By: Anand. J [Cinema Correspondent]
DEEPAVALI
Director Ezhil might have planned to release his movie Deepavali during the festival time of Deepavali 2006 but fate had the movie release only by February 2007. February being a month of no festival saw 4 other competent releases in the form of Lee, Mozhi, Pachai Kili MuthuCharam and Paruthi Veeran made the month look like it was a festival month. Timing of release of this movie didn’t do any good to the Box office collections since it had to compete against four other good movies plus the title ‘Deepavali’ didn’t have any justification. Neither a character nor the story has any connection to the movie title ‘Deepavali’ and the viewers keep wondering why this title was selected in the first place.
Billu (Ravi) is a tough lovable young man, son of Mudaliar (Vijayakumar) who is a sort of kingmaker of Royapuram area in Chennai. Enter Susi (Bhavana) a down to earth rich girl who
comes to live as a guest in his neighbourhood. It is love at first sight for Billu as he picks her up from the railway station and on the way back she too falls flat for his brawns as he fights a dozen thugs single handedly. How can a love story be without a villain ? Once again it is the same old dad of the heroine who is the bad man. He is Chidambaram (Lal) a dreaded don in Bangalore who is a killing machine. Susi had a miserable childhood and her mother was killed in a car accident planned by Chidambaram’s enemies. Adding more woes to her life, she survives a head injury in that accident but suffers from “Post traumatic event amnesia”. Tamil cinema tradition has enlightened the viewers about the various unknown diseases in the medical world. What a selfless service to the film going public ???!!!
Susi forgets what happened in the last three years of her life and is literally scared of her dad. Now Chidambaram lands up in Chennai, beats up Billu to pulp (seeing the mayhem, Susi once again loses her memory) and now she forgets the Chennai episodes in her life including our poor Billu. At this juncture, even the film viewers go through a post traumatic event amnesia and are forced to forget what happened in the first half of the movie. Such is the confusion in the screenplay that it makes viewers wonder as to “What is it about memory ?”. Our Superhero wakes up in the hospital bed and straightaway heads to Bangalore to bring back Susi who is all set to marry another guy.
Billu has two tasks ahead of him. The first one is to bring back old memories in Susi’s mind and taking her back to Royapuram where an entire township is waiting for them.
Finally will Sushi recognize Billu and his deep love? All actors in Deepavali disappoint, and the blame should go to the ridiculous plot and the lifeless characters that they’ve been hired to play. Director Ezhil has not been able to establish the love between the lead pair convincingly and hence we are unable to empathize with the hero’s anguish and pain in the climax.
If you are looking to watch a film that’s worth a paisa vasool and entertaining, Deepavali, most clearly, is not for you. It is a poignant love story that showcases the myriad histrionic abilities of the lead pair, Jayam Ravi and Bhavana, in a storyline which could have been more beautiful and screenplay which could have been much better. The film definitely disappoints you since it doesn’t evince any interest with none of the characters portrayed making an impression.
Jayam Ravi’s career graph shows that he has donned varied roles and done them all with ease. For example, his debut Jayam showed him as a rustic lad, while his second film M Kumaran, Son of Mahalakshmi showed him as a fiery kick-boxer. Likewise, his earlier film Something Something Unakkum Enakkum showed him as a happy-go-lucky NRI and Deeppavali shows him, again, in a totally different light. That’s smart choice Ravi-way to go! Undoubtedly Ravi is a promising and rising young actor but the actor has to concentrate more on choosing his stories.
Heroine Bhavana has tried to act but still has a long way to go before she gets her expressions right for those important emotional scenes. Vijayakumar performs yet another loving father role with much ease. Lal, the villainous father does a perfect job. Raghuvaran has been wasted in a miniscule role. Yuvan Shankar Raja has come up with two hummable numbers in ‘Kannan Varum Velai’ and ‘Dole Baje’. A big sore point of the movie is that it has no comedy track. Picturisation of songs are good, thanks to Cinematographer Vijay Milton. Editing by Sasi Kumar and Sets by Selva Kumar are above average.
