Monday, October 29, 2007

Marudhamalai and Malaikottai

Saw two action packed movies over the weekend. absolutely no logic and totally hero centric movies. By the way, when have tamil movies focused on giving more screen presence to the women folk? Maybe, one in fifty movies?



Marudhamalai - action king Arjun comes back with yet another police story, but this time there is a change. and you'll realise that when you watch the film. every hero who plays a police is usually an assistant commissioner or an IPS or an Inspector. In this case, our hero is a simple constable. He joins at the lowest ranks and hence, there is a lot of scope to move away from the larger than life image, at least for the initial parts. after that it gets to the usual - crouching tiger type stunts. the story starts off with a very light mood - enough room for comedy. Vadivel is at his best again as Encounter Ekambaram. He is actually a senior in the police station, in comparison with the hero. At a number of instances, we can see him use his superiority as a tool to initiate a comedy track. Nila who supposedly plays the female lead gets side-lined big time. For once, this story does not involve the bad guy abducting the girl to take revenge. Love and enemity are two different tracks in this movie. A good decision by the director to keep them apart. In tamil cinema lingo, there is a new term called "build-up". This movie has got enough of that right from the beginning. Songs are below average - i dont think anyone would want to hear to them more than once. Laal plays the bad guy. The scope for performance in his role is very less. Most of the time we see him behind the bars. The one part that I liked other than the comedy is when the hero takes action against false claims made by a politician. This is very much in reference to what happens today. A number of people (mostly politicians) make public statements without any evidence or reason. The media takes notice, but after a few days, it just dies out. No one is bothered.



Malaikottai - action youth Vishal comes back. Offlate, all of his movies have been anything related to just ruthless fighthing - Sandakozhi, Thimiru, Tamaraparani, and Sivapathigaram. Female lead is Priya Mani. Priya is very pretty when she wears short tops and mini skirts. If you'd noticed her in Kangalaal Kaithu Sei (the Bharathiraja movie), then you'd go agape. In this movie, she is usually wearing a salwar that doesnt suit her appearance well. Rather the character is like that - a pious engineering student in Trichy. You can't expect her to be in tank tops! Anyway, she is totally side-lined. No scope at all. Few lines here and there, just to justify the need for a female lead. Vishal plays the jobless youth. The only impression I get, from seeing him in this movie is that he can just jump around and get a few kicks. More fight sequence means less scope for displaying acting talent. Standard expressions - you can make out that the Vishal in Sandakozhi is the same as Vishal in Malaikottai. The getting into character aspect is very less. Ashish Vidhyarthi and Urvashi have been roped in for the comedy but it doesnt stick well. There is nothing special that I can remember about this movie. I still wonder how cinema halls are managing the cost by running this stupid movie. Oh yes - The remix version of the "Ae Aatthaa" song. That was just awesome. Maybe that's the reason!

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