Author Archives: M S ASHWIN BALAJI

Mani Ratnam | Rajnikanth, Mammooty, Aravind Swamy | 1991 | Crime Drama

Thalapathi – one of the classics of Tamil cinema, 1991 Diwali blockbuster starring Rajinikanth, Mammootty, Aravind Swamy, Jaishankar, Amrish Puri, Srividya, Banupriya, Shobana and Geetha was a small thread from the epic Mahabaratham depicting the friendship between Duryodhanan and Karnan in the modern times, i.e., 1991 back then. Thalapathi has evolved as one of the cults that Tamil cinema has ever produced and has been an inspiration for many successful filmmakers who chose cinema as their profession. The film was reportedly the most expensive film in the industry with a budget of 1.3 Crores (1991) and also was the first collaboration of Maniratnam – Rajinikanth, which created further hype and expectations. 

Story plot is a modern approach of the Karnan’s life wherein Srividya, a 14-year-old girl gives birth to a boy baby, abandons him, places him in a goods train unwillingly to face the cruel society, similar to how Kunti Devi abandons Karnan. Later the child grows up as Surya (Rajinikanth) and meets the local gangster Deva (Mammootty), wherein he learns justifying their misdeeds and then encounter Arjun (Aravind Swamy), Surya’s brother. Exactly dealing the base plot in from Mahabaratham, portrayal and relevance to the current time was the key for this cult. The film showed various dimensions of all characters and established the depth of the characters for the audience with a commercial angle without losing the story’s value and essence. The story had modern version problems addressed like poverty, love and lust, castism, and widow remarriage with a stylish subtle Maniratnam touch in all of it. The core concept behind Friendship and its effective portray is what sustains the film as one of the cult examples in the industry. Spinning stories around epic characters or real-life incidents has been one of Maniratnam’s play areas and he incredibly excelled in it. 

The film had almost all top stars behind the backing of Rajinikanth and Mammootty and their first collaboration with the classy director Maniratnam showed the audience softer, subtler yet stronger actors in them. Rajinikanth had stated in an interview that he found it difficult to work with Maniratnam as he was from completely different school compared to his previous directors; in fact, he was asked to emote the feelings in stunt sequence to bring the intensity of the character to the audience. Since the characters were drawn from Mahabaratham, the scope for the actors to show their versions is limited and with this constraint they have pulled off a good show. Especially the emotional angles of Srividya whenever her first son’s thoughts hazed over her mind, clean love angles between Shobana and Rajinikanth, cute and innocent conversations between Banupriya’s daughter and Rajinikanth and finally the trust and friendship with Mammootty. The film has also shown varied emotions of characters confronting the same problem. Clear writing, character portrayals and apt execution by the actors are definitely appreciable. 

Technical perfection helped the director pull off his vision on screen with all the constrains back in 1991. Ilayaraja’s music has been the strongest support for the film in terms of intense background score and super hit evergreen songs. Thalapathi’s cinematography has been of the standing examples for light usage and storytelling through cinematography. As per the Mahabaratham – Karnan – Surya Bhagavan, cinematographer Santosh Sivan has creatively used sunlight and sun backed ‘Silhouette shots’ which have stood across years and are classic examples of how to picture a Rajinikanth film. Artwork and locations stick to the originality of the story’s setting and established the story really well. Thalapathi – Maniratnam’s Cult.

Lokesh Kanagaraj | Karthi, Dheena | 2019 | Action Thriller

Director Lokesh Kanagaraj’s second feature film after a well-crafted hyperlink story Maanagaram as his debut. Initially planned out to star Mansoor Alikhan in lead roles but later deciding upon Karthi, Narain, Dheena is a new experiment in Tamil Cinema. A film with minimal female characters, no lead heroine, no songs and shot completely at night showed the smartness and the capability of the director. His conviction to portray a story which plays out in one night with multiple characters and reasoning narrated through action sequences, is a complete delight to watch. Setting an example for the new generation film makers, Lokesh Kanagaraj has proven the industry that short film makers can succeed in feature films as well just like Karthik Subbaraj.

