PRASANTH, who is roaming with a “GOLUSU” dreaming about his girl friend whom he doesnt know !! Meets SIMRAN in Ooty near the boat club. Decides that she is the girl who can fit into his heart. AMBIKA who happen to meet PRASANTH in her music school falls in LOVE with PRASANTH (Says that she is 23 YEARS OLD). SIMRAN studies in the same music college. Story runs for another 45 minutes with AMBIKAS LOLLU KADAL with PRASANTH and PRASANTH ONE SIDE LOVE with SIMRAN and SIMRAN hating PRASANTH. Meanwhile two dream songs and gets over and SIMRAN understands PRASANTHS true love..
Now the real story starts. NASEER, Prasanth’s father hats love marriage. He works in a Marriage register office and his main aim is to separate love pairs. SIMRAN’s father is VIJAYA KUMAR who is in Bed for TWENTY years hates love too. So both this young love birds decides to act as good kids before their father and get a good word from their Parents and get married …. So PRASANTH goes to SIMRANS place and make their Parents happy. SIMRAN goes to Prasanth’s place and steals the hearts of their parents. At last the Love got a green signal with the same masala Climax.

The plot revolves around a police officer with familial obligations and a strong desire to curb terrorism in the country. The film was featured as part of a retrospective to Kamal Haasan under the category “Director in Focus” at the International Film Festival Rotterdam.

The film starts with two sincere police officers Adhi Narayanan (Kamal Hassan) and Abbas (Arjun). Abbas sends two secret vigilance officers, named Anand and Shiva on an operation called Operation Dhanush, to mingle with a terror group headed by Badri (Nasser), with the task of providing updates about the movements of the group, then later sending it back to Abbas.

In an accidental encounter, Adhi happens to get the opportunity to arrest a terrorist even without being aware that the captive is none other than the Terrorist Head Badri. There is an interesting mental battle between Adhi and Badri. Threatening to bring harm to Adhi’s family if kept in police custody, Badri displays his power by demonstrating how he is able to sneak in members of his group anywhere, including police protected headquarters. Adhi, afraid for his family’s safety, gives in and lets Badri escape.

How Adhi turns back to his original self is the crux of the story.

Ramakrishnan(Prabhu) is blessed with a wife Mythili(Abhirami) who looks at every action of his with a suspicious eye. Thiru(Prabhu Deva), a youth on the brink of poverty, is helped by the couple and even stays in their guest house. Susi(Gayatri Raghuram) is Thiru’s lover. Ramakrishnan, in a weak moment, hires a prostitute Thilothama(Monal) at the egging of his friend Viswam(Livingston). He ultimately regrets his action but not before Thilothama shows up at the guesthouse followed by Mythili. Ramakrishnan saves the day by introducing Thilothama as Thiru’s girlfriend and Thiru goes along with the plan.

The movie takes a long time(the entire first half actually!) to give us even the hint of a story but once there, it never lets the fun ebb. It successfully employs the Crazy Mohan formula of lies, cover-ups and mistaken identities to keep us laughing on a fairly regular basis. The screenplay uses several clever ploys to create a spiral of lies as Monal bounces between playing the wife of both Prabhu Deva and Prabhu depending on the situation. The events at the wedding and in the hotel at Goa have been constructed especially well.

I mentioned in the review for Vivaramaana Aalu that stand-alone jokes that might sound funny on paper rarely work in movies unless they accompany funny events that help set up the jokes. This movie proves this once again. The director manages to find some ideas that are inherently funny(like Gayatri’s regular misinterpretation of Prabhu Deva’s acts) and then adds lines that propel the scenes forward and increase the fun. Admittedly, there are a few scenes, like Prabhu’s visit to the doctor, that are hilarious solely because of the dialogs. On the other hand, the initial scenes involving Livingston aren’t funny and his character comes off looking mean-spirited rather than just weak-minded.

The opening of the movie tells us exactly where the movie is going but the length of the climax and the amount of sentiments involved both test our patience. While the happenings at the court are boring, Livingston’s argument about Vindhya’s responsibility for his womanising ways is silly and distasteful.

