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Showing posts with the label Vikram

The cult of Agent Vikram

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After 10 days since its release, I finally watched Kamal Hassan’s Vikram, well er… should I say, Lokesh Kanagaraj’s Vikram. That’s how it seems to be, going by the screenplay, the audience feedback and of course, the Box Office collections. As I write this piece (after 3 weeks of its release), the film has collected over Rs. 300 Cr at the Box Office in India and wolrd wide. Plus OTT rights, of course.  Kamal Hassan’s Vishwaroopam 1 & 2 were anything patriotic, to say the least. His critics have always said the gentleman lacked clarity of thoughts in his screenplay, and political stance, later on. But that’s for a different article. Staying true to his age and image that he has created for almost 6 decades now, KH has sprung a surprise in Vikram, where he plays a disheartened father who loses his son to the drug mafia – just that his son was not an addict, rather a cop who uncovered the mafia and stashed their prized catch.  The film opens with a drunk+sober Karnan (KH) who seem to

Mahaan - Movie Review

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Who is a better actor – Vikram or Dhruv Vikram? While the question itself is silly, the film makes me wonder. Perhaps, it's all in the genes. Dhruv shines as much as his father in this crime drama and proves to be the most promising among the star kids who have hit the silver screens in the past decade. While no comparisons with others, he certainly stands out after an impressive performance in Aditya Verma. Mahaan, Gandhi Mahaan (Vikram) is a school teacher with a small family and lives a typical 80s and 90s life in Tamil Nadu. As a child, he was skinned by his father Mohandoss (Adukalam Naren) for playing cards with friends. As a staunch Gandhian himself, the namesake’s father takes an oath from his son beating him black and blue that he will lead the live of Mahatma Gandhi as a Mahaan. Years later, he is settled with his wife Nachi (Simran) and son Dadabhai Naoriji (Dhruv) and lives a typical middle class mundane life running errands and as a doting husband cum father. When his

New Films on OTT? Let’s begin.

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It’s a known thing to my friends and extended circuit of people that I am a huge fan of Superstar Rajinikanth for over 40 years now. What very few people know is that I am also a big fan of the “Actor Kamal Hassan” though I don’t subscribe to his personal views on various issues including Spirituality & Religion, Politics and Current Affairs. However, I have seen almost all of his movies over the past 30 years of which at least a dozen films, over a hundred times (Still lesser than my penchant for watching Thalaivar movies). I have adored Kamal for his forward thinking on various business affairs – be it behind the camera or in front of it, casting himself as a “Her” with much authenticity or himself as 10 avtars; doing stunts real time notwithstanding his age, build and risk involved. His onscreen histrionics in films like Nayagan, Hey! Ram, Mahanathi to name a few won him awards & accolades, critical acclaim as well as controversy – it’s a package after all. Today,

Kadaram Kondan – Film Review

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I’ve always liked thriller films. And if it’s in Tamil (off late, there have been quite a few), then I give it a shot. And when it’s the second film as a Director for someone after receiving much acclaim for his previous thriller, even more. And if it’s featuring Actor Vikram, I would jump into. And that’s how I ended up watching Kadaram Kondaan today. The first 10 minutes set the film on a good note. And that’s quite important, for that’s where you hook the audience. And the entire film is edgy with slick editing and cinematography, what with yet another fantastic underrated performance by Vikram.   The film opens with a cute couple Aatirah and Vasu Rajagopalan (Akshata Hassan and Abi Hassan - Offsprings of Kamal Hassan and Nasser, respectively) get the scan done at a maternity hospital only to be overjoyed seeing the little one in the womb. The couple has just moved to KL, Malaysia and the dialogues represent they have had a love marriage which doesn’t have the blessing o