To sum up, Deepavali, disappoints with its weak storyline and screenplay. Better luck next time for the entire film crew.
Deepavali – pusssssssssssssssss pusvanam
EKLAVYA
Eklavya is a movie from Vidhu Vinod Chopra who gave us ‘1942 – A Love Story’, ‘Mission Kashmir’, ‘Munnabhai MBBS’, ‘Parineeta’ and ‘Lage Raho Munnabhai’. The expectations are sky high when you start watching ‘Eklavya’ since it has come from a man who has delivered quality blockbusters. Does Eklavya live up to the hype ? Does Eklavya live up to the huge expectations ? Does Eklavya impress the viewers ? Is Eklavya a good film ? The answer to all the above questions is ‘NO’ but that doesn’t mean that the movie is bad. Eklavya as a movie crosses lots of barriers and reaches new heights in film making especially with its breathtaking cinematography and life like performances.
Eklavya starts off great in a huge candle lit palace where Rana Jayawardhan (Boman Irani) discovers at his wife Rani’s (Sharmila Tagore) deathbed that his twin children were not born to him but to his loyal guard Eklavya (Amithab Bachchan) after some ancient ritual to get an heir, when the king fails at the task. Eklavya, whose father had died saving the life of the Rana, believes in all sincerity, that any disloyalty to the royal clan will result in nine generations of his family going to hell. Intrigue builds up as Rani’s last wishes of seeing Eklavya are left unfulfilled by Rana who eventually ends killing Rani forcefully. Soon the viewers are introduced to a flurry of characters who are the members of Rana’s family Jyotiwardhan [Jackie Shroff] (Rana’s younger brother), Harshwardhan [Saif Ali Khan] (Rana’s son), Nandini [Raima Sen] (Rana’s daughter), Udaywardhan [Jimmy Shergill] (Jyoti’s son) and Rajjo [Vidya Balan] (Daughter of Rana’s chauffer (Parikshit Sahni) and Harsh’s childhood sweetheart).
The movie continues with the jealousy angle of Jyoti and Uday. A twist in the tale in the form of a murder will take the viewers by surprise just during the intermission point. A fantastically executed action scene where Tinu Verma excels in combining the fire of bullets with the running of camels in a desert with a running train behind. Harshwardhan discovers the truth about his parentage, when his mother breaks her promise and reveals it in a letter. The second half of the movie stagnates with Eklavya setting out on revenge against the killer of the King Rana and he is pitted against his own son thanks to another twist in the story. The climax is a huge let down and has a typical bollywood filmi ending which will draw more criticism from film critics.
Eklavya, a character straight from the epic Mahabharat, truly stands by dharma and ended up sacrificing his thumb as a gurudhakshina to his guru when he is asked for it. Eklavya would have been the best archer in the world had he not sacrificed his thumb. But he felt that he owes big time to his guru and he acts accordingly to dharma. This is Eklavya in Mahabharat. But the modern day Eklavya as depicted by Vidhu Vinod Chopra’s Eklavya is more cinematic in characterization and leaves the viewers high and dry towards the climax.
Amithab Bachchan stands tall with his towering performance doing full justice to the role. His subtle expressions conveys a lot and he has done the role with a lot of conviction. Whether it is his best performance on screen till date will be a moot point. Nevertheless he has done a tremendous job. Saif Ali Khan as the son caught in between duty and responsibility does a good job. Vidya Balan has nothing much to do except to sob and play a part in the one and only song in the movie. Raima Sen as the twin sister of Saif has an insignificant role but she is better than Vidya Balan.
Boman Irani as King Rana with shades of gray in his character portrays his character well as usual. Jackie Shroff and Jimmy Shergill as father and son doesn’t have much to do. Another big let down is the character of Sanjay Dutt which evokes interest during introduction but fades away inconsequentially with out a trace.
Technically the film is brilliant with slick editing, beautiful sets, superb lighting, breathtaking cinematography, high quality action and sound. It’s a royal treat and experience to the eyes and ears of the viewers on the big screen. Pure technical highs cannot make this movie great since the story neither falls into a fantasy category nor a reality category. In other words its neither like a Dhoom II fantasy nor a Lage Raho Munnabhai reality to capture the viewers hearts.
