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10 Reasons why you should skip NEP

ReelRead | Bia Jasmine sounds rather exhausted after her tryst with the movie 'Neethane en ponvasantham." Did you enjoy the flick?

1. Neethane En Ponvasantham(NEP) is not a love story, it is a story of clash of egos. So don’t go by the “this could be your love story” tag line. Not to forget that the movie is predictable, stagnant and lags at many places, prompting the audience to applaud as the screen reads "INTERMISSION."

2. There are countless repetitions from Gautam Vasudev Menon’s past efforts. Loving father/parents from, friends who support through thick and thin, and a gal who loves the boy very much mouthing “I don’t know what I want, for example.

3. Nithya (Samantha) deserved a better match than Varun (Jeeva.) The guy’s character lacked the emotional and intellectual depth that a woman like Nithya can stay smitten by. Comparatively, the lady seems to mature as the story (or the lack of it) progresses and softly asks “why couldn’t you open up about your family before?”

4. At times, one doubted if the couple was in love or in an extended period of infatuation.

5. Or, if it is love or parasitism. The guy, without an iota of shame lives off her money. The girl is so emotionally dependent on the guy that she loses her sense of self completely.

6. Contrarily  they never come out of their comfort zones. The boy wants to take care of his family and doesn’t think much of the girl’s reaction to that. The girl remains a spoilt rich kid, an emotional wreck and cantankerous to the point of annoyance.

7. At no point do you feel that the couple is meant for each other. Jeeva spends the entire movie with a blank look and Samantha is aptly expressive. Eventually, when their characters reconcile the differences, you don’t feel happy for them. You feel bored. They nitpick on each other too much. They list out their compromises/sacrifices on account of each other.They break up for reasons a 4 year old will laugh at. These are possessive and overtly needy people who don’t value love.

8. If you are a diehard Ilayaraja fan, please don’t go with high expectations to NEP. As such the tunes seem out of sync for the situation, most tunes are rehashed and there’s a feeling of outdatedness settling in right from the first scene. I expected the background score to be extraordinary, as is the case with Raja, and what was I treated with? The soprano chorus from Devar Magan.

9. For the love of all things  90s, even if you love the tunes, the sheer frequency in which the songs appear leaves you frustrated. I am not going to emphasize on the abysmal picturization of Menon. His power of imagination seems to have come to a sudden halt.

10. Though NEP tries too hard, it is not half as evocative as Vinnaithandi Varuvayaa, unfortunatelty.

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Cloud Atlas - Is everything connected?

Reelread| Suchitra tells you why the overtly long and the slightly complicated "Cloud Atlas" is worth your time. Enjoy!

In the first 10 minutes of the movie, you are left in a strange, morphing land, one where the scene changes from a voyage in the Pacific Ocean to the story of a publisher in the 21st century to a dystopian future with a closed room scenario. You spend the first hour trying to make sense of the many threads the directors have laid out to you to follow, grabbing the common themes, the clues they have laid out, making connections, investing in this story and then that one. It is strange and unusual, this mosaic-manner of storytelling. Sometimes you lost one plot or the other, as the door closes in one segment and opens in another one. But something keeps you hooked, something keeps you on your toes for the almost-three-hour duration of the movie.

Six stories, all intertwined, in more ways than one. There is the story of the 19th century lawyer, giving aid to an oppressed slave aboard a ship journeying on the Pacific Ocean to San Francisco. He later publishes his diary, which is read by a genius musician composing ‘a sestet with six overlapping soloists’ called Cloud Atlas. In the late 1970s, a journalist comes across the letters the composer wrote to his lover. There is also the story of a publisher in the late 2000s, confined in an old-age home, fighting his oppressors. And two futuristic stories - one, a long conversation between an ‘archivist’ and a rebel soon to be put to death. And the last one about a dystopian future where man preys upon man, condemned to eventual dying out of the human race.

It’s not just following each thread to its completion that grips you as the movie moves on. It is also the way the past affects the present, how ideas grow over time, how people change, sometimes for the better, sometimes for the worse. One theme that runs through the movie is one of oppression. ‘The strong shall eat, the weak be meat’ says a character late in the movie. Whether it is the slavery that we have known in the past, or the horrific oppression of the ‘fabricants’ in the future set in Neo Seoul, or even the confinement of the elderly in old age homes (comic as this segment was), it is all about the strong and the weak and the meek becoming strong again.

The other thread is past life connections, a sense of karma. Different archetypes play out in the six sequences across ages, maybe driving home the point that even as times change, the moulds that people are set in sometimes don’t. Like clouds, the forms change, the substance does not. The movie has a great way to show it - employ the same character to play the same archetype across multiple ages.

