Inception - a thoroughly thought thought about thought

Okay. So there are hundreds of reviews about this movie written by well known and renowned critics, but I feel it is right on my part to write on the movie that I felt was one among the best that I've seen in the last few years. I have been criticising movies one too many and my readers have at times found it disconcerting that I should consistently have a negative take on reviewing the movies. And it is now time to change that perception.

Despite being in a very quiet part of New Jersey, I have had a lot of opportunities (I'm still not sure I've capitalized as much as I should have) for travel and entertainment respites. Theatres in these parts of the country usually run empty and I have an unbeatable record of being the only person to watch a movie thanks to the friend who ditched me and "happened" to miss the train. But that is a different story, and so was the story the day I went to watch the 'Inception'. The theatre ran almost a full house on the opening Friday and the hall did have a huge capacity of about 600. If it were 'Sura' there would have been ample time and patience for the audience to express their emotions and whistle. But, this one was different.

The thing that impressed me the most is the plot. Unlike most other movies that are being produced all around the world left, right and center, the ones that trade off the plot for the cast and action, Inception is woven into the plot as tight as a cocoon's nest. After a long time, I have truly enjoyed a movie because of its ability to derive its strength from the plot. I'm sure it has taken Nolan quite a while to come up with the plot (despite it's obvious ancestral properties from Matrix) and with great care and intricacy. Any less and the movie would not have probably had the same integrity of thought and feature. The concept of lucid dreams and sharing dreams has been out in the world for centuries (I personally know of its existence in one of the ancient Indian scripts - Bhagavat Purana and the oldest surviving text of this script is at least a thousand years old), but it still takes an amazing amount of effort and thought to capture it a 2 hour celluloid. For instance, the fact that your dreams are woven into reality is amazingly casted in form of people losing gravity in the dream when the previous level has people suspended in the air.

With a story of this kind, it is quite easy for people to get carried away with making the movie infinitely complex, but Nolan's effort in making it simple to the viewer yet not lose the value of the concept just amazed me. With the right measure of terminology (limbo, kick, inception) to give it a sci-fi bent, the story has been carved into shape by equally brilliant screenplay. The pace of the movie is just right and keeps the audience always interested in what is happening on screen. If one were to pardon my sense of drawing parallelisms, I'd say Sekhar Kammula comes the closest to this calibre when it comes to screenplay and integrity of thought. I'm sure this movie would go a long way in making Hollywood (and Bollywood, Tollywood, Kollywood, ??llywoods ) appreciate the importance of thought in the inception of a movie. And yes, I still cannot believe how DiCaprio has managed to make such splendid choice of movies. Either, he is really worthy of these, or he should go buy lottery tickets. In either case, he is going to be a billionaire.

There isn't much of a suspense in the plot and leaving the end wide open to audience hardly qualifies as a suspense in my perception. Yet, I shall not be delving into the details of the plot or the storyline, like I usually do. For now, I remain happy and immersed in the ecstasy of seeing a movie that is well scripted and amazing thought out. Unless you are addicted to watching movies like Sura which are perfect antonyms of Inception, I'm sure it will be love at first sight.

Whats your Avatar?

"The thing that I can't tolerate is, there's soon going to be this next dumb quiz on facebook -  What's your avatar? " said my friend, after the movie ended, and while we were walking down the dark alleys on a silent and cold night, on our way back home. That summed up our feelings for the night, after a movie that sure excited us by its awesome graphics and pure innovation. Truly, we were all taken to the Pandora's for a little over couple of hours. Summed up by James Cameron as one of his life achievements even before the movie released, this baby of his is definitely worth a watch. Its truly creditable that the entire movie, right from its conception until its execution was in its own realm of unbridled imagination and ecstasy.

With very little story value, the movie, Avatar, has the freedom to explore the hidden depths of one's imaginative mind. And it definitely has taken advantage of this freedom of imagination resulting in a stupendous visual feast - the colours throughout the movie are simply amazing. The fluorescent flowers, the huge leaves, the multi-legged creatures, the winged mounts that soar the skies - all these form the core of the movie that charms the audience and binds them by its sheer magic.

The movie is a must watch, if you would allow yourself to be guiled by the lack of logic and science. And when you are given a date that far out in the future, you are entitled the rights to throw in gadgets and concepts as you like. Avatar is short of neither, and you have everything right from machines that transmit brain signals across to a different biological entity to a civilization that makes use of neural networks of the orders of 10^12 that enables them communicate with trees and animals alike. After dealing with Asymptotics for half the year, these numbers seemed to be more than realistic to me though. The screenplay, if there was any, was simple and clean with no major hiccups or aberrations. The entire movie was apparently taken with the help of human motion sensors to capture the motions of actors in the set and transmit them to the natives that makes it amazingly realistic.

