Last Friday (29th Jan) saw the release of 5 Tamil movies of which 2 of them stood out from the rest. The 2 films I’m referring to are Tamizh Padam and Goa, both of which had raised the curiosity levels of the audience, prior to the release. While Tamizh Padam’s promos had created a lot of buzz as it aimed to be the 1st ever full length spoof movie in Tamil Cinema,Goa was the 3rd movie from Venkat Prabhu whose previous movies like Chennai-600028 and Saroja had a successful acceptance among the audience.Having watched both the movies in a gap of just a few hours I clearly felt entertained and also realized that these movies were certainly refreshing in their own way. I would never slot them as great cinema but as movies which were clear in their objective and deliver reasonably keeping the objective in mind.
Spoiler Alert
Tamizh Padam-
Our request to the audience
1.Please don’t laugh too long for the jokes. You’ll miss the next one.2.Please don’t watch the movie more than 10 times. Allow othersa chance to get a ticket.3. Shiva does not offer Bharatha Natyam classes.Please don’t keep calling him in this regard.4. Please don’t try to imitate Shiva to become rich at breakneck speed.5. Please don’t keep calling the director for the film’s story. We would tell you if we knew it
Ok if you are wondering what’s wrong with me, let me tell you that these lines are the exact reproduction of an ad for the movie Tamizh Padam. Now you’ll understand how serious the makers were in making a spoof on Tamil movies with this movie. As a spoof movie rightly should be, this one again has a plot that is begging for your attention otherwise you are likely to miss one too many elements easily. The movie begins in a village called Cinemapatti where the nattamai (the village chieftain played by Ponnambalam) gives a strange verdict that all male children born in the village must be immediately disposed off. The reason- well otherwise they would go on to migrate to Chennai, get into films and later become the C.M of the state.So you find a boy ( the future hero ) being born and the father asks his mother/midwife (Paravai Muniyamma) to kill the baby. The lady tries to use kalli paal ( cactus milk which here comes in a branded tetra pack ) and that’s when the baby requests his grandmother not to kill him but to rather leave him in a dust-bin or even better, in a goods train which will take him to Chennai so that he can grow up to be a superstar. The grandmother decides to take the baby to Chennai herself and brings up the child. A few years later one day in Chennai, a group of thugs are seen to be harassing some poor people and the hero who is now a 10 year old boy rushes to his grandmother and tells her that he wants to help the downtrodden but wants to know when he will grow up for being able to do the same.
In return she asks him to ride a bicycle and as the wheel spins, the boy grows up and becomes the messiah of the poor and downtrodden, Shiva (RJ Shiva). In true superhero fashion Shiva bashes up the thugs, there is a mandatory intro song which follows and then we see Shiva quickly becoming popular. Shiva is seen usually hanging with his friends, Siddharth ( Manobala ), Nakul ( M.S.Bhaskar ) and Bharath ( Venniradai Murthy ) who are all college students , a take on middle aged comedians continuing to act as college students in Tamil movies.
Of course Shiva falls in love with a rich girl Priya (Disha Pandey) and the romance follows the pattern seen in so many movies like Mouna Ragam, Kadhalukku Mariyadhai, Run, Mozhi, Kadhalan etc. Of course the trouble comes in the form of the father of the heroine who refuses the alliance as Shiva is poor. But Shiva is made of sterner stuff and all in the time span required for a song, does so many things and becomes a rich man overnight. This is of course a throwback to Rajnikant movies like Annamalai and Padayappa. And while all this happens one sees Shiva silently killing a series of baddies in hilarious fashion, all of whom work for ‘D’.
Now we get to see that Shiva is actually an undercover cop (a la Pokiri) and is trying to nab D. While vacationing in Pondichery with Priya, they are attacked and Priya is kidnapped. So how does Shiva rescue Priya, tackle ‘D’ and also re-unite with his parents is what the rest of the movie is all about. The climax is a great example of how the movie never attempts to be taken seriously and is a laugh riot all the way. In fact the references to other films is done in a very imaginative manner and without really hurting any individual. Nirav Shah’s camera work is top notch and captures the ‘superhero’ in the ‘required angles’. Kannan’s music suits the movie very well and director C.S Amudhan deserves all credit for coming up with such a brilliant concept and credit to producer Dayanidhi Alagiri for backing this movie. Of course this movie works mainly due to Shiva who is brilliant as the superhero. His dead pan expressions and dialogue delivery keeps the audience in splits. A refreshing film that deserves wide patronage indeed.