The movie is star-studded - there is Tom Hanks, Halle Berry and Jim Broadbent - and Kamal Hassan must be jumping in joy after seeing the make-up effects in this movie. Maybe his next would be a feature of this sort, but himself playing all of the characters? let us wait and see.

All in all, Cloud Atlas is a rare movie, a delight to watch. It is a great adaptation of the book, with some conclusions modified just a bit, for the cinematic palate. Perhaps multiple viewings would not hurt. At three hours, it is on the longer side, but definitely worth every minute of the watch.

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Thuppakki - a decent entertainer

Reelread | A self confessed masala movie hater, Bharath has some good things to say about the latest action movie of Southern star Vijay. Don't mind the ifs and buts, if you are a fan of such movies or the star.

Cast: Vijay, Vidyut Jammawal, Kajal Agarwal, Sathyan and others. Director: A.R.Murugadoss Music: Harris Jayaraj Cinematography: Santosh Sivan Editor: Sreekar Prasad

Released amid festivity and huge expectations, Thuppaki managed to connect with a large section of the audience partly due to Vijay’s markedly different approach and partly due to interesting sequences. But, the fact that these interesting sequences were hidden between familiar clichés works against the pace of the movie to a great extent.

Army officer Jagdish (Vijay) comes home for vacation. His usual routine during the 40 day period is to tag along with his SI friend (Sathyan) and ensure maintenance of law and order in Mumbai. On one such occasion, he accidently finds a sleeper agent of a Terrorist group and subsequently uncovers the plot to plant bombs in 12 different places of Mumbai.

Being the intelligent and patriotic man he is, Jagdish takes it upon himself instead of trusting the corrupt Mumbai police force and counter attacks with his battalion mates and kill all 12 sleeper agents in one go and earns the respect and fury of the Terror outfit’s leader (Vidyut Jammawal). This ignites a series of episodes where the hero and the villain try to outwit each other enroute to accomplishing their respective tasks.

Although the story had enough scope for high octane action and edge of the seat moments, all we witness is banalities in the name of a lackluster love story and unintentionally stupid comic sequences. Blame it on commercialism and the compulsion to satisfy fans, but this kind of self-annihilation needs to end at some point. Nevertheless, the film does have its moments which are completely used by Vijay to show that he has more mettle than his fans care for.

Vijay looks the part and plays the role with conviction. One hopes he continues on his new path. Apart from Vijay, it is Vidyut who manages to make an impression as a smart and cunning bigwig of a terrorist outfit. But, he is reduced to the level of a clown in the climax which weakens his characterization. Sathyan, Jayaram and Kajal who are supposed to provide comic relief are exasperating at the most.

On the technical front, the director A.R.Murugadoss had the best in Santosh Sivan and Sreekar Prasad at hand which works wonderfully well for the film. But, the biggest letdown was in his department. The screenplay was erratic at best. And the other big letdown is the music (Harris) of the film which fails to register at any level.

Although the story may seem relevant, vilifying Indian Muslims as terrorists and as the lone reason for internal terrorism issues are getting stale and unreasonable. Film makers need to take more care so as to not hurt the sentiments of a particular religion. All said and done, Thuppaki may not be a flawless entertainer but it does manage to do the job to some extent.

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Prometheus - A search worth the wait!

Tagline: The search for our beginning could lead to our end. Director: Ridley Scott Genre: Science Fiction, Horror Actors: Noomi Rapace, Charlize Theron, Logan Marshall Green, Guy Pearce & Michael Fassbender  

Prometheus – the word brings forth a heroic savior, a champion for mankind against the omnipotent Gods. We have been unsuccessful at finding answers for the unanswered questions about our origin for quite a while. In his return to the franchisee after nearly 33 years, Ridley Scott gives us a whole new idea about how and more importantly, why Prometheus and our mankind were abandoned without a clue by the Gods or the ones who engineered us.

Elizabeth Shaw (Noomi Rapace a.k.a The Girl with the Dragon Tatoo) and Charlie Holloway (Logan Marshall Green) are archaeologists who stumble upon an ancient scripture in 2093 A.D which resembles many other scriptures from different cultures. They strongly believe that the scriptures indicate the direction towards our Gods or engineers.

They embark on a journey, aided by a billionaire (Guy Pearce), towards the moon indicated in the scriptures in order to find and communicate with these engineers. They are accompanied by scientists, armed personnel, the power hungry daughter of the billionaire Meredith (Charlize Theron) and an intelligent humanoid, David (Michael Fassbender).

They travel for 2 years and finally land up in a dry and deserted mass of land. A huge tunnel filled with identically shaped cylinders and a huge monolith resembling the face of a human are found. But, they do not come across any living form. When all human hope is lost towards the expedition, David makes their lives a bit more interesting.