The story revolves around a drug supplying gang, a cop and a prisoner who helps the cop. Set in the backdrops of Trichy, the film establishes and justifies every action and reaction in the film. Co-written by Pon Parthiban, the film has a strong writing base which has helped the director to revolve characters around the conflict. Detailing and proper research has been the magical formula of the film’s success. 150 minutes of engaging action thriller has shown us the kind of filmmaker Lokesh is. Kaithi is a stand-alone example for experiments and a confidence for films to come out of the commercial stance. Post Super Deluxe, Kaithi has proven to be another film that breaks the stereotype of commercial cinema logic of songs and dance. A switch towards content-based films, the era of new and young filmmakers has seen a positive trend towards the new emerging Tamil Cinema Industry and Director Lokesh Kanagaraj has been one of the major contributors.

“When you cast the right actor for the right role, half the work is done”. Kaithi had on point casting; right from Karthi, Dheena and Narain to Arjun Das, Kanna Ravi and Harish Uthaman. Each character was tailored for these actors and helped in the portrayal really well. Clearly, Kaithi is one of the movies announcing the best of Karthi’s acting and his convincing action sequences enhanced the believability of the scenes. Dheena’s on point humorous counters made people laugh instantly and kept the audience engaged all throughout the film. Emotional angle between Karthi and his daughter were added positives and strengthened the plot line. On the other hand, cops Narain and Kanna Ravi did justice to their roles, antagonist Arjun Das, was the best find of last year and created a new trend amongst the existing antagonist patterns. Harish Uthaman’s strong acting as Adaikalam and Ramana’s underplay kept the story alive until the climax.

Technically Kaithi is one of the brilliant movies of the year, which exploited the freshness of new generation technicians in all the departments. Kudos to the sixteen assistant directors without whom a film completely shot at night would not be possible. With no songs and just the background score Music Director Sam CS elevated the scenes really well and made sure every single person had goose bumps at the peak points. Editor Philomin Raj retained from the filmmaker’s debut, has given crisp and clean cuts making the film enjoyable without overdoing the work. Cinematographer Sathyan Sooryan is a gem from PC Sreeram’s cinematography club. He has shown his capability in lighting the night scenes perfectly and giving the audience clear and innovative shots. Single takes, drone shots and close takes were absolute delight to watch on screen. A film through action narration would be incomplete without the perfect work of stunt masters Anbu – Arivu. The national award-winning stunt choreographers have proven their capability once again. In a nutshell, Kaithi – Lokesh’s smartness.

Lokesh Kanagaraj | Sundeep Kishan, Sri, Regina Cassandra | 2017 | Action Thriller

Director Lokesh Kanagaraj has been brave enough to pick up a hyperlink thriller as a directorial debut. The whole film revolves around four distinct characters and the incidents spinning around them. Plot wise the whole film is a simple script but the film maker’s screenplay and execution is what keeps us all spiked up and keeps us engaged throughout the film. The success behind the film is solely based on detailing and characterisation. Perfect actors for perfect roles and genuine believability in everything that happens in the story have been the major positives for the film.

For a Debut director to take up such a story line is definitely appreciable. Delivering an interesting hyperlink story with comparatively fewer commercial elements and new faces (back then) is challenging and Lokesh has done it with at most perfection. The film almost had no plot holes and gave justification for each action and reaction. The success of the film lies in the trust they had on the script, right from start the film maker gave hints to the audience about the connection the main characters had, be it the same red shade checked shirt in the bar or the search for their loss in the interval block each scenes were related and connections to their threads were perfectly done. Perfect placement of the songs and rightly played emotions are added perks to the film.

