Vaaranam Aayiram - ahh, lets make that 500

Back in 2006 when I wrote about Peralagan I titled the post "Surya. Wow". That could be a very fitting title for this post as well.











I managed to watch a charity preview of Vaaranam Aayriam (Thousand Elephants) yesterday (with Gautham, Sameera and Surya attending *squee* )
I had high expectations for the combination of Gautham Menon, Harris Jayaraj and Surya. To make it short. Not all could be satisfied.
Inspired by the relationship with his own father, Gautham tries to tell the story of a father-son relationship told to us by the son (Krishnan and Suriya both are played by Surya) in flashbacks. We are led from the 60ies when the parents met to present times.

My tiny problem with the storytelling is that the focus too often shifts from the father-son relationship. Especially in the second half. There are some episodes in the sons life that are just too long and distracting. And sorry, but the climax military thingy is plainly bad. I really hope that the Indian Special Forces are nowhere near as amateurish.

But. Big but. The first half is great. I luuurved the song picturisation. Especially the 60ies and 80ies songs. In fact the first hours or so I felt I was watching an almost perfect movie. Great storytelling. Perfect tempo. Cinematography is beautiful. SFX are the best I´ve seen in an Indian film so far. And I felt the "historical" bits were so sweet and authentic in acting, design, flair, feel.












And the biggest treat is Surya. He really nails it. The 16 year old as well as the 60 year old. Sometimes I almost forgot that this was one and the same actor just in different getups.
Well what can I say? He has been my favorite southern Indian actor for quite a while now and I think he is fast climbing to the top of my "All-Indian Fave" list. Watch out Sanjay/Nana/Atul!
And [fangirlmode on] he looks smoking hot. I still go by my quote from 2006 "He has that very attractive Umphh-factor of being a cool actor with intense eyes and a killer smile." And since he joined the 6-pack club for this film you can add that too (even if I felt the "Salmanitis" he displayed was a bit much) [/fangirl mode off]













But not only Surya was great. Simran is fantastic as Krishnans wife and Suriyas mother. Sameera Reddy surprised me in a good way and Divya was did wonderful

So. Watch it or not? Even with a few points of criticism. No Question. Watch it. For Surya. The great cinematography. The songs. The first half and parts of the second.

Oops. Almost forgot. Of course we need a disclaimer for this review as well. As I still don´t understand more than two Tamil words and the film obviously was without Subs I could only get the English bits of the dialogue. It was not too hard to follow the story though.

PS: I heard rumors that Gautham edited the second half some more since the first previews. I´ll probably go and watch it once more tomorrow, so I will be able to tell.

PPS: It´s confirmed. 15 minutes of the 2nd half have been cut. Reports tell that this helps quite a bit.

Sillunu Oru Kaadhal - while my heart gently weeps

Birgit has left me. This morning she boarded the plane that will take her to Goa, the starting point for her 6 months long India visit. Only yesterday we had a fantastic funny evening with two more superwow women, Sophia and Aradhana, coming up with the craziest ideas but today I´m just sad.

So it is quite clear that I needed a movie for the heart. And none of the 2006 Hindi releases I watched, made my heart ache the way Surya did in Sillunu Oru Kaadhal. I´m a sucker for getting sucker-punched from a movie. It´s an addiction, and as addictions go you need more, you grow resistant. So it has been a while that I felt that.

Six years ago Kundhari (Jyothika) agreed to an arranged marriage in spite of her girly dreams of a love match. And, as it can be seen in the really fun shaadi song, the groom isn´t to keen about the whole thing as well.









But now, six years later, we meet a very happy family. Gowtham (Surya) works as head mechanic for Suzuki in Mumbai. Kundhari has a great job too, there is a sweet, sassy daugther. And lots of love.










Then one day the big shocker. Gowtham is away on a business trip and while looking thru his stuff on the search for a biology project for her daughter (I always said those things were no good) Kundhari stumbles over an old diary of his. And has to find out that Gowtham has a past. In college he, being the local rowdie, fell in love with the daughter (Bhoomika) of an MP. And after a rocky start love became the real thing and plans of elopement were layouted.









Kundhari is devastated and takes a bold decision....

Oh what didn´t I cry. Though I´m not even sure why. It is not a great-great film. The story only works in parts. But still.

Bits of trivia:

• Sillunu Oru Kaadhal was Jyothika and Surya´s last film together before they got married. It flopped.

• The great "New York Nagaram" song is sung by A.R.Rahman himself and in the video Luzerne, Switzerland pretends to be NYC (And I´m actually thankful for it as I´m a very much ootyfied by the NYC overdose the Hindi filmmakers exposed myself to in the last year)

• The comments on Maria´s review of "Boys" turned into a discussion between Michael, her and others about the hotness factor of certain Southindian actors. Sorry, but I still say Suriya wins hands down. With or without beard. Evidence? There you go: 1 2 3 4 5. ´Nuff said.

PS: 24/03/07 Short update. Birgit just mailed. Sab teek hai. Goa bilkul accha hai.

Peralagan - Surya. Wow.

Isn´t it convenient that I stocked up on tissues for KANK because while watching Peralagan or Perazhalagan (imdb says one, my DVD the other title) they came in quite handy.









Chinnan (Surya) is witty, sharp, headstrong and courageous - in a nutshell he´s a great guy. But being physically handicapped by having a hunchback and deformed legs, he faces difficulties on the marriage mart. Apart from looking for the girl of his dreams to marry he is also the owner of an telephone booth and helps the people around him. Two of them being Kartik (also Surya) and Priya (Jyothika), lovebirds who use Chinnans shop to meet secretly.









Then Chinnan gets to know blind Shenbagam (also played by Jyothika) and in her the girl of his dreams. All looks well when he is drawn into trouble in the Kartik/Priya camp and all four lives take some dramatic turns.









Usually I´m not big a fan of double roles since most of the times its done really cheesy. But with these actors and a really cool makeup and SFX department it works great here. I think Surya is slowly becoming one of my favorite Kollywood actors. He has that very attractive Umphh-factor of being a cool actor with intense eyes and a killer smile.

Aayutha Ezhuthu

My Mani Ratnam collection is growing steadily. This now is the Tamil Version of Yuva. Shot by Ratnam parallel to the Yuva shoot.
Here we have Madhvan playing the character of Inbasekar (Lallan in Yuva played by Abhishek),









Surya Sivakumar (of Ghajini fame) plays Michael (Ajay in Yuva) and Viveiks role was done by "Schnuffel" Siddarth.









Trisha has Kareenas role and Ranis is done by Meera Jasmine. Only Esha Deol was cast for the same character in both films.









The location got changed to Chennai but the storyline is the same, with only some minor details changed. Marco set up a page with screenshots from both films where you can compare the two.

I really like the story and narration of Aayutha Ezhuthu/Yuva. And the very very cool thrashing on the bridge. Haan, main lanbaa chaudaa action fan hoon.
Which of the films do I prefer? Hmm tough one. If I had to choose I would take Yuva. Om Puri is better as the corrupt politician. I also prefer Rani and Abhi to their counterparts (which by no means will diminish my adoration for Madhavan) or maybe I still take Aayutha Ezhuthu? Because of "Schnuffel" and Trisha?









Aare yaar, its really tough to decide. The Tamil Michael is a more "lets tackle the problems" kind of guy, more physical, very nice. But then again I like Ajay too. Ach, stop. I give up.
My recommendation: watch at least one of them. Or even better, watch both and face the same dilemma as I do. Pretty please?