Film / Documentary - Recently watched & worthy of some discussion

**interz** · 13th March 2014, 05:54 PM

Nimirnthu nil - tamil/telugu mix

The movie is only partially good. While the first half started promisingly, 2nd half ruins everything. Suddenly this movie looks like a telugu movie. Moreover most scenes in 2nd half looks comic, even when the actors are being serious.

Jeyam Ravi has a lot of scope to perform, and does his characters well. Amala Paul has a meaty role and does excellent in comedy and well as in sentiment scenes. Parotta Soori had big part to play in 1st half, in 2nd half he is more like a dummy.

GVP did ok with BGM, and none songs were catchy, not that this movie required songs. Esp the song near waterfall is totally out of sync with the movie.

Director Samudrakani tried to satisfy tamil telugu audience, maybe some people will like it for the social awareness message. Tamil cineme will never change with movies like this. Repeated scenes, re used phrases, moreover mr goody-good Gopinath is in the movie. People with sensible ears be alert.

**Google Adsense** · 13th March 2014 05:54 PM

**hattori_hanzo** · 14th March 2014, 03:31 AM

Jilla

Must have been a treat for Vijay's fans. But this is exactly the kind of film which I dont want Vijay or anyone else to do in future.

There are two common ways to elevate one's star status successfully. These are required to transform an 'action' movie to a 'Mass' movie - one - have 10 allakkais around you, make them shower praises on you right from the beginning till the end of the movie in regular intervals, like what MGR and Rajini did in the past. This was last seen in Ajith's Veeram.

And the other way is to include a big star and make him look like an oppukku chappaan - A tried and tested formula which still holds good. If someone who hasn't seen Mohanlal's Malayalam movies before gets a chance to watch Jilla, he would probably ask, "Ivarayaa periya nadigarnu sonneenga?". If an ML fan watches it, azhudhuduvaan. The 'complete actor' is reduced nothing, but a weak supporting actor in this very violent movie. Even the few punch dialogues written for ML fall so flat that, not Vijay, but even a Simbu, Soori or a Vimal can counter them and get an applause from the audience. Each time, he starts, "Indha Sivan...", you would know its going to be answered with a much stronger punch by Vijay. His Malayalam accent makes things worse. When the movie ends, the score is like Vijay vs Mohanlal 20-0.

Vijay is there in every frame and every sequence is framed to suit him. I have never been a fan of Vijay's comedy and I have nothing positive to say about it. I just feel he overacts too much in comedy scenes. Whereas he does score high in serious sequences - especially when he repents for his mistakes & when he loses his brother. Soori is OK. But the most funny scenes are reserved for the climax. Sampath suddenly pops up, only to accept the blame for ML's crimes and make ML look like a Punidha Pasu (The thing to be noted here is, even Sampath has a tough fight against Vijay and scores few points here and there, unlike Mohanlal who is always in the receiving end).
In the climax, after losing his son, after losing all properties especially that 500crores, after losing two dozen fights against Vijay, and after surrendering to the cops, we still see a cheerful Mohanlal dancing his way to the jail. Aahaa..enna oru sandhosham! That is the only place where we see him emoting. In every other scene, he looks either expressionless or confused, much to the advantage of Vijay and fans.

The 'unbelievability' factor in Tamil Cinema starring mass actors has grown to an unprecedented level. We are so used to these illogical scripts that we dont even complain if the hero keeps bashing every goon who comes by his way, throws some of them over the cieling, shows total disrespect to his superiors, etc etc....neraya etc..Not just the hero, but even the younger version of the hero gets a mass intro scene with his face zoomed and shown in show motion for ten seconds.

Hands getting chopped, bloodshed and gunshots seen once every five minutes, severed limbs, bomb explosions, rowdyism all form a major part of this "kudumba padam". I sincerely hope Kaavalan and Thuppaaki were not exceptions.

**littlemaster1982** · 14th March 2014, 04:53 AM

Originally Posted by 19thmay

Thegidi - Interesting to an extent. The problem with this movie was that it was easy to guess the X..however the way hero decodes the issue was good.

Originally Posted by 19thmay

Thegidi - Interesting to an extent. The problem with this movie was that it was easy to guess the X..however the way hero decodes the issue was good.

I liked it. I guessed the X too, but it was just before the reveal

In most of the films, the motivation behind the murders is silly, but here it was something new and entirely possible in today's world.

Originally Posted by mexicomeat

thegidi - could have been a great movie, but due to below-average screenplay, turned out to be an average movie.

hero's father character was unnecessary - didn't add anything to the movie
hero has two house - one in native place and one in chennai - didn't add anything to the movie
hero does not have a cellphone - we are being reminded of this at least 4 times in the movie
i could go on...

problem with this movie and biriyani movie is that it appears that the writers have written the script and then decided "hmm... who is the least possible suspect".. ah lets pick him as the villian.

that is what seperates mediocre thrillers and novels from agatha christie. agatha picks a character and a strong motive before she starts writing but adds lots of red herring to ensure that we look elsewhere...

Agree with almost all points, but I would categorise this film above average, just for the making. Loved the killing that happens

Spoiler:

.