Goa
The movie starts in Pannayapuram where 3 youngsters- Ramarajan (Vaibhav), Vinayagam ( Jai ) and Samikannu ( Premji Amaran ) are seen to be whiling away their time carelessly and growing tired of their antics, the village panchayat orders that they shouldn’t be together anymore. The 3 of them decide to run away to Madurai for a week and end up meeting Vinayagam’s friend who is now married to a foreigner (whom he befriended in Goa) and is about to leave for London. Seeing this, the trio decide that they would also go to Goa and try their luck in getting hitched to a foreigner and going abroad.To make matters worse Samikannu had innocently brought with him the village temple’s jewels and this makes the trio all the more serious about going to Goa and escaping the wrath of the villagers. While in Goa the trio come across Jack (Arvind Akash in a 6 pack avatar ), a hotelier. Jack and his partner Danny (Sampath)- who are in a relationship, provide shelter to the trio and even help them in getting a makeover done.
Roshni ( Piaa) a singer in the hotel there starts liking Vinayagam while Samikannu is lucky to meet Jessica (Melanie), the foreigner he had fallen for in Madurai. Ramarajan in the meanwhile gets acquainted with Suhasini (Sneha) a rich casino owner and later on even gets married to her. But now his life is akin to hell as he realizes how tough it is to be living with Suhasini. Do Samikannu and Vinayagam get lucky in love? Does Ramarajan get out of the mess and what happens to Jack and Danny is what the rest of the tale is all about. The film has a lot of hilarious moments like Premji doing a spoof on Vijay’s ‘puli urumudhu’ sequence ( Vettaikaran ) or the Kangal Irandal track used on Premji and Melanie.
In fact it is such moments which work for the movie. There’s even a reference to Dasavatharam in the form of an actor portraying multiple roles in this movie. Venkat Prabhu should be appreciated for portraying a gay couple in a convincing manner without making caricatures of the people involved. While Jai and Vaibhav are decent, Premji impresses but its Arvind Akash and Sampath (especially) who steal the thunder. For Sampath who is usally seen in loud baddie roles, this is a complete change of image indeed. Yuvan Shankar Raja strangely disappoints with a dull soundtrack. Apart from the soundtrack the length of the movie is another big concern. For a fun filled entertainer, this movie stretches one’s patience in the 2nd half. And it’s very clear that the script was probably improvised on location going by the leisurely way things unfold.
Some Points To Ponder
A week after the two movies have released its very clear that these movies at least stand different from the standard Tamil movie. Finally we have learnt to laugh at our own super heroes and their films, some of them being iconic as well. Though Goa is not being as widely accepted as Tamizh Padam, the spoofs in the movie and the way the gay relationship is portrayed will be enough to make the movie remain in public memory. Tamizh Padam on the other hand is fast on the way to emerge a trendsetter and that’s reflected by the way in which the audience and trade is responding to the movie. Whether the so called super hero mass movie style of movie making in Tamil Cinema will witness any change or not cannot be said so soon. But what is clear is that the audience is now certainly more receptive to things which bring in a fresh perspective and for that these two movies (especially Tamizh Padam) certainly score high. It takes guts to break all norms and come up with something refreshing and acceptable as well.Hoping to see more such refreshing movies in the rest of the year.
Spoiler Alert
Tamizh Padam-
Our request to the audience
1.Please don’t laugh too long for the jokes. You’ll miss the next one.2.Please don’t watch the movie more than 10 times. Allow othersa chance to get a ticket.3. Shiva does not offer Bharatha Natyam classes.Please don’t keep calling him in this regard.4. Please don’t try to imitate Shiva to become rich at breakneck speed.5. Please don’t keep calling the director for the film’s story. We would tell you if we knew it
Ok if you are wondering what’s wrong with me, let me tell you that these lines are the exact reproduction of an ad for the movie Tamizh Padam. Now you’ll understand how serious the makers were in making a spoof on Tamil movies with this movie. As a spoof movie rightly should be, this one again has a plot that is begging for your attention otherwise you are likely to miss one too many elements easily. The movie begins in a village called Cinemapatti where the nattamai (the village chieftain played by Ponnambalam) gives a strange verdict that all male children born in the village must be immediately disposed off. The reason- well otherwise they would go on to migrate to Chennai, get into films and later become the C.M of the state.So you find a boy ( the future hero ) being born and the father asks his mother/midwife (Paravai Muniyamma) to kill the baby. The lady tries to use kalli paal ( cactus milk which here comes in a branded tetra pack ) and that’s when the baby requests his grandmother not to kill him but to rather leave him in a dust-bin or even better, in a goods train which will take him to Chennai so that he can grow up to be a superstar. The grandmother decides to take the baby to Chennai herself and brings up the child. A few years later one day in Chennai, a group of thugs are seen to be harassing some poor people and the hero who is now a 10 year old boy rushes to his grandmother and tells her that he wants to help the downtrodden but wants to know when he will grow up for being able to do the same.
In return she asks him to ride a bicycle and as the wheel spins, the boy grows up and becomes the messiah of the poor and downtrodden, Shiva (RJ Shiva). In true superhero fashion Shiva bashes up the thugs, there is a mandatory intro song which follows and then we see Shiva quickly becoming popular. Shiva is seen usually hanging with his friends, Siddharth ( Manobala ), Nakul ( M.S.Bhaskar ) and Bharath ( Venniradai Murthy ) who are all college students , a take on middle aged comedians continuing to act as college students in Tamil movies.