Prabhu Deva typical innocent look and downplayed way of speaking help his character here and he makes us laugh at several places. Prabhu too has his moments with his wide-eyed expression of surprise and /or dismay being very effective(like when he realises he has been talking to his wife and not Gayatri). Gayatri matches Prabhu Deva in the dance sequences but her dresses seem vulgar for her figure. Abhirami is adequate. Monal looks better than in her previous outings and displays a knack for comedy while Livingston and Vindhya have nothing much to do. Newcomer Bharani comes up with some catchy tunes that allow Prabhu Deva and Gayatri to show off their dance wares.
-http://www.thenisai.com/

Amelia Heinle, Christopher Cousins, Dan Aykroyd

A shy, obsessive comic book fan gets injected with an experimental serum of a lab that is studying how to give humans the abilities of spiders. At first he develops minor abilities such as increased s…( read more read more… )trength, which allows him to fight local criminals and bullies, thus living out his dream of being a superhero, and impressing his attractive next-door neighbor. Things start to get more odd when he is able to shoot webs out of his abdomen. Then he loses control over the force with which he applies his increasingly deadly abilities, as well as his judgment to discern between criminals and jokesters. His dream becomes a nightmare when he starts growing large spider body parts, he’s in constant pain, and he develops a nearly insatiable hunger. A detective with a traumatized wife begins investigating when bodies covered in cobwebs and spider venom start piling up.
- http://www.flixster.com/

Azhagam Perumal deserves a round of applause.

Jyotika and Madhavan in Dum Dum Dum Not because his debut film — Dum Dum Dum — shows signs of much promise.

Not because the film seems to have struck sparks at the box office. Not because the fledgeling director came up with some eminently enjoyable flair.

Not because he showed skill in getting good performances from his stars and support team.

But because he has, despite starting out as assistant to Mani Ratnam, managed to retain his own filmmaking identity and voice.

That is not an easy thing to do, especially when you have learnt the ropes under a stylised director like Mani. But Perumal appears to have managed the tricky balancing act of imbibing the principles of nifty storytelling from his mentor, at the same time retaining his own idiom.

Mani is a ‘city’ director — at his best when telling tales set against a metropolitan ambience. Perumal’s debut, however, is set against the backdrop of interior Tamil Nadu, and stays true to the milieu he has chosen for his tale.

And that is the most visible sign of Perumal’s having stepped out of the Mani Ratnam shadow. There are others more subtle, but equally evident as you watch the Madhavan-Jyotika starrer that shows promise of good legs at the box office.

Storywise, Perumal takes an age-old tale, and gives it a little tweak. The parents of Madhavan and Jyotika decide to unite the two in wedlock. Madhavan, though, is your typical city-slicker — fast cars, beer, babes. Marriage, he believes, will curtail his ‘fun’.

Jyotika, meanwhile, has ranked high in her Plus Two exams and wants to study further.

Bottomline, neither of them is in favour of the marriage. So they put their heads together and plot to get the wedding called off. The best laid plans of mice, men and Madhavan, though, go awry. And with just 12 hours to go, the marriage is as good as a done deal.

On the night before the wedding, the couple get some space and privacy, to chat. And resign themselves to the inevitability of the event.

As so often happens, once you accept a situation, you begin to see its good points — Madhavan and Jyotika are no exceptions to this rule.

Just when the two are moving from resignation to anticipation, however, a completely unexpected misunderstanding throws the wedding party into an uproar, and puts the fathers of the boy and girl at loggerheads.

The wedding is off — which is what Madhavan and Jyotika wanted all along, right? Wrong.

But there’s nothing they can do about it, so the former goes off to the city and soon after, so does Jyotika, to continue her studies. There, they meet, their friendship burgeons into love… And they live happily ever after — but how?

That’s what the rest of the movie is about.

Jyotika and Madhavan in Dum Dum DumThe film is set in Ambasamudram, with the characters adhering to the Nellai dialect of Tamil and pulling it off quite well. The interesting thing about this setting of the film in down-deep Tamil Nadu is that the milieu comes across clearly. But there is never any attempt to put it in the spotlight.

