Duel (1971) - Is it safe to drive on highways?

While traveling through the desert for an appointment with a client, the businessman David Mann (Dennis Weaver) from California passes a slow and old tanker truck. The psychotic truck driver feels offended and chases David along the empty highway trying to kill him.

In the 70's, in Rio de Janeiro, most of the teenagers like me watched the impressive movie of a new and promising director called Steven Spielberg. On the beach, in school, in bars, everybody in Rio commented the story of a crazy truck driver that chases a common man in his car along the lonely roads through the desert. Thirty-six years later, I have just watched "Duel" on DVD with my son and it is fantastic to see how this movie has not aged. The tense and suspenseful story consists basically of a storyline, without development of characters, one actor, two stunts, lots of action and a magnificent work of direction and edition. One amazing detail is that all the afflictive and credible situation happens on the day light, i.e., Spielberg does not need to use the usual fear of the night to create a stunning tale of horror and fear, showing his talent of genius in his worldwide debut.

This movie is a Spielberg special. An absolute thriller that will keep you for the look out. If u havent yet seen this classic do it right now..

8/10

Shutter Island - Will leave u haunted

Shutter Island. A film that will divide the film community. A film that will leave many upset, and hating it. A film that has already completely split the critics. A movie that messes with you. And no one likes to be messed with. And that is exactly where it exceeds. Think I'm contradicting myself?

Shutter Island is one of the most well crafted psychological thrillers to come by since Silence Of The Lambs. And it is no coincidence both were brilliantly written novels. Shutter Island is adapted by a book written by Dennis Lehane (wrote gone baby, gone and mystic river). It is a book filled with twists and turns, that will leave the reader dizzy. And, that is what it's film counterpart does to the fullest. Martin Scorsese helms the director chair, in a movie where he is more free than any before. This is Scorsese at his most unrestrained.

Marty takes what he has learned from the great films of the past and puts it into his. The master of suspense Alfred Hitchcock's influence is everywhere you look in this film. And it is no wonder, considering Scorsese even showed one of his greatest works to the crew: Vertigo. And many of those ideas are present in Shutter Island; the cliff scenes scream Hitchcock. This is a film that creeps and crawls, and is filled with dark corners. And it is all heightened by the coming storm that looms over the island. This is classic film noir.

The story follows Teddy, a federal Marshall, and his partner Chuck (Played by DiCaprio and Ruffulo). They go to this mysterious island enveloped in fog to investigate an escape. From these opening scenes, Marty has set up a dark and creepy premise.

Almost the whole movie incorporates this story as Teddy desperately tries to find the truths he seeks. Teddy is shown as a scared man; a man of war and violence as portrayed in various flashbacks. These will go on to be increasingly important as the story progresses. We follow Teddy on his quest, through every dark corridor and perilous confrontations. Slowly, we are given pieces to the puzzle, but the audience does not even realize it. For we, like Teddy, are blind. For the moment at least. It is because of this that the thrilling conclusion will leave many blindsided. But, you see, that is where this thriller becomes something more. We as the audience are put in Teddy's shoes, and we feel all the things he feels. It is a complete assault on the senses, and it works beautifully.

This is a film you must watch carefully. That is another thing that sets this apart, it is a horror film that makes you actually think. In this day and age, I'm not surprised some found it terrible esp. after their brains have been turned to mush by these new gore filled horror films. Scorsese's ultimate goal here is to wake you up. And trust me, you probably wont like it.

This is also a film I would recommend seeing a second time. In fact, it is even better the second time. All those pieces of that puzzle you didn't catch the first time, you will the second. You see, we as the audience are first put in the shoes of Teddy. The second? Well, without giving too much away, lets just say you are put in someones else's shoes entirely during the second viewing.

Shutter Island. A film that will make you question your own sanity. A film that will leave you breathless. A film that has re-ignited the thriller genre. A film that will leave you, and the main character, searching for answers.

9 out of 10

Paiyya - Not so enjoyable journey

Once again lingusamy gives a Action movie. This time with Karthi of Aayirithil Oruvan fame . And Karthi proves once again why he is definitely the best new coming actor in tamil cinema. Some from BH Director Lingusamy traverses on an all new road show in Paiyaa in his home production Tirupathi Brothers and has acquitted himself fairly well. Although romance seems to be the axle in Paiyaa, Lingusamy has skewed away mildly from this and spiced it up with a travel (escape) event as a backdrop.

