Wednesday, November 14, 2007

Azhagiya Tamil Magan (Vijay, Shreya, Namitha, Santhanam)






Azhagiya Tamil Magan’ banks heavily on Vijay’s charm and performance. The Ilaya Thalapathy has lived up to the challenge created by the huge success of ‘Pokkiri’. He looks stylish and handsome. He lights up the screen by his dynamic performance.

Director Bharathan has exploited Vijay’s strengths well. He has provided a perfect entertainer for Vijay fans by giving ample chance, including dual role, to Vijay to come up with a stylish, action packed, romantic heroism.

Vijay plays both hero and villain. The first half is filled with romance and a mystery surrounding Vijay’s Extra Sensory Perception (ESP), while the second half is dominated by the tug of war between the two Vijays.

Let us first look at the storyline. Guru (Vijay) is an athlete and business management student. Abhinaya (Shreya) is the daughter of a business baron (Ashish Vidyarthi). They meet and, what else, fall in love.

The movie goes on to show how the lovers manage to get the permission of the parents. In the meantime, you get to see a different dimension in the tale while the romantic drama is unfolding. Vijay visualizes some bizarre scenes inside his mind. The scenes are disturbing and worse, they become true in the real life.


A psychiatrist (played by Dr. Rudran, a professional psychiatrist) confirms that it is ESP power and says that the imageries visualized by Guru would actually happen sooner or later. Unfortunately Guru visualizes another scene which he would never like to see happening. Sensing a danger to his sweetheart, he runs away to Mumbai from her to save her.

In Mumbai he stumbles upon a person, who looks alike himself. This gives him a different meaning of the horrible incident visualized by him. Before catching the man, played by Vijay again, Guru gets into an accident and the new man moves to Chennai where he is mistaken as Guru.

Stylish and care free Prasad, the look alike Guru, is a greedy person, who would do anything to earn money and enjoy life. Abinaya mistakes him for Guru and gets him to her house. Sensing his strength, Prasad decides to act as Guru and marry the rich Abhi.

The real Guru comes back and tells everyone the truth. But no one is ready to believe him, as he is outplayed by the wicked Prasad in each and every move. Finally the truth prevails but not before the tensed battle between the two with lot of twists and actions.

Before going in to details we must say that ESP is not a proven scientific fact and hence the director putting it as a matter of fact is unacceptable. We could have digested it if the director had presented it in a different manner without pretending to be scientific.


Coming back to the script, the director has come up with a new idea in form of ESP to provide twist in the tale. Though the idea of double role is not new, Bharathan had made the tough of war between the two interesting by conceiving a few interesting sequences.

The first half however, is dragging too much to the comfort of the audience. The efforts to convince the father and mother, one by one, play as speed breakers. The way the girl falls for the hero lacks imagination. The ESP imageries and Vijay fighting with Vijay have been executed well.

The director has done well in presenting Vijay - the USP of the film. The hero looks handsome, and stylish. The second Vijay in particular, is simply awesome in his styles. Vijay has presented a virtual treat for his fans by his mannerisms, actions, voice modulations, and body language.

Shreya, arguably possessing the most stunning and sexy figure among today’s heroines is simply ravishing. She and the director, of course, pretty well know that acting is not her forte and hence bank on her USP, which is her curvaceous body, to make the proceedings, especially the songs attractive. Namitha is effectively used for a scintillating song.

Santhanam as Guru’s friend doesn’t go overboard and provides some comical relief. Good performers like Sayaji Shinde and Ashish Vidyarthi are wasted in insignificant roles.

A.R. Rahman’s music is outstanding. In fact that songs sound better when heard – and seen – in the movie. ‘Maduraiku Pokaathey’ and ‘Valaiyapatti’ are quite attractive. The remix version is more convincing when seen in the context. The background score is effective in the scenes when Guru gets ESP images.

Balasubramaniam’s camera work is spectacular, especially in song sequences. The scenic beauty of Phuket Island and other locations are amazingly captured. Larencce has made wonders in choreographing. Vijay’s dancing movements are quite stylish.

