Film / Documentary - Recently watched & worthy of some discussion

[vithagan]

Leelai - Decent movie!

Weekend la relaxeda enna padam paarkalamnu thedravangalukku Highly Recommended.
Sathanam comedy mokkai.. songs sumaar. Mathapadi enjoyed it.

[jaiganes]

I think eesan was commercially a flop. The major mistake by Sasikumar was "not using familiar faces" on-screen for a masAlA.

His earlier movies (Subramanyapuram as director / nAdOdikaL as producer) didn't need familiar faces because both had some novelty in the storyline (i.e. to TF watchers) and not just the presentation layer.

OTOH, eesan has nothing new in the storyline (age old pazhivAngal business), though the presentation layer is slightly different from the standard masAlA template.

Being a revenge masAlA, the movie could have been a big hit if Sasikumar used stars who are familiar to the masses. Even his face has become familiar (post subramaniapuram / nadOdikaL) and that's why I wondered how it would have fared had he done the cop role.

I thought that Samuththirakani was picture perfect for this role. The boy was a cracker (wasnt he?).
I liked the movie and wished it could be a little short. the early on meandering take on night life of chennai was tad too long - if you wanted a crisper plot surrounding misdeeds of "sons of big shots" - get hold of kannada movie "Accident" directed by shankar nag - that one nailed it..

[app_engine]

I thought that Samuththirakani was picture perfect for this role. The boy was a cracker (wasnt he?).

Yes, I definitely agree! Just speculated on the possibility of better reception with some familiar hero (for e.g. it was not unusual to see Mammotty doing this kind of roles in MF every now and then...and those were received very well by the audience ; I'm not sure if the reception would have been same with a start-up actor)

Also agree on the thoyvu (due to the length) in the initial scenes which was possibly the main reason for the failure. However, looking from Sasikumar's viewpoint, those were the "new" things in the movie (well, "attempted novelty" that failed this time)...

[Prabo]

There were lot of confusions w.r.t Eesan making. Initially, Sasikumar said the movie is about city life and a 50 year old will don the protogonist role. Vikram the producer then backed out from the project midway and Sasikumar himself produced it. First half city life was sothapal, but second half revenge part wasn't that bad. Intrestingly, Yutham Sei which was quite slimilar to Eesan second half did well.....

[Nerd]

App, bad example. Samu is as well known as Sasi if not better. In fact Samu has more TV appearances than Sasi. He is seen in pretty much every other Vijay TV show.

And definitely thats not the reason for the film not doing well. Poor material and boringly presented. I remember liking the first half > 2nd. Have to search for my old post

[littlemaster1982]

And definitely thats not the reason for the film not doing well. Poor material and boringly presented. I remember liking the first half > 2nd. Have to search for my old post

Saw it yesterday. Below Average.

The film needs so many scenes to establish the characters and meanders in all possible directions in the first one hour or so and none of these scenes is of any importance in the second half. I would have started the film with Vaibhav's murder. His louuu track and the louuer's daddy (Vijay Mallya!) Vs his daddy track etc. Absolutely unnecessary. The film would have been a lot better (only relatively) if it were only two hours long. One hour of wasted footage, most in the first half.

Actually, I liked the first half better since it was not boring and was intriguing at least. But the second half completely spoiled everything as in all the open threads / subplots in the first half were not connected at all. Poorly acted too. Deivam's assistant was good though.

There were flashes of brilliance in the writing: For example - The naming - Needhirajan, DheivamE (As observed by BRangan), and dheivam snobbishly dismissing a velayutham (kaiyezhuthu pOda sonnaa oru thuNaikkaal extra pOdra) and Abhinaya's dad character was well written but I had no idea what was happening in the village thiruvizhaa. Unnecessary again, the flashback could have been crisper.

And Sasi the director shines in a few scenes too. For example, the scene in which Sangaiyaa makes Dheivam's assistant to puke, the camera getting obstructed by Sangaiyya's rolling chair. Neat.

Here you go

[app_engine]

if you wanted a crisper plot surrounding misdeeds of "sons of big shots"

There had been a few in MF during the 80's...if we strip the songs, eesan would have been like one of them.

BTW, I didn't FF that seashore song - surprisingly good!
(Watched the movie alone, no kids )

Prabo, while the flash back / revenge portion was presented ok, one gets a 'idhu mAthiri eththanai pAththAchchu' feel...under such conditions, what if the cop role was done by, say, Vikram?

[app_engine]

Nerd,
ok, since I'm not close to TV shows, I didn't know he's so popular

Totally agree to the meandering part. However, like you said, that kept the interest alive with 'ennamO vithyAsamA varappOdhu' feel.

However, once the revenge masAlA started, chappunnu pOchchu...

[Nerd]

Thanks LM, not as embarrassing as few other 'old' posts

[Nerd]

MaamEn magaL - Upto the reel andhupOchu scene, adhukkappuRam zimbly waste, so stopped. indha aLavukku kooda ippO irukka commercial padam illeeng. Even the ponnambalam fight etc, easy-aa flow aagudhu..

Annan operates on a completely different plane and what a funny!! One of his bests ever. The most crucial / important moment of the film is the reel andhupOchu scene. Intense moments and guess what, its aNNan's solo for 2 full minutes!! Everybody, the important players of the scene, wait from him to stop talking and then come to the point.