The film opens up with an ingenious manner of credits flipping on the road and dividers, lucidly indicating the genre of the film. A creative brainwave indeed! Karthi (Shiva), an engineering graduate with an attitude, is on the look out for a job. He does not seem to be much serious in seeking employment while his friends try their best to settle him. He spots Tamannah (Charu) in a bus stop and it is love at first sight. He finds her on a couple of occasions later and in fact misses an interview in her pursuit. Destiny seems to have something good waiting for him and he gets to spend themost beautiful phase of his life, giving her a ride in the car while waiting to pick the owner of the car at the railway station. Life takes an exciting turn from this point for Karthi who accepts to drop her in Mumbai and thus begins Paiyaa's journey of romance, action and emotions on a highway with a few turns, some with caution and some without.

Paiyaa zooms forward in the first half where Karthi is at driver's seat physically and metaphorically. An enjoyable performance from the young actor who appears to relish his role! For the first time in his career, he gets to cover himself with stylish costumes. He sparkles with haughty countenance, sideway glances, mischievous looks, 'know it all' attitude and an understated curiosity to know about Tamannah. He reiterates that he can essay any kind of role with aplomb. But there are still some vestiges of a villager in him which he needs to divest when necessary. Tamannah is fresh, youthful and emotes well too. Jagan has a small role in the second half. Karthi's friends are adept in their performance. Except for looking hot and handsome, the much talked about Milind Soman is wasted and any one could have performed his role.

Yuvan Shankar Raja is the major backbone of Paiyaa with lovely tracks suiting the mood of the film. Tamannah looks as fresh as the raindrops in thuli thuli mazhayai number. Suthude suthude boomi speaks of art director Rajeevan's work but he could have taken extra care especially about the stationery cloud hovering around the moon. The songs are all chartbusters and have all been picturized very aesthetically. Priya Manikandan's costumes are in sync with the nature of characters and the mood of the film. Brinda Sarathy's dialogues evoke laughter at the right places but are very few to carry the movie forward.

The second half slackens with some of the actions sequences appear contrived especially in the climax. How can someone even lift his head when beaten by a powerful metal rod? It is difficult to comprehend despite attributing it to cinematic liberties. The climax fights intend to be more for showcasing Karthi's heroism than for the story warranting it. And why is Karthi shown as someone who does not speak English despite being a city bred engineer with urban friends for company? Director Lingusamy has stuck to the genre that he has chosen for most part. He has recorded romance in a beautiful manner especially when Karthi communicates his feelings to his friends seeking advice and his dignified attitude towards Tamannah. The car chasing sequence in the open field is absolutely brilliant and so is Karthi going reverse in the opposite direction. Cinematographer Madhie needs plaudits here. Crisp editing by Anthony especially in the action sequences is a major plus point of Paiyaa and deserves a special mention.

Overall paiyya gives a little of everythin and is watchable once but this is not the best of karthi by far !!!

Paiyya - 6/10

Vinnaithandi Varuvaaya - Crosses the skies for us

After 1 and quarter years of anticipation and eagerness, Gautham's Vinnaithaandi Varuvayaa. Right from the cast to the technical team, the movie is purely packed star cast with proved technicians.

I was listening to the songs every day since they were released . With the Oscar award winner A.R.R handling the music, there were no doubts for everyone that the movie sure to make it big. I entered the theatre expecting a true love story with quality acting and a powerful story. I was not disappointed at all; in fact I was dumbfounded by it.

VTV is all about falling in love, the emotions, confusions and the innumerable roller-coaster sensations associated with it. Karthik (Silambarasan), a mechanical engineer, hopes to be a aspiring film director one day. It is love at first sight for this young man with his landlord's daughter Jessy (Trisha), a Malayalee Christian and a computer professional. Karthik expresses his love to her in a quite unexpected manner but she does not accept it citing practical reasons, such as age, culture and family's pride. Notwithstanding her absence even for a short while, Karthik leaves Chennai and travels to Kerala just to apologise to her. Jessie understands the depth of his love by his words and actions.