David is much more intelligent than a droid or a human and he proves it. He decodes the language of the engineers. He finds ways to hack into their system and collects information privy to mankind. He even finds one of the engineers alive and in hibernation. His only mistake would be in waking the engineer up.

Meanwhile, human interference inside the tunnel disrupts the environment and the result is not friendly. David tucks one of the cylinders away for his personal collection and later experiments it on Holloway. His experiment results in internal turmoil and an unexpected evolution leaves everyone dead but Shaw, an ALIEN life form and himself.

Here, I have revealed you the storyline, almost. But this wouldn’t spoil the fun ride that Prometheus is. With magnificence written all over it, you are in for a great experience. To start with, the core idea behind the expedition is impressive. The visuals are arresting. The imagery is horrific. The suspense is haunting. It is better to sit back and enjoy the performances than comment on them, as the innate complexities of the characters portrayed call for superlatives after superlatives.

Prometheus has more shock value than many power plants in our country. Ridley Scott leaves us breathless, as he often does. The awe and wonder one experiences in the first half hour of the movie escalates to a nerve wrecking adventure which eventually cascades down to a spine chilling finale. The only drawbacks are the uneven pace and a confounding screenplay which does leave some questions unanswered in this otherwise extraordinary extravaganza.

Frankly, forget the reviews, go watch Prometheus.

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Angels & Demons- Controversy sells, once again

Genre - Religion, mystery, science

 Director - Ron Howard

 Cast - Tom Hanks, Ewan McGregor, Ayelet Zurer, Nikolas Lie Kaas

Bottomline - Hardy-boys-meet-History teacher kind of film.

 ...................................................................................................

“When you write about us, and you will, do so gently” requests Cardinal Strauss at the climax of the movie. Let me try.

With a plot to kill 4 cardinals and destroy the Vatican becoming an eleventh hour chase for Harvard Symbologist Robert Langdon (Tom Hanks) as he sight sees around Rome in record time with a beautiful Italian CERN scientist Vittoria Vetra (Ayelet Zurer), what really can you expect? Nothing much, exactly.

Angels and demons’ (A&D) is an overstuffed bosh of a tale from Ron Howard and Co. A prequel in print and a sequel on the screen (Noticed the scene where Langdon’s Disney watch is shown?) is sure better than the team’s previous attempt to malign Dan Brown’s international best seller ‘The Da Vinci Code.’

The movie dates back to the Renaissance period where a secret rebel group of freethinkers calling themselves the ‘enlightened ones’ or the ‘Illuminati’ dared to stand up against the Catholic Churches for the brutal persecution of the scientists. Basically, what was supposedly conceived by Dan Brown as a science fiction with some interesting history in his textual version ends up becoming a half-baked uninspiring religious drama in the silver screen. 

For whatever purpose the details given in the book are changed in the film. This in no way means the movie is any less than snail-paced. The movie is surely fast paced than the first attempt, but that just means, all the sermons are dished out by Langdon on the run. He comes across as a biological wonder, running speedily and talking in a measured American accent about Roman history and strange symbols simultaneously, without losing his breath. Voila, farce!

Much to one’s relief, A&D is juxtaposed with some lighter moments, which breaks the monotony of the otherwise unending history lessons the crew has to offer to us. Be it the library scene where Langdon suffocates for air, or even the fact that Langdon, an expert on the Illuminati, does not understand either Latin or Italian. The most comical thing is that Langdon doesn’t decipher the mystery, he just refers to some musty old script and with alarming precision draws conclusions ends up at the appropriate location, just 10 minutes before the action, now that’s our movie police cliché. 

Hanks does nothing special portraying Langdon, with  a boring, rather bored performance, but one just can’t help feeling that the script had little to offer scope. Zurer has nothing do, and the sinister assassin Mister Gray (Nikolaj Lie Kaas) is no match to the menacing Silas portrayed by Paul Bettany. Ewan McGregor, as Camerlengo, is definitely the star of the movie and shines in his role. Here again, the book portrayed the Chamberlain as an Italian whereas the movie made him Irish, and the role was played by a Scottish actor, now that’s truly global!

In spite of all the antics by Langdon, the screenplay by David Koepp and Akiva Goldsman, is ironically unexciting for a mystery film, leisurely and sagging throughout. Enjoyable, intelligent, atmospheric cinematography by Salvatore Totino, and a spirited, rousing score by Hans Zimmer adds value to the movie. In addition, the effects are remarkable, considering that most of the Vatican locations, including the Sistine Chapel and St Peter's Square, were recreated using sets in Hollywood and CGI. The climax scene involving the explosion is a visual treat, but by that time, one loses all the patience to appreciate it.

Last word - If you think you can never afford a trip to Rome, please watch A&D, this is an entertaining tourist video for the Italian capital, or else, may God save you.