Saamy 2 - Film Review

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Being a big fan of Saamy which released in 2004 starring Vikram and Trisha and having watched the film so many times and having become a big fan of the racy screenplay writer Hari, I was quite eager to watch Saamy 2. Various reasons and I skipped watching on the big screen and it finally landed up on OTT. During a travel, caught up some time and watched the movie in 2 instalments, thankfully.  From the word go, the movie was a disaster. Trisha is replaced by Aishwarya Rajesh briefly and plays the same character of Molagapodi which is down right disgusting to watch. I mean, why would the Director or how could he even fantasise this stupidity? There was no reason, really for that flashback. Perhaps he could have taken some scenes from the previous version and edited even badly which the audience would have accepted.  The film moves very slowly between Delhi, Dehradun, Tirunelveli, Sri Lanka and Airports. All key characters including Vikram, Keerthy Suresh, Prabhu and Bobby Simha

GST, Theatres & OTT

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It seems like yesterday and Ajith Kumar has already completed 25 years in Tamil Cinema which is a remarkable feat, given that he never had/continues to have a blood relation who produces movies. He has almost come up on his own strength all through and he dissolved all his fan clubs many years back. He continues to maintain a dignified silence in most public issues and is neither active on social media either. So when Vivegam was announced, his fans rejoiced for it was a defining year in his career. the film opened to a thunderous box office opening although the reviews were mixed, with critics rating the film high for its finesse and sharp editing cum direction. The film did well in the theatres and continue to run a few shows sparingly. So when I noticed last week that the film was up for viewing on SunNxt app, I was quite surprised. It's abnormal that a top-hit film of one of India's highly rated Actors shows up on an OTT platform on the 50th day of its the

Iru Mugan Film Review

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The first thing that comes to my mind is that Vikram, should perhaps be named as the next Cine world Markandeyan, after thespian Sivakumar. Secondly, Vikram well deserves the Chavalier Award for his acting skills. What a guy! The amount of hard work this actor hs done in the past 20 years is stupendous. In almost all his movies, he carries the film completely on his shoulders. Unlike many stars who are kids of Cinema biggies, Vikram had none to bank upon. He has acted in some non-nameworthy films in his late 20s and early 30s. Ever since he received a break with his Sethu, Vikram has been on the rise. He does some powerful performances every now and then and also does some light characters to strike a balance. And this is what impresses me as an ardent fan of Vikram. In his late 50s, with his daughter getting engaged to a prominent city based business family, Vikram should be doing father roles, but that is not to be. With his brilliant skills of emoting and getting in to the ski

I - Movie Review

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I have been a self confessed fan of Director Shankar for many years now. My first tryst with his direction dates back to Gentleman when I was still in school and had limited understanding of the art that is cinema. But he was one of those Directors, I thought then, who has a bright future since he had tread on a sensitive subject in that film with elan. I have enjoyed all of his movies thereafter. In each outing of his, he brought out a different panorama of film making - something that the commercial directors have always refrained from. His heroes were larger than life, be it the "One day CM" in Mudalvan or the "Bribery conscious old man" in Indian. Ofcourse, and naturally my most liked movies of his are Sivaji and Enthiran, which feature my personal matinee idol, the Superstar of Indian Cinema, Rajinikanth. After watching Sivaji, I felt that for a change, Shankar has made a film for someone else - for Rajini fans in this case. After a successful run, his

Madras Eye

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Madras I There are two things that are making the news these days in the city, probably three. Madras, as the city has been known historically (and I choose to spell the city's name that way most often) is also the name of a recently released movie. Featuring Karthi, btoher of veteran actor Suriya, Karthi has been quite experimental with Tamil Cinema ever since his first release 5 years ago with Paruthi Veeran. He has played a village lad, unemployed Chennai youth, and many a time a happy go lucky guy. His box office records have been topsy turvy, where he has the most returns when least expected. Back to Madras, the film is shot in North Madras, which has been largely neglected in Kollywood for a long time. Except for a one-off gana song or a kuthu song, nothing has captured the imagination of this part of the city, which was also the original settlement along the sea shore. I have had the privilege of travelling to North Madras twice or more every week to work where my prev