He finds Jessie and apologies for his behaviour and earns her friendship in return.. The ensuing train trip to Chennai from Allapuzha paves way for a deeper bond between the two. Jessie's brother gets to know about Karthik's love and problems emerge between them which create a conflict between the two families and Karthik's family is made to vacate the premises. This triggers the hasty arrangement of marriage for Jessy in Kerala. Needless to say, Karthik reaches there and what happens thereafter form the crux of Vinnai Thaandi Varuavaayaa. The rest of the story is all about the life of the main leads after these incidents. The love has been portrayed in the typical narrative style of Gautham.

Simbhu's performance has been impressive from the first shot of the movie to the last frame of the movie. His toned down dialogue delivery works very well for the story and especially towards the climax; he makes the audience move in tears with his acting.

Trisha stays impressive from portraying the character of a confused lady who couldn't decide on her love at many instances. No doubt that it will be a break for her too in her career.

A.R.R's music is very impressive and his background music is magical and makes the audience go into the story deeper and deeper. Especially during scenes where Karthik proposes his love and the scene where he sees Jessie for the first time. The deep experimental of new type of music have come out in a very pleasant way. No doubt that this movie will bag him numerous awards.

In Overall, Gautham have crafted a love story which revolves around these two characters. Many could think that the movie's pace is very slow, but I felt that if the pace has been quicker it may not have been as powerful or impactful as now.The high point of the movie is the reality it portrays on screen. Whether it is the family of the leads or the friends , its exactly what you see in your daily life. The climax is a shocking one yet a perfect one.The wait is certainly more than the worth and is another breakaway from traditional Tamil movies. As a film student and critique, I felt that this is a classic love story which portrays not only the happy side of it but painful one to. Its a movie for everyone but definitely one for people in love,or were in love or who want to fall in love . Gautham have chosen a cliché' story and experimented deeply in the screenplay. There is no doubt that Vinnaithaandi Varuvayaa will be remembered by everyone for long. Thanks to Gautham!!!

Verdict- A Tribute to Love

Seven Pounds (2008) - A Mediocre Movie

Will Smith is one of those few great actors who can make u laugh and cry in the same movie with his breathtaking performances. In this movie Will sticks to making us cry by his performance. I watched this movie with very less expectations as it came just after Hancock( Will's worst movie) .

The Story is of an IRS agent who sets on a journey of redemption to change the lives of 7 strangers. The screenplay of this movie is a huge drawback as it tends to get boring at many moments. The initial scenes between 'Ben' and 'Emily' are really lame and pointless. The character development of Emily (who's counting her days) was not so perfect. The performances of all characters are pretty outstanding especially Will Smith and Woody Harrelson . The plot has a very sensitive touch and emotional thing about it but the director fails to impress us at many situations.

The movie could have been much more if more thought was put into it. There are few plot holes along the way and the chemistry between the lead pair is not great.
All said and done Will Smith has given a stunning performance as Ben Thomas and shines above all in this not so great movie.

The other technical aspects were just average but the background score was pretty heart warming. This is a movie to watch for all Will Smith fans but for others u can avoid this flick !!!

Rating 6/10

The Book of Eli (2010) - Not just another post-apocalyptic thriller

Cast : Denzel Washington , Gary Oldman
Director : Albert Hughes

Plot : Eli (Denzel Washington) has been on a journey for 30 years, walking west across America after a cataclysmic war that turned the earth into a total wasteland. The world has become a lawless civilization where people must kill or be killed. The barren roads belong to gangs of cutthroats who rob and kill for water, a pair of shoes, a lighter, or just for fun. Eli is a peaceful man who only acts in self defense, and becomes a warrior with unbelievable killing skills when he is challenged. After the war and the "Big Flash", Eli was guided by a higher power to a hidden book and given the task of protecting the book and taking it to its final destination. Eli guards the book with his life, because he knows that the book is the only hope that humanity has for its future.



Upon first viewing the trailer I was immediately giddy to see a new post-apocalyptic film . Being a fan of the genre, one must get used to the repetitive "lone wanderer" theme so prominently used. I figured this film would go through the same formula, but prepared to enjoy myself.

