My 5 cents on SOK:
Naan padam paarka ponen , oru kavithai paarthu vandhen......well actually SOK is more like a poem than a movie...... a long poem maybe.........movie dangerously treads into the path of kathir movies but has a very fresh look to it.......movie is actually a new genre in tamil......feel of movie was like watching a SRK starrer Hindi movie rather than a tamil movie.....(as there are so many reviews revealing the story, i need not dwelve into it, i guess)....
1. Surya: Surya is the pivot on which the movie revolves.......he has come of age in this movie with a copybook performance......Surya shows great maturity in switching roles as a Husband, Dad, Mechanic, College student. He has shown subtle variations in romance with Jyothika and Bhoomika. The scenes showing his love for his wife/daughter, his college crush, as a hurt mechanic, his discomfort on seeing his lost love back, and a kamal-like performance in the last scene......He is a winner from this movie.....
2. A.R.Rahman: If surya is the pivot then ARR's music is the base on which movie stands.....i need not write abt songs as they already have rave reviews behind them.......BGM - ARR, simply mindblowing.......he starts of with a whistle version of title track to depict the happy family life of surya(ARR fans, dont miss it), then uses Maaricham's bits for surya's past scenes. viloin version of "rango rangoli" bit of Munbe vaa song to depict college romance is heart-melting, Hindustani bits in the flashback scenes. There is a bit song "Machan Machan" for surya's college scenes with heavy gutiar riffs which people felt was loud. But he is the king when it comes to techno BGM. As far as i could see, he has more than done his part - bringing his fans to theatres to boost the opening....
3. Jyothika: Jyothika has also given a very matured performance. She has cut down on her weight and her unneccessary bubbliness and has given a subtle performance. She has beautifully played a happy wife and then as a troubled woman in the end. We could feel her love for surya through the movie, and their chemistry rocks. This is another huge draw for ppl. coming to theatres apart from ARR and Surya.
4. Krishna: Dude, if you wanna survive in this industry, you need to make films and not poems.
a)The movie is too long for anyone's liking,
b)Spacing of songs was pathetic: People got frustrated waiting for Munbee vaa and New york songs, Machakari was placed at an irritating juncture,
c)Song picturisation was disappointing except for Newyork Nagaram which was of top quality.
To his credit he has:
a) Properly justified Jyothika's marriage to surya and their subsequent happy life,
b) also clearly come up with reasons for Surya's yearning to live with Bhoomika for a day and exit of Bhoomika from Surya's life both the times. Need to make the movie crisper.
5. Screenplay/ Editing: God, editing is the biggest let down for the movie. They can easily cut another 30-40 minutes from the movie. Surya's flashback sequence, Vadivelu's scenes, Bhoomika- Surya reunion scenes can all be trimmed a to a large extent. Also, the Surya-Jo happy family life didnt need such a large chunk of time. Screenplay/Editing has nullified a beautiful story, amazing performances, great songs and BGM.
The film needs a lot of scissor work to be done otherwise people will cut themselves going to this movie. Catcalls towards the end, people going for smoke, shifting restlessly in the seats are not at all a good sight for a movie. an edited version would be simply amazing. someone needs to put this message across to Surya & co. pretty fast otherwise the movie may not sustain its opening.
2.5/5
