Thupakki Movie Review

What happens to a country style recipe when it’s being prepared in a city restaurant (Oh assume that it’s Chennai), hmm.. somewhere the flavor and taste is lost in translation.. Well the same happens when a Mass hero tries to act in an upwardly mobile story… That’s “Thupakki” – a racy (!!) cat and mouse game between the hero and villain but heavily damped by unnecessary songs and romance.

Peter's movie review

Now to the review.. An army person Jagdish(Vijay) comes to Mumbai on his vacation. Very soon he realizes the underlying tension in the city and the sleeper cells causing the same. (Oops !! time again to google out to find the meaning of sleeper cells). Okay.. to save you the labour – Sleeper cells are secret agents not necessarily terrorists who are found amongst common public but execute an attack on instructions from an anonymous leader or terrorist organization. One such attack is traced and nullified by our hero along with his army folks. This kindles the interest of the villain (Vidyut Jamwal) on the hero. The villain comes down to Mumbai to narrow down to the hero. From there on the story is typical hero-villain chase ground. But this base storyline is quite squeezed inside the Mass-Hero’s essentials – viz… intro song, romance sequence, dancing round trees in exotic foreign locales..etc.. Though it’s the usual story, the strategic planning both of the hero and villain and the racy screenplay (albeit the songs) keeps you engrossed.

As for Vijay, he looks sleek and has quite rendered a decent performance. Kajal Agarwal as the hero’s love interest is chic but has nothing to do except to dance her way apart away from the story :).. Vidyut as the villain is the one who could never miss your attention. Extremely suave and well built he fits the character picture perfect. Jayaram, Satyan and few other actors have a little to contribute for their parts. Kudos to Murugadoss(director) to have shown the lives of wounded army men and their contributions despite their physical challenges on a positive light. Infact the movie is being dedicated to our army men (Make sure you stay a little longer to see the title rolls at the end). The cinematography is excellent and never misses out to capture the panoramic frames. Despite all these positives the unnecessary songs play the perfect spoilsport in halting the screenplay every now and then. It’s high time Harris Jeyaraj churns out something good enough :(.

If not for the songs and the frivolous romance the Pistol (Thupakki) could have hit the bulls eye but nevermind it just manages the target ! Go for it !!

Pizza Movie Review

There is a season for everything , may be at times with obvious reasons. Cinema is no big exception.. Didn’t that group of “made of/by/for  madurai”  movies emerge as a genre quite recently ? but there’s one genre which is always  time  tested .. guess what ? suspense thriller  !!.. hmmm.. “Pizza” can be fit into this (oh.. always mind the pun !!).

Peter's Movie Review

Given the fact that it’s a suspense,  I’m in no liberty to discuss the complete story... Save the best to watch on screen.. May be in a DTS theatre (as always the sound is scary than the spectacle itself ). Well.. the hero Michael (Vijay Sethupathy) works in a Pitstop Pizza Restaurant and is in a ‘live-in’ in relationship (!!) with his girl friend Anu (Ramya Nambeshan). Anu’s pregnancy forces them for a hasty marriage quite discreetly. On a fateful night an order for Home delivery comes in to be delivered by Micheal.. What happens to Micheal ? What was the mystery behind that delivered address ? Where’s Anu ? --- hmmm..  the ubiquitous answer  for more questions .. watch them on screen.

The thrill of a suspense -  story  is in holding up the ‘crux’ till the climax, and this movie accomplishes that quite eloquently. The climax definitely warrants a mention here. . The  story takes the centre stage and the performances by all the actors are adequate. Vijay as the extremely scared Micheal and the elegant Ramya as Anu are apt. Thrown in a few comic interludes (quite verbally !! ) to keep you entertained . The background score sets the perfect mood to scare you.. As songs would be dampers to this screenplay they have been avoided and there’s one breezy melody for  the lead pair  to romance a little... The cinematographer has to be lauded to have captured the scenes even with minimum lights esp. the ghost haunting ones.

Well .. if you watch it keenly a very few logical flaws do exist but they are not much evident with the gripping screenplay .. So that’s “Pizza” for you served hot and fresh !! Go  grab your bite !!

Thandavam Movie Review

After quite a while I was there for a movie in a multiplex. Hmm.. a proposed team outing and we did settle for a Tamil movie “ Thandavam” the majority being tamil speaking crowd. Exceptionally!! I was on time for the movie ;) . Did I regret being ? hmm.. let me answer that later.

 With a majority of the cast and crew from the same team as “Deivathirumagal” and enough promotions prior to the release, I did enter the movie hall with some anticipations.

Peter Williams Amalraj's Review

 The movie opened up with a blast !! well quite literally yes !! A bomb blast attack in London and news about victims and a few scenes after , there comes our hero introduction as a Blind person playing on a piano in a church choir. Thrown in a little tableau of a beauty pageant for Miss London to introduce Sarah Vinayagam (Amy Jackson) as a Half brit-Half Indian lass who stumbles upon Kenny Thomas (Vikram) while in a portfolio shoot for her pageant’s social profile. Pop !! Love blossoms !! while on the other hand, a series of murders are committed by Kenny despite being visually challenged. He accomplishes this by his “echolocation”.. (How you wud be google –ing by now )..The police investigation narrows down to Kenny and Sarah herself help the cops after discovering her lover’s sinister side from his mobile phone texts. After a series of chasing game , one of Kenny’s victim escape and Sarah discovers Kenny’s accomplice Geetha (Lakshmi Rai). Guess what ? The ubiquitous flashback is been narrated by Geetha and reveals the true identity of Kenny as ShivaKumar , an IPS intelligence officer from India married to an ophthalmologist Meenakshi Vasudevan (Anuskha Shetty). What brings Shiva to London, what happens to his wife, How is his visit related to the bomb blast ? Who was the master mind behind it ?– Well reserve those questions to watch the rest of the movie. As usual, the IPS officer ‘s true intentions to save his country and world are revealed.. Phew !! That ‘s the age old story of this new movie.

 In terms of performance, Vikram does his usual best. Being the blind protagonist echo-locating his enemies or the suave IPS officer he does all, hands down. Next would be Nasser as the investigating officer ‘VeeraKathi’ though always busy in playing games in his i-pad, with his Ceylon-Tamil accent as a sharp investigating officer. Rest all the actors just appear in a scene or two for their credit. Saranya Ponvannan, MS Baskar, Thambi-Ramiah , etc – have nothing much to do. The telugu actor Jagapathy Babu as Shiva’s friend and Santhanam with his few gags got a little more screen space.

 With lot of acting potential and star performers, what was rendered was a very placid movie with no big impact. Blame it on the screen play with neither of the twist or turns being impressive enough to keep you glued to the seats (Now you might have guessed by answer for the first question). Yup.. it was bit dragging to sit through for the entire while. Music was just adequate. Well on the positive side, the cinematograpy was good. Be it London, Delhi or Tamilnadu, some beautiful locations were elegantly captured. There was no boy behind girl or vice versa romance but a subtle one and a decent movie.

With hero being named "Shiva" in a movie called "Thandavam", there is no 'uthiram' or 'ukkiram'  but an average show. Go for it with no anticipations ! Watchable once !!