The film casts not so famous actors at that times who have evolved to be integral recognisable faces right now in the industry. As said earlier the story is spun around the major unnamed four characters, an innocent village guy Sri who comes to Chennai for an interview in an IT company, a poor humble man Charlie who comes to Chennai to work as a cab driver, a hot headed kind hearted Sundeep who is behind his love interest Ragina and the hilarious Munishkanth who kidnaps a boy. All other characters are placed around these four and the instances they meet. Acting wise each artist has delivered exactly what the character demands and portrayed their characters justifications really well. Most importantly each character had a need and a cause to be there in the screen and has wisely proved the need for their presence.

Song scope was really less for the music director but and he didn’t fail to impress us with the space he had. Also, the background score for the film sounded really good and was exceptionally good at some scenes which actually elevated its intensity and hooked us to the plot closer than it could have been. Cinematography on the other hand has really been impressive. Most of the story happens in the night and the Cinematographer has done an clean job in showing the complex Chennai in the best possible way that the story wants. Sharp and vibrant street road shot gave a good ambiance for the actors to perform on. On the Whole definitely Managaram is a good Revisit for any set of audience.

Pradeep Ranganathan | Jayam Ravi, Kajal Aggarwal | 2019 | Comedy

Comali – Jayam Ravi’s 24th film, a comedy drama directed by debutant Pradeep Ranganathan. From a short film of forty thousand to a full-fledged feature film with a mighty cast and crew, Pradeep has pulled off a decent show. When things fall on the right place the film comes out exactly how the film maker wants it to be, probably Comali is one standing example and a dream debut for a debutant. It is always difficult to pull off a comedy drama than a thriller and a rom-drama, timing and situation should go hand in hand and should support the artist to exploit the screen space without insulting or hurting any section of the audience. Regarding this, Comali is definitely a winner for this Independence Day. 

For a Debutant director to get all comforts and do whatever he has in mind on screen is definitely not that easy and the trust and faith across all cast and crew is what that has delivered the film on screen. Writing wise the film hasn’t been that strong yet the screenplay and later improvisations have patched up all those, from a short film to such a feature film, the film maker definitely deserves what he gets today. Pradeep has shown his smartness in recreating the 90s setup and connecting all draggy sentimental segments in the first half to the story in the later segments of the screenplay, adds on a wholesome experience for a varied set of audience. In an era of genre specific movies, audience specific film making in Kollywood, Pradeep has gone back and made sure a complete U film has its meaning and has covered all set of audience. Dialogues were crisp and catchy while screen portrayal was vibrant. The whole climate scene was pure goose bumps for every Chennaite. 

The whole plot revolves around Jayam Ravi, who stays in COMA for sixteen long years. Jayam Ravi’s thirst to choose different experimental scripts is very evident in every single frame. Be it a seventeen-year-old guy, or a thirty-two-year-old man, he does it with ease. His effortless acting and flawless variations are the biggest strength for the film. Humour, Sentiment, Romance, Action or Innocence, his convincing performance has given a notch higher impact than what the scene would have. Samyuktha Hedge and Yogi Babu’s performance in the flashback school scenes were nostalgic recreations for all 90s kids. Every single detailing and memory hit the audience perfectly. Samyuktha’s charming acting and Jayam Ravi’s young look creates a romantic aurora that follows us even after the film. On the other hand, Kajal, Shah Ra and K S Ravikumar were added positives for the film, who stand as strong backing in the second half. 

Technically Comali is one of the strongest ever commercial film in K’Town. Cinematography was clean and creative, each shot divisions seemed vibrant and brought the story one notch closer to the audience, Cinematographer Richard M. Nathan’s work would forever be praised. Art Department work has exactly given what the script demands, be the set works for Paisa Nota song or the 90s set up for the flashback, perfection and detailing were commendable. Editor Pradeep Raghav’s cuts were crisp and apt for the screenplay. Those connecting shots used for recreating the past was really innovative. As usual Comali is yet another feather in Hiphop Thamizha Aadhi’s hat. He once again proves his strength in commercial film BGM and songs through Comali. Attracting audience from six sixty has helped the film to gain the popularity and hype. Comali – known the real Coma-li. 

