Films recently watched & worthy of some discussion

[mappi]

Jil Jung Juk (The Good, the Bad, the Ugly) [2016 : Tamil : 2h15m : Comedy (Satire, Literary nonsense, Pop Culture - Gangster)]

Co-Written & Directed by Deeraj Vaidy
Music : Vishal Chandrashekhar (Inam, Appuchi Gramam)
Editor : Kurtz Schneider
Cinematography : Shreyaas Krishna

Starring : Jasmin Bhasin (cameo), Siddharth, Avinash Raghudevan, Sananth Reddy with Radharavi, Nassar, Amarendran, RJ Balaji, Sai Dheena & Bagavathi Perumal in extended cameos



Good happens. Bad happens. And then we know shit happens! It's about life where the good things come first, for exemple you get a job, make friends and enjoy a film shooting featuring your favourite actress. In between these short & memorable times, a sudden change brings in a midget size bad omen when you allow your car to meet a tree or be stranded in the middle of nowhere without fuel or even your 'dearer-than-life' car gets stolen. Good teaches us to face the bad, but just until the point where ugly things start to show their gaint shapes - for instance you get caught amoung people who think "When life gives you lemons, squirt someone in the eye (Cathy Guisewite)". The Good, The Bad, The Ugly - simply put to make understanding easy - Jil Jung Juk is exactly what life can provide you with during the most important moments as described by the Saints - the moment between Life & Death.

The film - Jil Jung Juk - starts at somewhere and ends at somewhere, and that's the extrodinary beauty of the movie. Just to show their attraction towards cricket, the Producer-Director (Siddarth-Deeraj Vaidy) duo open their film with a 20-20 reference, which actually conveys nonsense through a lecture about the world been drowned by self-proclaimed wounds, but the citizens still play cricket and make movies - the two inseparable entertainment in anyone's personel life (exceptions excluded). With this awesome start, Deivanayagam (Amarendran) is under an enormous stress to deliver the last package of 'a 'crystalline powder', lets give it a name - The Crack - to the asian mafia. He and his two side-kicks, one a chauffeur and the other a kind of an employment agent, rework an Italian kind of Job to a vintage car. To be sure to get 'The Crack Car' delivered safely, they opt to use three henchmen who are not on the radar of neither the social security nor the local mafia group, thus, Nanjil Shivaji (Siddarth as Jil), Jungulingam (Avinash Raghudevan as Jung) & Jaguar Jagan (Sananth Reddy as Juk) are set on roll, to deliver the Crack Car to the international buyer. There is no problem, but watch the film to see how hell tears open the ground and blazes anything that's in motion.

Deeraj Vaidy steadies the characters, creates suituations according to their behaviours and finally pops out funny incidents from their actions. This is a typical genre film making, where Deeraj Vaidy with his team of brillant techniciens has thrown in his knowledge over film making by moving forward the naration with colors and style. The main forte of the film are the characters - not only how they are named, but how they address other minute details which are in their pocession. For instance, Rolex Rowther (Radha Ravi) walks around with "Cheer Girls", a group of tiny deadly ants roaming inside a glass jar. Similarly, usage of slides during establishing shots were cool, where slides of the destined building are brought up to denote the exterior followed by interrior shots. A comic stips slowly crawls into the film adding a fabulous mood, just as the short animation. All this and more in just two hours of its runtime - Hats off Deeraj Vaidy.

The performances were pure. The scenes are crowded, and each one inside the frame seem to be occupied with an activity or with just plain reactions, while the focused character is enacting. The wide angles are basically to promote and elivate the background where most of the time an artist takes his prominent place. The movie also bookmarks itself with enjoyable twists. The cuts look simple on screen, but during the opening song Kurtz Schneider involves himself to showcase a sample his awesome work. The costumes are a big motivation to the camera works, simple but catchy, they are all caught inside the lens perfectly. During an explosion sequence, there are about four state of affairs to be shown at the same moment - an explosion, at the same time, Jil running, at the same time, goons gearing up to attack, at the same time, Jung & Juk prepare to run. All these look different as they were captured differently, brilliant work by Shreyaas Krishna. Vishal Chandrashekhar's music score is quite punctuating where he amuses himself with all the fantastic suituations - the highlight is the theme music during the interval block and during the shoot-out. The idea during the climax is brilliant.

When Jil goes to find some petrol, Jung & Juk play with their balls, a game of marbles. The goal is to pocket it in a hole, and when the blazing balls run into the tiny gap, Vishal Chandrashekhar opts to pleasure us with the 'Kati Mellam' music. Another one is in the form of 'Casonova' song. By this time the lyrics should have enlightened a certain meaning, but the wordplay could turn-on the spotlight - "Gas No Va". Similarly, Red Road-u sings about voyeurism. There are a lot of pun inside the film, like the phone conversation of Daddy (Nasser) with Jil or Attack (Sai Dheena) calling his shot gun "Kai" (hand). The film passed out as a U/A! But the film can't be really branded as an Adult Film, but certainly its for matured audience, ofcoarse a teen around would add more fun.

Being my favourite genre, I thoroughly enjoyed the film and profited from its symbolisms over various popular culture in films. Recently I watched a crazy and fun film in which warewolves have to fight with the Zombies and somewhere in the middle they have to team up to face an alien invasion (LoL). Jil Jung Juk is equally funny. Bring in the part-2, please. Hats off to the entrire team.

Jil Jung Juk - Shoot the Cat