You don’t find the director going hey, look, this is a milieu film, or going overboard on the use of sets and props to underline it. The backdrop is just there, integral to the story but never intruding into it.

Madhavan and Jyotika, the lead pair, are perfectly cast, and perform as per expectations.

The surprise package is Murali, the veteran character actor from Kerala making his Tamil debut in the role of Jyotika’s father, and turning in a measured performance.

Mannivannan, Delhi Kumar and other central players are equally assured, making for a film where the cast lives up to the demands of a well-etched script.

The camera is understated (again, in contrast to Mani Ratnam’s patented style).

Karthik Raja comes up with a couple of hummable numbers, but it is the background score that is really noteworthy. Interestingly Azhagam Perumal enough, Ilayaraja’s eldest son once told me that he enjoys doing background even more than tuning the songs themselves — and that love for background comes across very clearly in this film.

The real star, though, is director Azhagam Perumal.

Judging by the evidence of Dum Dum Dum has what it takes to come up with a box office bonanza.
-http://www.rediff.com

The first thing that has to be said about ‘Dhaam Dhoom’ is that the man who envisioned the project and started making things happen – master cinematographer and director Jeeva would have been a mighty proud man if he had lived to see the release of the film. Cinematography, Art Direction and the Background Score truly comply to international standards and blend perfectly well with the mood of the film.

The story of ‘Dhaam Dhoom’ heavily inspired from the 1997 Richard Gere film ‘Red Corner’ keeps the audience engrossed right from the outset. Stunning visuals of ravishing Russia, the earthly beauty of India and the choice of characters have been meticulously showcased thereby creating the right foil for the thriller elements of the film. Jeeva has been a big name when it came to highlighting emotions of young people in a trendy way. This is the first and sadly the last where he has ventured to make a thriller. ‘Jayam’ Ravi is probably the perfect choice to play the character of a man ‘hunted’ by Russian law and has to ‘hunt’ in order to prove his innocence. The onscreen chemistry between ‘Jayam’ Ravi and Kangana Ranaut is telling and works wonders for the film. Kojernikova Maria, a Russian actress, Lakshmi Rai and Jayaram fit into their characters with ease and style.

Gautham Subramanium (’Jayam’ Ravi), a brilliant medical practitioner is engaged to his sweetheart Shenba (Kangana Ranaut) in a village and is all set to marry her in a matter of days when a prestigious call to represent the nation beckons him. A medical convention is to happen in Russia for a week and a few Indian doctors travel to take part in it. Once in Russia, Gautham bumps into a seductive Russian girl, Anna (Kojernikova Maria) who has a mysterious nature about her. After a brief rendez-vous in a night club the two end up in Gautham’s place and the next morning dawns as a shocker to the young Indian. Anna is found dead and the police arrest Gautham on charges of murder. Completely bewildered by the sudden happenings and not understanding what the representatives of the law speak, a Russian based Indian attorney named Aarthi (Lakshmi Rai) is appointed to represent his cause. But then our protagonist gets an opportunity to escape from the clutches of the police and decides to unravel the truth with the help of Aarthi. An employee of the Indian Embassy in Russia, played by Jayaram is also sympathetic to the cause. To add a bit of romance-oriented confusion Aarthi begins to drift towards Gautham in spite of danger lurking all around.

Gautham’s and the blushing bride-to-be Shenba’s family wait for the return of the groom but then they get to know the dastardly events that had happened in Russia through television news broadcast.

The story has been narrated in such a way that montage sequences narrate blossoming love and dreamy scenes with immaculate hopes and then the stark reality of the protagonist being a fugitive sets in.

Harris Jayaraj’s songs are pleasant to hear with ‘Anbe En Anbe’ taking center stage. The background score simply stuns audiences and has traces of the Hitchcockian style of tension building. Certain scenes accompany the ‘Pshcho’ kind of tension music and the use of traditional Indian instruments accompanying their western counterparts comes out in a breathtaking fashion.

