Aravinth's real world

Theeradha Vilayattu Pillai amounts to: yet another expensive vehicle for their star.

After almost two and a half hours, instead of being charmed by the antics of a Casanova who finally discovers love, you end up gritting your teeth at the shenanigans of Karthik (Vishal), a perennially jobless, yet pampered son of two bank managers (Rathna and Mouli), neither of whom has any control over him although his mother does try to din sense into his head.

Not that it has any effect, for Karthik has great ambitions in life – he needs to get the best of everything from pens, bikes, houses to kerchiefs. Naturally, women fall under the same, inanimate category, and he sets about trying to zero in on the best girl he can find.

In this effort, he’s assisted very gamely by three friends: Vishnu [ Images ] (Sathyan) – a traffic constable, Kumar (Santhanam) – an autorickshaw driver and Mayil Samy – a tea-shop owner. How such diverse men became friends is a moot point.

Karthik decides that he’ll select three girls (there’s no rational explanation for him choosing three), reject two of them, and marry the third. His argument is that what applies for houses and cell-phones, applies to love as well.

So begins our Don Juan’s journey in Chennai. First up, it’s Jyoti (Tanushree Datta, a former Miss India [ Images ] Universe, making her debut in Tamil) who, with a heart-shaped face and bee-stung lips, is some kind of an athlete (it’s never shown what, exactly, she does), who slaps a guy for touching her inappropriately. Karthik is impressed with her boldness, and she’s his first choice.

Second is Priya (Sara-Jane Dias, former Miss India World) who, when confronted with a broken marriage because of lack of dowry, promptly collects the jewels of all the guests (!) and hands it over to the bride – and then tells her to be an independent girl.

The third is Tejaswini [ Images ] (Neetu Chandra), heir to Rs 1,500 crores, fiery and seductive to boot.

Karthik then begins his journey to woo them.

Naturally, there are lies galore, as Karthik poses as a poor guy to one, a woman-hater to another, and drops an entire police battalion on the third. All three fall for him at the drop of a hat. Many forgettable duets (to Yuvan Shankar Raja’s music), filmed in Australia [ Images ] and Maldives [ Images ], later, the shoe drops: Tejaswini, with an understanding father, and a failed love attempt, is the first to stumble on the truth.

Tejaswini confronts him, and here is where the story, which has been fairly racy and light-hearted up to now, begins to get on your nerves. The film goes on, but by this point, you couldn’t care less.

It’s high time Vishal took a break and analysed exactly what he’s trying to be. Action hero? Lover boy? Sentimental romantic? Or an honest actor, with some real skills and perseverance? In this movie, the script has been compromised at every turn, to accommodate his star status: one minute he’s Padaiyappa’s Rajni, taunting the rich girl, ‘instructing’ her about values and overturning her schemes; at others, he’s aping Rajni of Netrikkann – except that he’s nowhere as effective or suave.

He apes Suriya to the hilt in the romantic scenes, walking, dancing, even rolling eyes like the other actor. In addition, there are a couple of stunt sequences where he bashes up a hundred goons; not even a steel kadapparai fazes him. Otherwise, he delights putting one over the girls, drinks, smokes, and tries a comic act that pales in comparison to his cohorts’. If anything, it’s Santhanam and Sathyan, who take the credit for a reasonably entertaining first half.

Of the three ladies, Neetu Chandra walks away with the honours. She’s seductive, sizzles on-screen with her outfits, looks like Zeenat Aman [ Images ] at times and Dimple Kapadia [ Images ] at others, and zips up so much sex appeal that you wish she’d been given more screen space. Tanushree Datta stands around, looking clueless mostly, while Prakash Raj [ Images ] brings the house down with his breezy act.

Sara-Jane Dias is a disappointment. Her lip-sync goes haywire, and her face, at any given point, looks expressionless. She looks like she has no idea about what’s happening.

Directed by Martin Campbell (“Casino Royale,” “Mask of Zorro”) who, interestingly enough, is remaking the film from an award-winning six-hour BBC miniseries he directed 25 years ago.
Campbell is working from a screenplay adapted from that series by two seasoned scribes: William Monohan (“The Departed,” another remake transplanted to Boston) and Andrew Bovell (who brought similar, moody twist-turning to 2001’s underrated “Lantana”).
Now 54, Gibson is grayer and grimmer. The part of Craven leaves little room for humor, but the wildness and fire that once exploded unpredictably from Gibson is much dimmed after several hard years for the actor…read more [The Olympian]

Mel Gibson returns to action on the big screen in Martin Campbell’s new thriller “Edge of Darkness,” and while he’s undoubtedly in great shape, the movie itself could do with a little more spice. That said, “Darkness” still qualifies as an entertaining viewing experience I had no trouble enjoying throughout…read more [The Screening Log]

This really is the perfect comeback role for Mel, one that harks back to some of his most memorable roles, but also allowing him to stretch as an actor, returning after eight years with a new perspective and maturity towards what his job as actor entails. There’s little question that when it comes to carrying a movie as a leading man, Gibson is still one of the best, and while his acting starts off shaky, Gibson eventually finds his legs with the character, delivering a heavy Boston accent with the type of nasally voice we might normally expect from Dustin Hoffman. Not that Craven is particularly awkward or shy, because when it comes time to meting out justice and roughing up those who stand in his way, he is surprisingly brutal and vicious

Veer’, the movie of a valiant warrior has released today worldwide. The trailer of the movie featuring Bollywood Machoman Salman Khan has already gotten huge popularity. Salman will be seen playing the lead role ‘Veer’ who belongs to Pindari community.

The movie is directed by Anil Sharma. The story of ‘Veer’ has been written by Salman Khan himself some 20-year-ago. Vijay Galani produced film has been completed at a huge budget of Rs 44 crore (Approx).

Though the film is mostly shot in Rajasthan, it makes a record of being the first Bollywood film to be shot in the premises of Buckingham Palace.

Movie Review

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Veer is a story of bravery, love and avenge. It has been made to show the legend of ancient time and love. The movie depicts India under the rule of British. The Kings of India easily accepts Britishers’ ‘divide and rule policy’.

But there is a community called Pindari who prefers death over disrespect. They live till their last breath for saving independence. Salman appears as the strongest and bravest Pindari soldiers named Veer.

He deeply falls in love with enemy’s daughter Yashodhara (played by beautiful model Zarine Khan). Veer has to fight against the British ruler, King of Madavgarh (Jackie Shroff) as well as his own jealous tribesmen. King of Madavgarh has cheated Pindaris to please the British. Prithvi Singh (Mithun Chakroborty) as the head of the Pindaris has promised to avenge for the deception for his tribe and land. In the battle field where cannons roar, swords clash and blood soaked land; Veer stands head.

Salman Khan takes absolute precedence amongst everything else and roars through a powerful performance. He befits the character of warrior and his sturdy image helps him a lot in this respect. Mithun Chakravarthy acts in his own way to add life to his character. Zarine Khan with her similar look with Salman’s girlfriend Katrina Kaif has done a good job in her debut film.

Veer movie will surly introduce a new era for Salman Khan in Bollywood. This is very different from his recent released movies : ‘London Dreams’ and ‘Main Aur Mrs Khanna’.

There are many critics towards the movie about the costume of ‘Veer’ that doesn’t matches to the historical evidence. In ‘Veer’ thousands of real horses and other animals are used for authenticity and making the battlefield more real. 19th century’s fearless warrior is expected to steal the heart of 21st century’s audience. Enjoy watching the movie at your favorite talkies.