Ah.. Aah..!!!
Published by Mysorean on Tuesday, October 18, 2005 at 10:30:00 pm.
Khushi, Vaali, New and Now "Ah.. Aah..!!". S. J. Suryah thought he has graduated from being an excellent director to being a director-cum-actor. But can somebody tell him that "New" ran primarily because it was Simran's last movie. No, not that he was bad or anything just that we are better off with him wielding the microphone than being on-screen. I have my grouses against SJS. He doesn't look good. He overacts. He is loud. And above all, his body language is repulsive!
Getting back to the movie review...
The story revolves around the hero and heroine living in together. Like all SJS movies, the theme will come as a ethical, moral, cultural, etc shock to most of the audience. It starts of well, with issues like trust, understanding etc. being highlighted very well. Slowly gets into SJS's favourite pitfall - Lust. The hero and the heroine get separated at the interval because of some misunderstanding and stupidity mainly on part of the hero. How they kiss and make up with the usual melodrama but with an unusually interesting theme makes the rest of the story.
SJS does a good job of direction. Though it can be called overdoing, the style with which he started the movie and flowed into the high-energy title song was a very confident way of doing it. The confidence shows in the delicate handling of physical attraction and emotional attraction. He has separated the issues and given it a very good treatment. He has clearly grown as a director over the years. Shows lot of promise. Unless he casts himself and puts me off, I am going to watch his movies.
Nila, a Simran [SJS's crush! ;)] look-alike, could have been much better. She could have atleast lip-synced those tamil words properly. It looked like her lips were stitched together! Even Trisha seems to do this. And so does Ilayathalapathi Vijay. Why can't they talk freely on-screen? Nila can get better. But I don't think like other SJS's discoveries she is going to reach the top.
A R Rahman is the superstar of this movie. "Mayiliragae", "Woodpecker", "thigu, thigu", "Varu girai" and the title song [of course!] are each gems in their own right. These songs, like all Rahman compositions, took time to grow on me. This man A R Rahman exceeds expectations like no-one can. Special mention I must make of Naresh Iyer and Hariharan for carrying off these intricate songs so easily. Sadhana Sargam, a Rahman regular, is brilliant as usual. And Rahman backs himself for the extremely peppy title song. After "Fanaah" in Yuva and "Azaadi" in Bose - The Forgotten Hero, this is Rahman's next rendition. The energy he infuses into the song is infectious. Also, Rahman's BGM is worth a mention. This man has grown amazingly well. He was not the best BGM composer we knew till sometime back. And today, he is composing musicals and conducting symphonies. All this shows in the BGM! Long live ARR!
The cinematography was good. With the blue tinge coming out well at the appropriate places. The camera angles, though unconventional, did match with the mood of the movie and in some places actually helped creating it. The scene where SJS and his friend are havinga drink & talking about illusion. Suddenly Nila appears behind SJS. The camera shows her upside down and that's how confused SJS was! The editing could have been crisper. Dialogues could have been toned down, but that's SJS's style. Can't do much about that. Costumes were funny at times. And in any case, SJS doesn't look good to me in anything.
The movie is worth a "dekko" if you can stand SJS on screen. You shouldn't be the hypocritic type who says where are live-in relationships in India and all that. Just get to Pune or Bangalore and you might actually enter into one! ;) That's how rampant it's becoming! The music could be a good crowd-puller but finally it's the parts in between that you have paid money to watch. So take your call. I find this movie a better watch than the pretentious Ghajini.
Getting back to the movie review...
The story revolves around the hero and heroine living in together. Like all SJS movies, the theme will come as a ethical, moral, cultural, etc shock to most of the audience. It starts of well, with issues like trust, understanding etc. being highlighted very well. Slowly gets into SJS's favourite pitfall - Lust. The hero and the heroine get separated at the interval because of some misunderstanding and stupidity mainly on part of the hero. How they kiss and make up with the usual melodrama but with an unusually interesting theme makes the rest of the story.
SJS does a good job of direction. Though it can be called overdoing, the style with which he started the movie and flowed into the high-energy title song was a very confident way of doing it. The confidence shows in the delicate handling of physical attraction and emotional attraction. He has separated the issues and given it a very good treatment. He has clearly grown as a director over the years. Shows lot of promise. Unless he casts himself and puts me off, I am going to watch his movies.
Nila, a Simran [SJS's crush! ;)] look-alike, could have been much better. She could have atleast lip-synced those tamil words properly. It looked like her lips were stitched together! Even Trisha seems to do this. And so does Ilayathalapathi Vijay. Why can't they talk freely on-screen? Nila can get better. But I don't think like other SJS's discoveries she is going to reach the top.
A R Rahman is the superstar of this movie. "Mayiliragae", "Woodpecker", "thigu, thigu", "Varu girai" and the title song [of course!] are each gems in their own right. These songs, like all Rahman compositions, took time to grow on me. This man A R Rahman exceeds expectations like no-one can. Special mention I must make of Naresh Iyer and Hariharan for carrying off these intricate songs so easily. Sadhana Sargam, a Rahman regular, is brilliant as usual. And Rahman backs himself for the extremely peppy title song. After "Fanaah" in Yuva and "Azaadi" in Bose - The Forgotten Hero, this is Rahman's next rendition. The energy he infuses into the song is infectious. Also, Rahman's BGM is worth a mention. This man has grown amazingly well. He was not the best BGM composer we knew till sometime back. And today, he is composing musicals and conducting symphonies. All this shows in the BGM! Long live ARR!
The cinematography was good. With the blue tinge coming out well at the appropriate places. The camera angles, though unconventional, did match with the mood of the movie and in some places actually helped creating it. The scene where SJS and his friend are havinga drink & talking about illusion. Suddenly Nila appears behind SJS. The camera shows her upside down and that's how confused SJS was! The editing could have been crisper. Dialogues could have been toned down, but that's SJS's style. Can't do much about that. Costumes were funny at times. And in any case, SJS doesn't look good to me in anything.
The movie is worth a "dekko" if you can stand SJS on screen. You shouldn't be the hypocritic type who says where are live-in relationships in India and all that. Just get to Pune or Bangalore and you might actually enter into one! ;) That's how rampant it's becoming! The music could be a good crowd-puller but finally it's the parts in between that you have paid money to watch. So take your call. I find this movie a better watch than the pretentious Ghajini.