Of course Shiva falls in love with a rich girl Priya (Disha Pandey) and the romance follows the pattern seen in so many movies like Mouna Ragam, Kadhalukku Mariyadhai, Run, Mozhi, Kadhalan etc. Of course the trouble comes in the form of the father of the heroine who refuses the alliance as Shiva is poor. But Shiva is made of sterner stuff and all in the time span required for a song, does so many things and becomes a rich man overnight. This is of course a throwback to Rajnikant movies like Annamalai and Padayappa. And while all this happens one sees Shiva silently killing a series of baddies in hilarious fashion, all of whom work for ‘D’.
Now we get to see that Shiva is actually an undercover cop (a la Pokiri) and is trying to nab D. While vacationing in Pondichery with Priya, they are attacked and Priya is kidnapped. So how does Shiva rescue Priya, tackle ‘D’ and also re-unite with his parents is what the rest of the movie is all about. The climax is a great example of how the movie never attempts to be taken seriously and is a laugh riot all the way. In fact the references to other films is done in a very imaginative manner and without really hurting any individual. Nirav Shah’s camera work is top notch and captures the ‘superhero’ in the ‘required angles’. Kannan’s music suits the movie very well and director C.S Amudhan deserves all credit for coming up with such a brilliant concept and credit to producer Dayanidhi Alagiri for backing this movie. Of course this movie works mainly due to Shiva who is brilliant as the superhero. His dead pan expressions and dialogue delivery keeps the audience in splits. A refreshing film that deserves wide patronage indeed.
Goa
The movie starts in Pannayapuram where 3 youngsters- Ramarajan (Vaibhav), Vinayagam ( Jai ) and Samikannu ( Premji Amaran ) are seen to be whiling away their time carelessly and growing tired of their antics, the village panchayat orders that they shouldn’t be together anymore. The 3 of them decide to run away to Madurai for a week and end up meeting Vinayagam’s friend who is now married to a foreigner (whom he befriended in Goa) and is about to leave for London. Seeing this, the trio decide that they would also go to Goa and try their luck in getting hitched to a foreigner and going abroad.To make matters worse Samikannu had innocently brought with him the village temple’s jewels and this makes the trio all the more serious about going to Goa and escaping the wrath of the villagers. While in Goa the trio come across Jack (Arvind Akash in a 6 pack avatar ), a hotelier. Jack and his partner Danny (Sampath)- who are in a relationship, provide shelter to the trio and even help them in getting a makeover done.
Roshni ( Piaa) a singer in the hotel there starts liking Vinayagam while Samikannu is lucky to meet Jessica (Melanie), the foreigner he had fallen for in Madurai. Ramarajan in the meanwhile gets acquainted with Suhasini (Sneha) a rich casino owner and later on even gets married to her. But now his life is akin to hell as he realizes how tough it is to be living with Suhasini. Do Samikannu and Vinayagam get lucky in love? Does Ramarajan get out of the mess and what happens to Jack and Danny is what the rest of the tale is all about. The film has a lot of hilarious moments like Premji doing a spoof on Vijay’s ‘puli urumudhu’ sequence ( Vettaikaran ) or the Kangal Irandal track used on Premji and Melanie.
In fact it is such moments which work for the movie. There’s even a reference to Dasavatharam in the form of an actor portraying multiple roles in this movie. Venkat Prabhu should be appreciated for portraying a gay couple in a convincing manner without making caricatures of the people involved. While Jai and Vaibhav are decent, Premji impresses but its Arvind Akash and Sampath (especially) who steal the thunder. For Sampath who is usally seen in loud baddie roles, this is a complete change of image indeed. Yuvan Shankar Raja strangely disappoints with a dull soundtrack. Apart from the soundtrack the length of the movie is another big concern. For a fun filled entertainer, this movie stretches one’s patience in the 2nd half. And it’s very clear that the script was probably improvised on location going by the leisurely way things unfold.
Some Points To Ponder
A week after the two movies have released its very clear that these movies at least stand different from the standard Tamil movie. Finally we have learnt to laugh at our own super heroes and their films, some of them being iconic as well. Though Goa is not being as widely accepted as Tamizh Padam, the spoofs in the movie and the way the gay relationship is portrayed will be enough to make the movie remain in public memory. Tamizh Padam on the other hand is fast on the way to emerge a trendsetter and that’s reflected by the way in which the audience and trade is responding to the movie. Whether the so called super hero mass movie style of movie making in Tamil Cinema will witness any change or not cannot be said so soon. But what is clear is that the audience is now certainly more receptive to things which bring in a fresh perspective and for that these two movies (especially Tamizh Padam) certainly score high. It takes guts to break all norms and come up with something refreshing and acceptable as well.Hoping to see more such refreshing movies in the rest of the year.
Originally posted in PFC- check it out here- http://tinyurl.com/y6afrt7
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