On the positive side, the film boasts of short running time (120 minutes) which is a rarity these days especially when you have movies with 2 intervals.
To sum up, the movie would have been lapped up by masses if the climax was a tragedy but that is not the case. Box office might reject this movie not sustaining the huge hypes and promotions of this movie. Viewers will have to give another chance to Vidhu Vinod Chopra to come up with a better movie next time.
Eklavya – Avoidable!!!!
LEE
Actor Sathyaraj becomes a producer with this movie ‘Lee’ especially to make and market his son Sibiraj a saleable actor in Kollywood. Success has always eluded Sibiraj for a long time now since he has piggy banked with his actor dad Sathyaraj and was never able to stand alone and prove a worthy actor. Director Prabhu Solomon has come up with a convincing story line and has extracted good performances from his lead actors which makes ‘Lee’ worth watching. His earlier movie ‘Kokki’ was also an off-beat movie with a man being chased by unwanted elements from start to finish with an engrossing screenplay. Kudos to Director for selecting a story with Foot ball sport as the backdrop. Not many movies have been made with Sports as the background and what stands fresh in every filmgoer’s mind is Aamir Khan’s Cricket bonanza ‘Lagaan’. Being a cricket crazy nation, Lagaan was viewed and appreciated by one and all.
‘Lee’ opens with Leeladharan alias Lee (Sibiraj) and his group of friends living in a slum like area in Chennai. They work as pizza delivery boys, auto driver, newspaper boy etc but they pool together whatever money they make to fund their dream project. They want to buy a gun at any cost! In one of their outings they bump into Chellammal (Nila) lovingly called Chellam who works in the hospital for the mentally challenged. She joins them and soon develops a soft corner for Lee but he does not pay much attention to her (though both sing dream songs together!) Soon she witnesses a botched up assassination bid, when Lee tries to shoot a powerful politician and Central Minister Rangabhashayam (Zahir).
Post interval, in a flashback, Lee and his friends tell Chellam about their past and motive behind their failed assassination attempt. The flashback unfolds with all of them being aspiring and promising football players at college level coming from lower middle class families who had that fiery ambition to represent India and make Football a National game. Their moving spirit, mentor and coach was Buthiran (Prakash Raj). Rangabhashayam had put pressure on Buthiran to make his son (supposedly a drug addict) the captain of the football team which the coach politely refuses. A peeved Ranga shoots Buthiran and also wrecks the career of all the players and one of them even commits suicide! The rest of the film peters out into a revenge potboiler as Lee finally turns into a terminator and kills the baddies on the streets of Chennai. In the end, Lee does not just become another victim of a corrupt system or at the other extreme, a vigilante. He has after all committed crimes, necessary though they may have been, and so he serves his prison term and resumes his passion for football – he becomes a coach, just like his inspiration, Butthiran.
Lee is a different and sensible film. The topic of sports amongst our youth and opportunities for young sportsmen has not been dealt with before and is truly essential in this day and age. It is admirable that director Prabhu Solomon has conceptualized as well as implemented such a thoughtful story. But he should give more strength through the treatment. For Sibi, it is the most important film. He has done a commendable job. The young scion of the Sathyaraj family has been waiting for the right break in films for a while now, and with Lee, he has shown a quiet and yet, youthful intensity in his character. He also comes across well in the action scenes.
Prakashraj, of course, does not need any words to extol his acting skills – small films or big budget, this man is one of the most versatile actors in the South film industry. In Lee, he has done a great job as the inspiring and fiery Buthiran and keeps the tempo of the film in right time. There is nothing to say about Nila. She unnecessarily interrupts in the story and singing irrelevantly with shaking her lightly bulged belly. D.Imman’s music and re-recording keeps the phase well. The soundtrack moves with the moods in the film and really adds to the film’s quality. Rajesh Yadhav’s camera work is good. In stunt scenes, Anal Arasu really thrills the viewers. On commercial part, there may be a chance for some crisis, but the film serves the right message at right time to the society.
Lee – Not Silly
Leave a Reply