When it comes to cinematography, the word is AWESOME. Manikandan, Rajasekhar and Jeeva himself (for some song sequences) have come out with tantalizingly creative stuff. The awesome threesome will have to thank Thotta Tharani for his brilliant art and design work. A picture they say is worth a thousand words. With each frame of the film having come out in such a pleasing way the output has semblances of poetic expressions.

Stunts have been innovatively done expect for a few rope-oriented jumps and ‘Jayam’ Ravi’s body language and poise has been excellent. He has all the making of becoming a very successful action hero.

The film however runs out of momentum especially around the time the protagonist finds out the real culprit behind his being framed. On the whole, interest levels are sure to be maintained.

The technical brilliance and intensity the script carries has shaped out to be a true tribute to Jeeva. The hard work meted out after the director’s demise is clearly showing. Good work from a good team.
-www.indiaglitz.com

Hats off to Silambarasan for continuing the good run of his Manmadhan in Vallavan. A triangular love-story with twists and turns has been brought out well by the actor-director. Vallavan has excellent cinematography combined with racy background score making it for engrossing viewing.

Silambarasan occupies the screen all through, while Reema Sen has impresses all eve with her limited screen space. Nayantra and Sandhya do their best.

However, the real hero of the movie has been Yuvan Shankar Raja. His peppy numbers and brisk musical score help sustain the momentum in the movie.

Amidst campus candy floss movie, Simbhu has dished out a forbidden kind of love story that happens among school students.

The movie begins with a college student Vallavan (Silambarasan) falling in love with a professor Sandhya (Nayantra). Desperate attempts to impress her succeed. But Vallavan hides the truth that he is a student and three-years younger to Sandhya. Later, Sandhya, coming to know the truth, decides not to go ahead with her plans to marry a youth, who is younger to her.

Meanwhile a flash back reveals Vallavan’s romance with a classmate Geetha (Reema Sen). A hysteric Geetha ensures that Vallavan runs crazy behind her. Coming to know of her true nature, Vallavan resolves to teach her a lesson.

Geetha returns one fine day only to inform Vallavan that she was the one who played spoilsport in the affair between him and Sandhya to teach him a lesson. The remaining story is about attempts of Vallavan to marry Sandhya but with Geetha going hammer and tongs to prevent it.

Silambarasan has utilized the opportunity well to glorify himself. He boasts himself uttering lengthy dialogues. But the man sure has oodles of energy and is a livewire all through.

Nayantra plays his lady love. Sandhya as Silambarasan’s friend has played her part well. Reema Sen, whose character resembles Neelambari of Padayappa, does what is expected of her. She even takes to arms to take revenge Silambarasan. She is, overall, very convincing.

The rest of the cast including Santhanam, S Ve Shekher fits well.

Priyan’s cinematography deserves a mention. His lens has captured the song sequences well. As we said, Yuvan is the backbone of the movie.

All told, Silambarasan has brought out the director well in him.
-www.indiaglitz.com

Director: Gavin Hood
When choosing which mutant hero they would use to launch the X-MEN feature-film prequel series ORIGINS, the creators of the hugely successful franchise had a no-brainer of a decision in going with Wolverine. Not only is he the most well-known and popular X-Men character, but Wolverine–as brought expertly to life in true leading-man fashion by Hugh Jackman–was essentially the star of the three previous X-MEN movies. As the title implies, X-MEN ORIGINS: WOLVERINE is the back story of the fiery and conflicted Wolverine (né James Logan), whose mutant powers include killer claws that shoot from his knuckles and a regenerative ability that allows him to live seemingly forever. Taking a few mild liberties but staying relatively faithful to the comic-book source material, ORIGINS follows Logan from his first recognition of his mutant powers as a young child up through his infamous adamantium rebirth and the total memory loss that would subsequently fuel his angry quest. Wolverine’s story has enough intriguing details to allow for a grown-up psychodrama in the mold of THE DARK KNIGHT, and the actors on hand–including Danny Huston as Stryker and Liev Schreiber as Logan’s half-brother, Victor (aka Sabretooth)–have the chops to deliver. Director Gavin Hood, however, opts in favor of cinematic razzle-dazzle heavy on John Woo-style action-ballet and CGI glitz. From Deadpool’s eye-popping swordplay (the action-adventure equivalent of Riverdance) to the tightrope-walk of a fight scene in the film’s finale, WOLVERINE is a blockbuster action film in the most fundamental sense of the word. While some might complain that the film lacks the storytelling substance of the first two X-MEN films, if it’s bang you’re after, then this certainly isn’t a waste of your bucks.
- http://www.rottentomatoes.com

