A movie made in hell

Aditya chopra went on a hiatus for 8 years. Perhaps, during this time, he sold his soul to the devil and has come back to carry on satan's evil work; to unleash upon this world; a pain so massive; a cruelty so gruesome; a movie so boring that he can be called a facist. The problem with 'Rab ne bana di jodi' ( i am already beginning to snooze before i can type out the entire name) is not that it is bad, it is so bad that i might be looking at some serious therapy time. I did contemplate on whether i should spend my time writing about this dredge, but decided that a post on this - in its own small way - is a social service to humanity and a serious boost to my social guilt conscience (which takes a serious blow everytime i bribe a cop). 

Rab ne starts off as a slow, acceptable mediocrity devolves into silly tripe and becomes the cess pit of wasted screen time and tortured audiences. Perhaps, just perhaps, if despite the pathetic screenplay, everything else had been good, it would have been watchable (barely). But when there is only one real actor in the movie - even he, at times, takes a dip to the realms of dramatized 'overacting' (perhaps all the talk about how great an actor he is is getting to his head) - backed with average music, cliched dialogues and utterly silly base off which the entire movie is built there is only one way the movie is going to take you - downhill into hell. 

Rab ne will easily rank among the worst movies i have ever seen in my life. Coming from someone, who has had his diet of Vijay movies in tamil, it is a serious allegation. Even in some of the crappiest movies there have been some rare moments when i have marvelled at a little technical artistry with the camera or a piece of awesome soundtrack or even some interesting exchange of dialouges. But i am at a loss to recall any single 5 minute stretch when i was engrossed in this movie at all. Horrible screenplay, monotonous dialogues, meandering story with no real purpose (at least to me), worst female actress i have seen (she just looks like a well dressed barbie in most of the scenes) and just a hollow nothingness that stretches for nearly 3 hours and make you want to drink your way to sanity in the end!!

Dont even make your worst enemy watch this.... 

Pudupettai - Not for the faint hearted

Gangster movies seem to be the flavour of the season in tamil cinema. After the massacre riot of pattial - just when you thought it could not get more violent or gory than that - comes pudupettai painted in red. Its not a movie for the faint hearted.

Selvaragavan, yet again, puts dhanush in a character you can neither dislike or dis-hate. But unlike kaadhal kondaen where there was a strong undercurrent of love, this one is purely about - well... bloodshed. The movie has a cliched storyline: a young boy influenced by circumstances to become bad. But the execution is different from other movies. Unlike its predecessors which try and sugarcoat the life of a gangster, this one shows it in all its blood and pain. No dream lands, no duets..i like him for that. Sometimes the movie reflects the noir undertone of the story and feels like one is reading the pages of a well written script. Was even reminded of max payne at times - an unheard deep bass voice taking you through the story. The movie proceeds like a melange of events each fading into the next conveying a meaning, each depicting dhanush in new light and each a stepping stone for him in the dark and murderous world of killers and thugs.

What makes this movie enjoyable(at least for me) is the awesome sound track and incredible camera work. As always selvaragavan has integrated the songs into the movie so beautifully that you wont even realise that a song has gone by. Even the background score is amazing in combo with the scenes. Apart from the music, the camera work is just awesome. The scene that stands out is the sword fight on the street. The entire scene looks like it happens in the night, essentially in black and white, except for the red blood. It was an amazing fight sequence with some excellent slow mo captures that felt like a matrix duel. Hats off! Even in other scenes, the artful use of light tones - i could distinctly remember green, yellow and grayscale tones - made it enjoyable watching.

However this is not a movie that will go down well with everyone. The gore and violence is perhaps too much and it was probably intentional. Dhanush fits like a glove to his role as in all selvaragavan movies. Post interval, he gets cranky and begins to do all sorts of crazy stuff. This is the point you feel that the director has spoilt all his good work though this follows a small prelude from Dhanush's ramblings in the cell where he says

"Its just the first murder that scares you. After you have done it once, you begin to like it. You are intoxicated by your own power and begin to feel what you do is right"

That in essence captures the entire story line.