Selvaragavan | Suriya, Sai Pallavi, Rakul Preet Singh | 2019 | Political Action Thriller

Nandha Gopala Kumaran (NGK) one of the most anticipated films of the year. The reasons being Suriya – Selva – Yuvan combo, a movie after a six-year gap hitting big screens in Selva’s filmography, a grippy political genre with raw and brutal reality. Right from the first look of the film that resembled communism ideology and Che Guevara to the final promo each segment bluntly showed us what the film has and what sort of an expectation the audience have from this dream combo. To a greater extent everything went on the right path. Obviously the film would flood with mixed reviews towards both the extremes, but director Selvaragavan’s track records has always been so, his films have always ended up with mixed reviews and turned into milestones and masterpieces after years when we look back, that simply shows how futuristic the film maker is in terms of writing and his habit of sticking to reality than commercialising it. same with NGK, it’s a film with a lot of open endings and the really success if when we revisit and understand the climax connect.

Selvaragavan’s first political thriller that too Suriya in lead. The film had everything on the right place. A versatile director’s actor joining with a weird and unique film maker would definitely excite both cinema and general audience. As usual plot execution Selva has gone through a completely different treatment, he has set up the rage in the story and has implemented it on the characters and the instances around it. Selvas’s speciality is his portrayal and his mind game with the audience. As K’Town cinema audience our expectations have a certain meter and Selva has always been a out of the box thinker and has done all those boldly. His trust and conviction to bring out reality as it is thought his story to the actors who give life to characters is definitely impressive. Although Selva had never given us blockbuster films in terms of box office, he always gives us genres and films that challenge time and create magic when seen in the later part of Cinema evolutions. Setting examples as to how to genuinely bring out reality though the genre and establishing the rawness in it is just a Selvaragavan thing.

Suriya, Mr. Nandha Gopala Kumaran, the whole story revolves around him and the character arc set thought him which is somewhat new to the genre as our political films have always focused on the events and incidents that leads to the progress in screenplay creating the much needed conflict unlike NGK which evolves around the character arc and making it different from the existing ones. Suriya was seen as Selvaragavan in NGK, a vision and a dual version of the film maker. In lot many scenes Kumaran’s life portrayed the Selva in him showing us how mature and versatile actor Suriya is. Mannerism, attitude and few shot references to established politicians created the much-needed route for the character growth. For all Suriya fans NGK is literally a 18 month wait since he played his last Silver Screen appearance, with such aa fantastic crew the craze has gone really high and the actor has satisfied it by redefining his capacity.

On the other hand, Geetha aka Sai pallavi boldly took us this role and has acted without any makeup setting example for her co-actress in the industry, breaking the stereotypical glamorous female roles mindset of audience. She has unleashed the beast actress inside her, pulling off the emotions in the least seen way from her. Rakul Preet actually gets a playground to express the actress in her which not many of her Co-actresses K’Town usually get and did a pretty good job that her character demanded. Acting wise Selva has drained each character and has given us the best from them and justified the character. DOP and Lighting are few things that makes Selva moves different from the other ones, usage of green, red, blue and yellow lights to portray the emotions and long continuous shots to establish originality have worked out really well as his earlier ones, Art department has pulled out a clean job by setting up Sruvilliputtur to its at most perfection. Yuvan Selva combo has a separate fanbase, and Yuvan has fulfilled the expectations and hype. Musically Thandalkaaran and Podhachalum songs were on point in conveying the emotions and Kumaran’s feelings. Through his background score he stole the show, BGMs elevated intense scenes and NGK’s rage in the second half and did justice to the film maker’s vision. On a whole NGK will be a film with mixed opinions but down the lane in five or seven years will end up as standard for the genre and Suriya’s acting. NGK – A Selvaragavan’s game

