Change Your Image
aravindia75
Reviews
Thalapathi (1991)
An evergreen classic
I first saw this movie during Diwali in 1991. I used to be a school student then. This movie got rave reviews during its release and with great difficulty I got tickets to watch this fi;m! At first viewing I just loved it though I had a tough time listening to the dialogues as theatre was packed with Rajni fans who would shout and whistle at almost every dialogue of Thalaivar! I then watched it many years later on TV and then got to watch a very good print on DVD.
This is one of the most technically well made Tamil films till date. Mani Ratnam and his team made an all time classic! Wish more of such movies were made these days! The story, direction, screenplay, acting, music, cinematography are all spot on! I especially love this movie's cinematography and background music! I think this is on of the best photographed Tamil movies ever! Every cinematography student should study the photographic style of this movie! The lighting, camera angles, shot composition are just superb! And Then Ilaiyaraja's background music is just awesome! The story of this movie is inspired from Karna's character in Mahabharata. Karna was Kunti's illegitimate son (given to her womb as a boon by the sun god Surya) and had to let go of him as she was unmarried, She later married Pandu and gave birth to the Pandavas while Karna grew up on his own and later became a very good friend of Duryodhana who was a cousin and sworn enemy of the Pandavas. Rajnikanth's character is based on Karna while Mammooty's based on Duryodhana and Aravindswamy character is based on Arjuna.
This movie has loose parallels with Mani Ratnam's Nayagan which was about a Don and one of his friends from young age became his main henchman. Thalapathi's story is about the main henchman of a don. Both movies have similar patterns such as the main character getting bruttally hit in the police station and later the police trying to destroy the entire gang of the main character.
Like Nayagan Thalapathi is a violent film, In fact more violent. I remember when watching it first in theatre (had an U/A cert) this movie had lots of gory scene. I recollect with horror the scene where Rajni shoots of the fingers of Manoj K Jayan or the climax scene where Amrish Puri's head is blown of by Rajni's gun. THis and many gory moments were later removed for broadcast on TV and surprisingly even the DVD didn't have it! I doubt there any original unrated prints of this today.
This movie isn't without its flaws. To start with I wasn't convinced over the way Rajni and Mammooty became friends whereby Rajni swears to give his life for Mammooty. It takes years of understanding and loyalty to develop between friends to get to point where they are ready to give life for each other! Its true in Mahabharata Karna swore life long loyalty the minute Duryodhana saved his honor but over here it just doesn't make sense. Then in the end the Rajni's character is let to go scot free after like killing so many people and his family have no issues with it either, even his mom wants to stay with him in the end! I personally feel this is the best performance ever by Rajni in his entire career. His acting is very convincing and in many scenes he plays the part in an understated manner! I guess it takes a director like Mani Ratnam to bring out the best from a superstar like Rajni! A sad thing associated with this movie was the parting of Mani Ratnam and Ilaiyaraja, as for his next movie he launched AR Rahman who has remained his composer till date! Although Mani and Rahman have given lots of hits together its the combo of Mani and Ilaiyaraja which I cherish and remember even today! Wish they both come together again to weave another magical movie!
Gravity (2013)
Great Visuals but a bit too unbelievable for me
As a lot of hype has been going around about this film I decided to catch it up at a local theatre. I was surprised to see the show was sold out (a rarity these days as many movies run at empty hall or just half full capacity these days). I admit I went with a lot of expectations to watch this movie and after watching overall let down! There are far too many unbelievable situations in this movie which requires a lot of suspension of disbelief, for example in the beginning of the movie the 3 astronauts and crew (inside the spaceship) have to face an avalanche of debris racing towards them at super high speed and though 1 astronaut and the crew get killed the other 2 (clooney and bullock) escape unscathed with no injury. Then Bullock's cable snaps and she goes drifting away at high speed and her oxygen levels are at almost zero levels yet George clooney manages to save her and pull her towards and they both go at high speed towards the Chinese spacestation to which they crash at super high speed and guess what neither of get injured, no fractures, broken ribs hell not a scratch on them! For a movie which has aimed to realistically create space it was too much for me to watch both of the main leads escape unscathed! And this is just the beginning! For the next 1 hour there is one after another of near similar situations like this where the main lead almost gets killed but by fluke or something gets saved and finally she manages to get back to earth where even after crash landing her pod sinks into the bottom of the lake and she manages to somehow escape and come to the surface! I can suspend my disbelief for certain kinds of movies such as fast paced action movies such as those starring James Bond which has unbelievable stunt sequences and the hero escapes without a scratch on him but when I go to watch a movie like Gravity which is hyped to be a very realistic movie taking place in space its hard for me to suspend my disbelief! By the way though Bullock's performance was quite OK (compared to her other films) I personally feel she was a wrong choice for this film! I somehow couldn't accept her as some sort of a woman alone in distress trying to save herself! I feel the original choice for this film Natalie Portman would have been a great choice for this film! She has that innocent look to her face plus has an intellectual look to her as well! To conclude would I recommend this movie? yes if you are the kind who loves fast paced scifi action with lots of near misses kind of situation but if you are the kind who is expecting this to be in the level of say 2001: a space odyssey you might wanna give it a miss!