**ajaybaskar** · 14th March 2014, 10:37 AM

Vallinam

One time watch for the interestingly choreographed basketball sequences. But why such spitting of venom on cricket? Like Chak De India, here is one cricketer who hates other sports and even goes to the extent of trying to stop a championship. Wonder if any cricketer would do that in real life.

**Russellyhd** · 14th March 2014, 11:05 AM

Originally Posted by ajaybaskar

Vallinam

One time watch for the interestingly choreographed basketball sequences. But why such spitting of venom on cricket? Like Chak De India, here is one cricketer who hates other sports and even goes to the extent of trying to stop a championship. Wonder if any cricketer would do that in real life.

Agreed

**uruzalari** · 14th March 2014, 11:16 AM

Originally Posted by ajaybaskar

Vallinam

One time watch for the interestingly choreographed basketball sequences. But why such spitting of venom on cricket? Like Chak De India, here is one cricketer who hates other sports and even goes to the extent of trying to stop a championship. Wonder if any cricketer would do that in real life.

I actually felt that it was the personal character of the villain that was in the forefront. He is shown as an inherently hot headed person in several scenes in the film. He actually abuses or hurts even his own teammates when they even speak something against him. He happens to be a cricketer and the superior status that cricket enjoys in our society helps in boosting his ego further.

**rsubras** · 14th March 2014, 03:10 PM

Originally Posted by hattori_hanzo

Jilla

Must have been a treat for Vijay's fans. But this is exactly the kind of film which I dont want Vijay or anyone else to do in future.

There are two common ways to elevate one's star status successfully. These are required to transform an 'action' movie to a 'Mass' movie - one - have 10 allakkais around you, make them shower praises on you right from the beginning till the end of the movie in regular intervals, like what MGR and Rajini did in the past. This was last seen in Ajith's Veeram.

And the other way is to include a big star and make him look like an oppukku chappaan - A tried and tested formula which still holds good. If someone who hasn't seen Mohanlal's Malayalam movies before gets a chance to watch Jilla, he would probably ask, "Ivarayaa periya nadigarnu sonneenga?". If an ML fan watches it, azhudhuduvaan. The 'complete actor' is reduced nothing, but a weak supporting actor in this very violent movie. Even the few punch dialogues written for ML fall so flat that, not Vijay, but even a Simbu, Soori or a Vimal can counter them and get an applause from the audience. Each time, he starts, "Indha Sivan...", you would know its going to be answered with a much stronger punch by Vijay. His Malayalam accent makes things worse. When the movie ends, the score is like Vijay vs Mohanlal 20-0.

Vijay is there in every frame and every sequence is framed to suit him. I have never been a fan of Vijay's comedy and I have nothing positive to say about it. I just feel he overacts too much in comedy scenes. Whereas he does score high in serious sequences - especially when he repents for his mistakes & when he loses his brother. Soori is OK. But the most funny scenes are reserved for the climax. Sampath suddenly pops up, only to accept the blame for ML's crimes and make ML look like a Punidha Pasu (The thing to be noted here is, even Sampath has a tough fight against Vijay and scores few points here and there, unlike Mohanlal who is always in the receiving end).
In the climax, after losing his son, after losing all properties especially that 500crores, after losing two dozen fights against Vijay, and after surrendering to the cops, we still see a cheerful Mohanlal dancing his way to the jail. Aahaa..enna oru sandhosham! That is the only place where we see him emoting. In every other scene, he looks either expressionless or confused, much to the advantage of Vijay and fans.

The 'unbelievability' factor in Tamil Cinema starring mass actors has grown to an unprecedented level. We are so used to these illogical scripts that we dont even complain if the hero keeps bashing every goon who comes by his way, throws some of them over the cieling, shows total disrespect to his superiors, etc etc....neraya etc..Not just the hero, but even the younger version of the hero gets a mass intro scene with his face zoomed and shown in show motion for ten seconds.

Hands getting chopped, bloodshed and gunshots seen once every five minutes, severed limbs, bomb explosions, rowdyism all form a major part of this "kudumba padam". I sincerely hope Kaavalan and Thuppaaki were not exceptions.

good take.... exactly my views...even though as you say Mohanlal was relegated....he provided the movie his charm and the aura...any other actors in his place would have dragged the movie down along with them.....Best of Vijay comes when there is a better guy either to handle him as a director or compete with him as a dancer / co-actor

**hattori_hanzo** · 15th March 2014, 02:45 AM

Agreed. Including ML in the star cast had its own advantages. He was there in the promos and posters and that helped in generating a curiosity. Added to that, ML's name was seen first, preceding Vijay in the opening credits too. I was eagerly expecting him to do something till the very end of the movie. But each scene ended with a (+) for Vijay and a (-) for ML. Vijay fans must have had a field day in theaters. Slow motion, zoom, BGM utilized fully

In the first half, ML uses his power to make his son a cop. But even here, it is Vijay's reluctance, followed by some unfunny scenes involving his henchmen and then his acceptance that get highlighted and not ML's power or his wish to make Vijay a cop. The last nail in the coffin was when RK says 'varattum andha Kezhavan' and his edupidi replies, 'Vandhirukkuradhu kezhavan maadhiri illa sir...'. Total damage.
ML is not known for menacing looks, but for subtle expressions. But we couldn't see any of them in those close-up shots...That's why I felt he was unfit for this role.