Alphonse Puthran | Nivin Pauly, Madonna Sebastian, Sai Pallavi, Anupama Parameswaran | 2015 | Musical Romantic Drama |

Premam, a film that turned out to be an industry’s blockbuster in the midst of falling in an over exploited genre. Premam as the name describes, the whole film is about George aka Nivin Pauly and his love stories in three phases. There are quite a no. of films in this genre yet Premam managed to catch our attention more than any other film in that era. Right from the Title logo till the last frame each segment of the film showed us the love Director Alphonse Puthren had for the film. There’s always a saying in cinema, when you have the right script and conviction everything falls in the right place and this magic happened for Premam.

The master mind behind the film Alphonse is the editor of the film too, that’s the reason why each frame and scene go hand in hand. He was able to show what exactly ran in his head during the early scripting stages. Coming back to writing and direction, he has completely understood the actors and the roles and made them deliver such realistic acting. Detailing and sensibility are two factors that set the bench mark of Malayalam cinema higher than the other Indian cinema industries irrespective of the proportion of budget they have. Yet Premam proved to be a box office blockbuster too by collecting 60Cr (Wiki) which is almost fifteen times the budget of the film. No massive set work or CGI, just clean and clear story with a prefect ground work.

As the story revolves around Nivin Pauly and his love interest in different phases chronologically Anupama Parameswaran, Sai Pallavi and Madonna Sabastian. Each of the three female leads portrayed their roles perfectly and had distinct characterisation. Unlike many other film’s female leads had a reason and a set of incidents to prove their need and presence in the film. On the other hand, Shabareesh and Krishna being Nivin’s friends were realistic to a greater interest and established that relatable connectivity. One of the many points when the film maker won our hearts. A commercial film reaches all sections of audience only when they are able to relate to the characters and re imagine themselves as those portrayed characters, for this matter Premam definitely wins our hearts. Coming back to the main man Nivin, premam was one of the initial movies that set the base for the big star he is today. His acting and variations in three age phases are clearly differente and steals the show.

On a whole, Premam is a type of a film that never loses the originality even after years it stays young and gets those awws even after thousand watchs. A perfect commercial entertainer with all elements that covers all set of audience. Irrespective of linguistic differences Premam stands as a show stealer and proves that although love and romance genres are over exploited across industries, there still are a lot of ways to portray it and make the film interesting for the audience, the sole reason behind Love never dies no matter what. Premam – show stealer! ❤️

Karthick Naren | Rahman | 2016 | Neo Noir Crime Thriller

A film directed by 21-year-old youngster who directly launched his feature film from short films. A comprising intruding investigative crime thriller released on 29 December 2016. Success of such crime thrillers always lies in the ability of the film maker to hide the killer from the audience being able to guess. In this regard D16 was one of the most successful films in the history of Crime thrillers in K’Town. From directing few short films to boldly taking up a feature film and making it a successful 100-day blockbuster, Director Karthick Naren established his presence in the Tamil Cinema.

One unique factor of Dhuruvangal 16 was that each frame and detail had a story telling. As per their Tag line (Every Detail Counts), each detail had a vital role in the story. A 115 minutes out and out story-oriented film didn’t deviate away from the plot at any point. Proper background work on Police investigation and small nuances regarding Cop settings proved how efficient the film maker was in pulling off the originality with the amateur team of technicians he had. Technically the film was appealing to the context it dealt with. Set in the backdrop of Coimbatore city, the film had reasonably good amount establishment in the setting and locations. The film follows a nonlinear narration with distinctive pieces of jigsaw stories that needed to be solved by the audience while they watch. These segments were on the basis of time and incident that the characters were involved. This made the plot more intense and involved the audience.