Yes it did use the lone wanderer as a driving plot device, and yes it did bring the arbitrary twist. Yes all the survivors are short on t-shirts, but live in a wealth of leather and goggles. Yes everything in this film looks like and feels like a typical post-apocalyptia. But the substance of the story is far more powerful then I could ever have expected.

Without giving away too much, yes the film is essentially a Christian metaphor. Eli seems to be protected by some mysterious force, guided by "God" to head west. But it's what the meaning behind this admittedly bizarre plot that makes this film so great. It truly is a film about faith and believing in one's self. Using the dreary post-apocalyptic backdrop, the film is able to contrast this powerful message with the harsh landscape. Even amidst such despair, one can rise and accomplish anything. In a world slowly becoming apocalyptic itself, this message is much welcomed.

The other aspects lending to the power of The Book of Eli are its technical aspects. The cinematography is simply beautiful. Moody slo-mo shots abound with wonderfully toned colors. Everything looks dark and dead, the sun beating down endlessly on the dusty dunes. The soundtrack adds immensely to this feeling, using soft ambient chords and blasting action-scene drums when necessary. Overall The Book of Eli is an excellent film itself and an excellent spin on the post-apocalyptic genre.

Oh yeah, and Denzel Washington actually manages to pull off the part of a wizened, old bad ass.

Rating : 7.5/10

Tamil Padam - A laugh riot

When i heard that Tamil Padam - a spoof of many tamil movies was going to release i expected it to be stayed or stoned by fans. But azhagiri had the guts to produce this film and promote it as any other Tamil film. So is this like scary movie? No way Tamil padam is more a celebration to Tamil movies without hurting anyone's sentiments than a simple spoof .

The director Amudhan has done a great job with the screenplay in the fast half but has probably not focused on the second half. So lets get to the structure of this movie :

The very first scene of this movie is a trailer into what we can expect from this film. The movie starts of with a parody version of Karuthamma and joining it with Nattamai (where the original villain plays the nattamai) and ending it with the famous thalapathy scene(Sri Vidya putting the baby on the train). We then jump into when the kid is around 8 years old and we see a rogue messing with a girl and what does the kid do? Believe it or not the director is smart in using the biggest cliche in Tamil cinema where a small boy turns into an adult by riding a bicycle.

So enters Shiva the hero of the film who bashes everyone with just movement of a finger. And there we have an intro song vijay style . Then as usual we meet the first of many villains who wants to meet the hero and me meet a replica of mammoty who plays Deva from Thalapathy and scene moves into the memorable Baasha meeting scene between Rajinikanth and Raghuvaran. Again the director should be appreciated for joining Maniratnam, Thalapathy, Baasha, Kandhasamy into one scene.

The friends of Shiva are Siddharth (Mano bala),Nakul (M.S.Bhaskar) and Bharath(Venniradai Murthy) . They enact many scenes of Boys and are insanely hilarious at many moments.

The heroine introduction starts off with a mozhi jyothika parody where the heroine hits another lady for bashing her boyfriend. This then moves onto shiva finding out that the heroine likes Bharatanatyam . So in an effort to impress her shiva learns Bharatanatyam in one day and dances before her(The funniest scene of the movie - see to believe it ) in Kadhalan style. So once they come together we have a duet song ' Oh Maha Seya ' - a mockery of all tamil song lyrics which have no meaning. Truly amazing by MD Kannan to come up with this tune

How can we have a love track without the heroine's dad causing problems. He says he wants his son-in law to be rich. Hearing this Shiva sets off to earn money and he does in a single song with the time of making a cup of coffee :)

The second half has its funny moments but is irritating at times. The Kakka mockery sequence was great and also the Cinemapatti scenes were great. Apart from these the second half dissapoints. The Director has many scenes to show but didn't get them in order which makes this movie less enjoyable. The climax again is top notch with a court scene where everyone seems to be a undercover agent.

The technical aspects of the film were outstanding whether it was debutant Music Director Kannan's BGM or Nirav Shah's cinematograpy or even Santhanam's great art direction . The movie is a wholesome entertainer with majority of the scenes being insanely hilarious.

On the whole watch Tamil Padam with family and friends if u Love Tamil Cinema !!!

Rating 7.5/10