In this raucous Disney adaptation of Jules Verne’s classic adventure novel AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 DAYS, Steve Coogan plays Phileas Fogg, a quirky inventor at the turn of the 20th century. After… In this raucous Disney adaptation of Jules Verne’s classic adventure novel AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 DAYS, Steve Coogan plays Phileas Fogg, a quirky inventor at the turn of the 20th century. After suffering rejection by England’s Royal Academy of Science, Fogg strives to prove his scientific worth by accepting a challenge to circumnavigate the globe in a mere 80 days. Fogg, his cohort Passepartout (Jackie Chan), and his new love Monique (Cecile de France), find trouble and excitement as they make their way from Turkey to Morocco to the United States, and ultimately Fogg discovers that scientific validation is not all he needs for a successful life. Jackie Chan shines in his role as Passepartout, who masquerades as Fogg’s valet in an attempt to escape authorities after he robs the Bank of England. As he evades his enemies and keeps Fogg in the dark about his true background, Chan provides stellar comedic action and performs daring stunts. Celebrity cameos punctuate the film, with Arnold Schwarzenegger playing a polygamous Turkish ruler (filmed before the start of his campaign for California governor) and Owen and Luke Wilson playing the hilariously squabbling Wright Brothers. In addition to the lavish sets and nonstop action, this version of the classic remains true to the idea that one should hold on to dreams, no matter how improbable or outlandish.

-http://www.rottentomatoes.com

Jeeva(Vikramaditya) is the editor of the college magazine. Both Anjali(Gayatri Raghuram) and Maya(Sherin) have feelings for him though Jeeva seems to be leaning towards the former. One of their professors(Livingston) is an expert on Naaga, the spirit of a woman who was killed several centuries back. She has quite a close link to the college since the temple built in her name was demolished to make way of the college. When some students of the college begin vanishing mysteriously, their disappearance is attributed to Naaga.

I was so fed up of movies set in college campuses treading the same path that I was overjoyed to find a movie that dealt with a different theme. Romance and comedy, usually the mainstays of those movies, are just subplots here as the movie declares itself to be a murder mystery right from the first sequence. And it eventually satisfies all the criteria of a good murder mystery quite well. It has good suspense, some well handled murder and chase scenes, enough suspects, a few believable red herrings and doesn’t disappoint when the identity of the killer is revealed.

The movie has some effective scenes but unfortunately, all of these are sequences copied from the original. The first scene with the girl in the van and the sequence where Gayatri Raghuram doesn’t realise her roommate is being killed are two such scenes. While never scary or gory, the scenes do manage to get the adrenaline flowing. The same skill is not evident in sequences that are original. The flashback explaining Nagamma’s life is different but not particularly engrossing. The other flashback is the usual prank-gone-wrong incident though it provides the only link to the title since it happens on something called ‘whistle day’!

Unlike Julie Ganapathy , which was also a remake of a Hollywood thriller(though both the source and the copy were far superior), the director duo here does not stick to the main story and makes several detours in the form of comedy and songs. This hurts both ways since it allows the tension to ebb on the serial killer track while it makes the comedy less funny since we view it as essentially an intrusion on a serious story. The Hollywood movie What Women Want serves as the inspiration for Vivek’s comedy track here as he starts of becoming privy to women’s private thoughts before branching out in unexpected ways. But the comedy is never as funny as the topic suggests.

Vikramaditya has little to do other than dance and indulge in a fight at the end. Both heroines have meaty roles and perform well. Livingston is not particularly creepy as the professor who has his own agenda while Rajkapoor has a couple of chances to be creepy. Songs are mostly catchy with the title song and Azhagiya Asura… being the best.