As the story revolves around the crime and the investigation to find the killer behind it, primarily the film required minimal characters and each character had vital importance in the progress of the plot. Veteran actor Rahman played the lead role, the police inspector. His presence and face value were added positives for the film. Apart from him there were a lot of debutants who did their part really well. Although the film had only one song that too post climax, music director proved himself in the background score and was really impressive. Cinematography on the other hand had a different story telling which enhanced the progress. Shot divisions and angles in the film proved that a good cinematography doesn’t require big sets or locations instead with the scope of the story a creative work is definitely possible. Karthick Naren was one of the few film makers who opens the door for the short film makers to directly jump into feature films with a good script. On a whole Dhuruvangal 16 – clever and smart.

Bharath Kamma | Vijay Deverakonda, Rashmika Mandanna | 2019 | Romantic Action Drama

A film that triggered the cinema psych in me and made me too desperate to watch it as soon as possible like never before. Dear Comrade, is beyond just a movie, it is a life created magically by fusing two genres without making it much evident. Vijay’s role as Bobby is like icing on the cake, he’s been doing a lot of such roles in the recent times but the variation and detailing he has given to this character has made it stand in our hearts. On the other hand, Rashmika has pulled off a clean and charming Lilly which was tailor-made for her. The primary plot revolves around these two characters and their character arcs majorly. Debutant Director Bharath Kamma definitely deserves this success for creating such a magical vibe around the film that is felt even in the theatres.

Plot wise the film remains simple and cliche. But the execution and the screenplay revolving around it is what makes it stand stronger than ever imagined. First half sets the plot and throws the story line to us, the success of the film was this, right from the first frame the film gave a relatable feeling to the audience who gradually tried to imagine themselves on screen as Bobby or Lilly as these pivotal characters kept showing us cheesy stuffs creating the much needed setting for the film. Kiddos to the directional team to create such a background and keep us alive in the story all throughout the 170 minutes. Towards the latter half, the film gets back to the plot line and hits the target rightly giving us the most important harsh reality and the director’s perspective as climax. There’s nothing right or wrong about the climax, it was his liberty and freedom to prove the title, thus the respect and trust the team had on him is all that matters.

Character arcs played a major role in story transformation and Screenplay movements. Two prominent characters with their justifications standing beside their lifestyle and perspectives. Detailing through these are the best and were applauded with a lot of awws especially among the youths. As the characters started growing on the story line, they portrayed their need in the story and pretty much tried to stick to the reality which is not usually seen in South Indian movies. Vijay Deverakonda and Rashmika Mandanna have one the best on screen chemistry which uplifts the scenes hitting the targeted audience perfectly. Shruti Ramachandran as Jaya has delivered a clean role to us as bold and mature elder sister. All supporting artists helped the story to establish the setting and the backstory the plot required.

The tri pillars of the film Music Cinematography and Editing has worked hand in hand to deliver such a masterpiece to us. Without their works the film would have been a simple cliche story thread. Music under Justin Prabhakaran has stayed in our hearts even after leaving the theatres. Although the film was released in four languages his tunes where the one which created the hype for the film across all four languages and hasn’t disappointed us even in a minor scene. Across the movie, BGMs and songs were the ones which elevated the scene and intensified them. Songs breaking the mood of a movie and misplaced songs are two issues in the recent times, but when it comes to Dear Comrade everything was on point and each song facilitated the smooth progress of the movie. 

Cinematographer Sujith Sarang’s frames gave the much-needed natural vibe and helped us relate to the character much easier. Aerial shots were a delight to watch and set vibrant look throughout the movie. Especially the window shot that keeps recreating in major screens. Kakinada couldn’t have been more beautiful if not for Sujith. The classy editor Sreejith Sarang can be called as the portrayal king for his cuts although the screenplay speed kept changing all throughout the film, his vision to slow down the film actually worked in a lot of scenes relating each shot and symbolising them to the scene progress, a smart work. Dear Comrade – Blind trust on the Filmmaker’s vision and a bold fight for what you love ❤