Vel - (Suriya, Asin, Lakshmi, Aiswarya, Saranya, Ambika Nazer, Kalabhavan Mani, Vadivelu, Raj Kapoor, Vaiyapuri)






Review


Hari, one of the best commercial directors in Tamil, has lived up to the expectations in ‘Vel’. He has presented a racy film that provides a perfect entertainer. The movie has action, sentiment, and romance. The script, which is compact, is well complemented by the performances.

The two layered story unfolds nicely. The story opens with a family with a twin children losing one. The separated boys grow up in different environments. The one grows in Chennai becomes an officer (Vasudevan) in a private investigative agency and the other grows in Dindukkal becomes a typical rusty young man (Vetrivel).

The city bred Suriya charms RJ Asin through his professional ethics. Rusty Vel is engaged in the bloody tussle with Kalabhavan Mani, who has deep rooted enmity against the family. Vasu is full of brains and smile while Vel lives with sickle and dangerous duels.

Vasu’s mother (Saranya) could not forget her lost son. She is longing to bring him back to her home. But she couldn’t find his whereabouts. The family, in which Vel lives, is so affectionate with him. Especially the grand mother (Lakshmi) is emotionally dependent on him.

RJ Asin accidentally finds Vel and informs Vasu. Vasu goes to the village and meets his brother. The family refuses to send Vel to his original family. Vasu, understanding their unadulterated affection towards Vel, agrees to give up his claim.

But he has one request. Vel should go to Chennai pretending as Vasu and live with his mother. Vasu in turn would act as Vel in the village. Vel accepts.





Vasu continues Vel’s struggle against powerful Kalabhavan Mani but with a different approach. Vasu uses his brain and investigating network instead of muscle power. The rules of the game changes, and Mani finds himself cornered.

The movie goes on narrating fierce fight and sentimental drama between the two families over Vel.

Director Hari is known for his compact script and smart execution. Though he has proven his caliber in a few films life ‘Samy’, ‘Vel’ is easily his best film. It showcases his ability to create a racy entertainer. He has treaded in a safe path to make a commercially viable film by choosing a routine theme based on sentiment and action. But the treatment he has given to the story is commendable. You cannot single out a scene that is boring or redundant.

He has conceived and executed the action and romantic sequences equally well. The pace is ensured from the word go. The two dimensional climax – action and sentiment – is quite appealing.

For Suriya, the roles are not as challenging as the ones in ‘Pithamagan’, ‘Gajini’ or ‘Perazhagan’. He gets routine roles but his handling makes them look special. He breathes fire as ‘Vel’ and spreads charm as Vasu. Though there is no much difference in the get ups, he has differentiated both roles by his body language and dialogue delivery. His action in emotional sequences is touching. His on screen chemistry with Asin clicks once again.

Asin doesn’t have much to perform but she does have her moments. The initial roles showcase her magical charm. She has handled her role with amazing ease and brilliance. She shows her caliber when she looks at her lover in the village house with admiration and love.

Kalabhavan Mani, as villain with comical traits, rocks. The man adds life to the proceedings by his inimitable style. Vadivelu’s comedy is simply amazing. The man is definitely one of the major assets of the film.

Saranya and Lakshmi do their parts well. Raj Kapoor as the uncle of Vel and Charlie as Vasu’s friend are competent.


Yuvan Shankar Raja’s music is soothing to the ears. The songs sequences, however, are not among the pluses of the movie. In fact, songs do weaken the pace of the movie.

The bottomline: ‘Vel’ rocks with racy script and powerful performances. Surefire entertainer to brighten up the festival season.

Director: Hari

Producer: M. Chinthamani

Cast: Surya Sivakumar, Asin Thottumkal, Vadivelu, Aishwarya,

Kalabhavan Mani, Nassar, Charan Raj, Lakshmi, Saranya

Raj Kapoor, Charlie

Music: Yuvan Shankar Raja

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