Film / Documentary - Recently watched & worthy of some discussion

[Siv.S]

in MB, Karnan is the son of the sun.....

Ada athu theriyamaiya ithellam sollittu irukken.. the sun follows the son throughout the movie'nnene..

[Nerd]

Thalapathi All departments

Thalapathy,Mounaragam are the movies i have watched more times and can watch any number of times again ,when watched it last night realized that the Sun follows the son throughout the movie.. especially the scenes between Rajini and Jayshankar,and when Sridevi meets Rajini the background sun and the music.. Mani sir

ThaLapathi is my most watched movie in any language.

And Raaja, certainly one among his top 10, songs and BGM. Chinna thaayavaL theme and Sundari on single violin

[app_engine]

vAnaprastham (1999 I think)

Both refreshing and depressing.

Refreshing to watch a movie way different from many movies one gets to watch these days.
Focusing on the life of a kathakaLi artist. With Mohanlal easily living the role. Sweet percussion sounds thru out (music-Zakir Hussain, ivar yAru?).

Depressing afterwards, during asai pOdal, as one thinks about what happens thru out the movie to the main character.

Mrs MR is kind of ok but one misses Shobana who could have done the Subadhra role extremely better.

[app_engine]

The only minor nerudal when watching vAnaprastham was some influences here and there from sAgara sangamam & sindhu bhariavi (not on music or lAlEttan but in general / overall feel).

However, I think it's impossible to document any tale of "traditional-art-expert" without getting into things such as liquor / adultery / dhAridhriyam etc in the Indian context

One must appreciate the director, however, that not much is dwelt upon such things making one yawn. At least not as much as the focus on the intense feelings of the artist. That way, sabAsh! to him

[app_engine]

I've browsed the web on vAnaprsatham (to find out how it fared / general reviews etc) and found this link :
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0202055/reviews

It's interesting to see that another guy had expressed the exact same feeling with his review (good yet depressing)

From one of the reviews, I understand that the MD Zakir Hussain is the tablA maestro
(That's strange, considering that the movie is almost 90% "cheNdai" BGM-ed)...

[Anban]

I saw this vaanaprastham movie some 2 or 3 years.. super totally gripping.. Mohanlal romba nalla thaan nadikkiraaru.. highly underplayed and very natural yet very emotional performance..

[app_engine]

Anban, though it's not fair to compare, how will you relatively rate in the following cases:

-Kamal in sAgara sangamam (salangai oli) v/s Lal in vAnaprastham
-Jayapradha (SS) v/s Suhasihi (VP)
-Suhasini (SB) v/s Suhasini (VP)
-Sivakumar(SB) v/s Lal (VP)

(I'm not proposing Sivakumar v/s Kamal for obvious reasons)

[venkkiram]

Ella BR movies revisit panna intha opinion vanthidum pola recently watched Alaigal Oivathillai.. Very poor..amateurish attempt have to watch Kadalora kavithaigal,Muthal Mariyathai again.. my most fav. BR movies.

பதினாறு வயதினிலே, கல்லுக்குள் ஈரம், ஒரு கைதியின் டைரி, மண் வாசனை, கடலோரக் கவிதைகள், முதல் மரியாதை, வேதம் புதிது, என் உயிர் தோழன், கருத்தம்மா - திரும்ப திரும்ப பார்த்தாலும் பெரும்பாலான காட்சிகள் போரடிக்காம இருக்கிறது எனக்கு.

[KlamRoyA]

பதினாறு வயதினிலே, கல்லுக்குள் ஈரம், ஒரு கைதியின் டைரி, மண் வாசனை, கடலோரக் கவிதைகள், முதல் மரியாதை, வேதம் புதிது, என் உயிர் தோழன், கருத்தம்மா - திரும்ப திரும்ப பார்த்தாலும் பெரும்பாலான காட்சிகள் போரடிக்காம இருக்கிறது எனக்கு.

+1111111.....

Mudhal mariyathai wil be my top priority of Bharathiraja movie..

i might see it at least 20 times..

[V_S]

Poove Poochoodavaa on KTV last night. It was one of the most favorite film during my school days. One of my most watched films those days. After that I have never seen that movie. I was not sure if it will be that interesting now when I sat for that movie yesterday. This film has not even diminished (in interest) a little in all these years. Those days when we watched Nadiya's acting in this film, her first film (in thamizh, not sure about other languages), we all fell for her acting and could not believe that was her first film. So friendly and casual to the camera. Her acting used to be our benchmark for a debut actress, since we used to see mediocre acting by debut actresses in BR films including the great Radhikas, Radhas and many more who proved their talents afterwards, but not in their first film.

Those childish winking to VKR, teasing SV Shekar and even her paatti by sneezing, all still thoroughly enjoyable. Sameway when it comes to emotional scenes she again stole the show, especially when she hears SVS enjoying after she fooled her and her last dialogues with Padmini when Padmini was angry to see Nadiya's father (her son-in-law). In fact every scene she was fabulous.

Padmini's acting is par excellence. I have never seen such a grandmother in long long time. She lived in that character. Initially she refuses Nadiya when she likes to go on a boat, but later when she finds the truth of her grand daughter, immediately Fazil shifts us to the boat ride where we can see different emotions of the legend and how she makes her grand daughter happy. The last scene where she fits the bell again hoping she will come back, can melt any heart. Kudos to Fazil for making such a brilliant film. I know it is a remake of his own malayalam film (Nokketha Doorathu Kannum Nattu), still this is a wonderful remake in any remake history. If I can remember only one Padmini film, this will be the one.

Great support cast by S V Shekar. He is equally hilarious and emotional. Great actor which I miss him nowadays, not just for comedies. Very few supporting cast, but everyone VKR, Sukumari, Jai Shankar, Priest (I forgot his name, use to act very well always) did their part very well.

Coming to the music, can there be anything better. Beautiful songs. Chitra chechi in her teens I believe, what a beautiful voice and singing! It is her musical show throughout. Title song with some wonderful lyrics (naan un magaLaaga vEndum) invoked big tears in me.The motifs which runs as the veins of the film and also in us. I would like to collect that last piano piece which Nadiya plays accompanied by some heavy violins, tells stories about this extra-ordinary man and his work. Superb stuff!

Memorable film even now and I think will be forever.