-vision goggles, where our kidnappers grope in the emptiness while getting beaten up mercilessly, it had me in splits. 

Orey kallu la pala maanga. In a film populated with men, there's a possibility of things getting a bit dull, making it harder to sustain the audience's interest. I am not sure if our people are cut out for a Guy Ritchie-ish film. In spite of what we say about women in our films being just a pretty face, and expecting them to have a meatier role, in truth we really have gotten used to seeing them around- even if it is just for songs. Not having them around would turn most movies into unwatchable sausage fests. In Soodhu Kavvum's case, having a girl hang out with these bunch of crazy kidnappers would hardly be appropriate and would require a lot of explaining. To get around this issue, Kumarasamy turns Sanchita Shetty's Shalu into a manic pixie dream girl who exits solely in Das' imagination. By doing this, he gets to place an eye-candy in the frame and gains the artistic freedom to do whatever the hell he wishes to do with her, while still making it appear believable. In a scene reminiscent of "I Dream of Jeannie" Kumarasamy has her dress up in a swimwear, much to Das' dissatisfaction, having everyone else wish for one such hassle-free, imaginary girlfriend.

The one thing about Hollywood is that their stars are also usually very good actors. Sadly, that cannot be said about the present state of our cinema. Some of our biggest stars are actually very poor actors. It gives me immense joy to announce that Vijay Sethupati has arrived. His performance as the gray-haired, fake Wayfarer sporting, broken-english speaking Das serves the script to a tee.  He has a great screen presence and leading man quality that so many new actors lack. I just learnt from Wiki that he is 35 years old. It is so damn heartening to see his talent and hard-work pay off.  He is on his way to a much-deserved stardom. If a quick look at a list of his upcoming films is any indication, he is only getting started.

Ever since I started reviewing Tamil films, I have been constantly jealous of the Hindi film industry which has been consistently doling out films which were at least trying to be good and original. I think I can stop worrying for the last few months has seen Tamil cinema earn a group of interesting talent. If they have their Sneha Khanwalkars and Amit Trivedis, we have our own musical talent in Santosh Narayanan. Yet again, he provides a wonderful soundtrack which is so rich and varied. Soodhu Kavvum also gives us a legion of gifted new supporting actors and perfectly cast oldies like MS Bhaskar and Radha Ravi.

Soodhu Kavvum is not without problems though. While Sethupathi sure has an interesting look in the film, if the intention was to pass him off as an older man, I think they didn't quite manage to do that. I also felt the film very easily sidelined its primary villain, who was once made out to be a silent, larger than life and invincible badass cop. When pushing characters into territories which are hard to get out of, it is necessary for writers to better have some trick up their sleeve to make them come out of the same situation in an acceptable manner. The pre-interval Deus ex machina involving a toy helicopter comes to mind. Though the film is thoroughly entertaining, the final act felt a tad underwhelming- given the scenes which lead up to it.

Soodhu Kavvum is so damn entertaining that you cannot help but love it despite its imperfections.