The Lone Ranger (2013)
A fun movie with a few flaws!
I didn't watch this movie when it came out in theatre as it flopped big time and got removed from many theatres faster than one could react! I caught up with it on cable TV where they broadcast it on pay per view! I admit I was too bored and just decided to watch it to while of time plus there was the curiosity value for me as I wanted to find out why this movie flopped big time! As I watched it I was in for a pleasant surprise! The movie was quite good and not at all boring! It had almost all of the right ingredients needed for a blockbuster and so I wonder why did this flop? Could it be that Americans are shown to be in bad light while Native Americans are shown as good guys? Or the fact that in the Lone ranger series Tonto's character was just a sidekick to the Lone Ranger but in this he is given equal or in some situations more importance than the ranger himself? or due to disgusting looking make up effects such as the villain's upper lip missing or the white dry pasty make up on Tonto or the overall dirty appearance of many characters or the fast paced but highly unbelievable train chase in the end? or the supernatural element such as the ranger coming back from the dead or unbelievable near miss situations? or is it just that people have already seen 100s of similar blockbuster movies that they have had enough of it? whatever be it I liked it and wish inspite of its flaws (the supernatural stuff, unbelievable climax) this movie should have at least had a decent run at the box office instead of flopping big time! By the way the best part went to that guy who played the ranger's brother! He appears for a very short while and gets killed by the villain but his part was very moving and wish he got more screen time! And wish tonto's character was played by a lesser known actor than a superstar like Depp who sadly has done way too many roles like this (one could say its an extension of his character from Pirates) Depp's superstar persona overtook tonto's character and he overshadows the movies main lead in many segments!
Escape Plan (2013)
OK for a single viewing + the curiosity of watching two former action stars together!
I admit I am an 80s/90s guy meaning I loved the movies and culture from this era! We didn't have internet, smart phones, face book for entertainment and going to the movies was our definition of entertainment! It was during this time we had major actions stars like Stallone and Schwarzenegger! It can be said Stallone ruled the 80s with movies like Rambo and Rocky and though Schwarzenegger was also a star in his own right during the 80s it was only in the 90s when he achieved super stardom with Terminator 2! So it can be said the 80s belonged to Stallone and 90s to Schwarzenegger! Like myself millions of fans of both of these stars yearned to watch a movie starring both of them! Alas we never got to see the teaming up of them together as far as movies were concerned but got some sort of compensation when they teamed up to start the Planet Hollywood restaurant chain (which sadly died a slow death) So almost after like 20-25 years wish of many fans got sort of fulfilled when they came together to star in The tomb which for reasons best known to the producers had its name changed to Escape Plan! I must admit I was a bit sad that Stallone got more prominence in the trailer of this movie than Schwarzenegger and felt he was playing a glorified sidekick but while watching the movie I was pleasantly surprised that Schwarzenegger got almost equal screen time as Stallone and delivers what he does best - chutzpah filled one liners! Yeah folks you will get to see some great one liners delivered by Schwarzenegger and he steals the scene many times! So you can assume although Stallone is technical the main protagonist of this movie its Schwarzenegger who gets more attention! I have always wondered why Schwarzeneggger did lots of actioners when he would have made a great Comedic stars as inspite of his many flaws he sure can pull great comedy! Now regarding the movie as a whole I must admit it was quite boring and there were far too many characters and complex technical stuff mentioned that after a while you lose interested though Schwarzenegger does manage to sort of keep entertained! In a movie where tiny details are told in form of dialogue the director should have employed an actor with a clear voice! Its well known that Stallone has a gravely thick voice and its kinda hard interpreting his dialogues and in a movie where technical stuff is spoken through dialogue a different actor would have been a better choice! Finally though us fans are happy to see two of our favourite action stars together after so many years we sure would have loved to watch them in a old school 80s/90s fast paced actioner with lots of fights, car chases etc.