Just so that the review remains fair enough and covers all aspects of the movie and to bring back the admirers from the sheer awesomeness of the visual treat, I would probably have to bring out things that struck me rather ordinary in the movie. The story would instantly remind you of any tamil/telugu movie flick with its standard package of romance and heroism. And, my international friends, if you have liked those aspects of the movie in particular, I'd recommend that you watch a few Indian movies with/without sub-titles which I am sure are full of these. And if you make sense of just one of these movies, its just a contextual switch that you need to flip and language isn't a barrier any more. The indicator random variable would invariably point to 1 up, then on.. :-)

Length of the movie was another thing that I have always wanted directors to be aware of, perhaps with the rare exception of a few movies that have a very strong story line to back up the length. While not withstanding the fact that Avatar is a visual treat (esp in 3D which I've heard is simply awesome), the 165 min runtime seemed to be an overkill for the movie. It's my firm belief that no matter how good or beautiful a particular feature is- an overdose is definitely a killer.

As a final note, I would definitely recommend the movie- its truly a next step forward as far as the technology and innovation is concerned. However, I'd definitely not rate it at par with the Lord of the rings, Troy, or A Beautiful Mind. It wasn't designed to compete with movies of this genre, but to create a new class of its own!

Can't Oh Saamy !

It might come as a pleasant surprise to my readers that I am finally writing a movie review (despite movie reviews being the most enjoyed part of my blog posts by far). I would venture to say that it might be the evil design of Mr.Fate that I feel compelled to watch this tamil movie after a long time. Before I begin, dear readers who belong to the non-tamil faction, please apologize if you don't make sense out of the whole post - neither did I from the movie.

It came as an indigestible bitter pill (can it become any worse ?) that I opted to watch Kandasaamy as a stress buster after my exams. Worse still, that I watched it soon after 'Unnaipol Oruvan'. While I was bedazzled by the performance of Naseeruddin Shah in 'A Wednesday' (I had watched the movie long time ago)- especially the way he made Kamal Hassan look not-out-of-the-world in the tamil version, the mercury was shot down by Kandasaamy given the fact that the film was shot for over two years (irrespective of the reason for the delay).

Starting with a flimsy story line which I am sure one might not have seen worser in a long time, the screenplay matched it's quality to the core. The screenplay of the movie has thrown a serious challenge to concepts of time dimensions and makes time move geometrically slower (and perhaps stand still at some point). The theme, despite being directly picked up from 'Ramana' (I'm surprised how there hasn't been a plagiarism law suit yet!) has been so effectively screwed up that it appears as flawed as it could be. The cinematic characterization of CBI officers has been consistently ripped apart in Tollywood since the beginning of time, but I'm sure Kandasamy and Billa would definitely be there among the hot competitors for the top spot. The screenplay and plot has definitely reached the pinnacle of mediocrity. Perhaps the lack of surprises was indeed the surprise the movie had hoped to achieve!

There couldn't have been a job worse done with the dialogues department too. The dialogues between the lead pair and the investigators amazes me with its derisiveness, especially when they 'appear' outsmart each other (though I'm sure even a 3 year old would be able see through the fatuous plots that apparently fazed even the CBI). Even the 'vaigai puyal', whom I usually admire for his antics and on screen hilarity, seems to be terribly off key in the entire movie. Perhaps the effects of induction are not limited to electricity and magnetism alone. Lyrics for the songs adds yet another icing to the already molten (not just melted) ice cream of a dialogue. I even have a suspicion that the lyrics might have been accidental recording of the on-the-high babble of techie youth after three rounds of Russian Vodka. The english and tamil (oh! you do hear a couple of words scattered now and then if you are sharp enough) has been so ostentatiously mixed that it just throws up on the instrumental music that runs on the background. Just to give you an idea of how messed up it could look like, I have even ventured to paste some portions of the lyrics that I could find from the internet at the end of the post.

Usually actions speak louder than words, but in this case - I would any day have pledged my preference to the words. The garments do deserve a special mention in the movie. If dressing up as a 'cock' for depicting phantasms was as brilliant an idea that one can come up with in two years time, it makes me wonder about the sort of imbecilic plague has struck Kollywood. The flying sequences are no more a novelty to the tamil/telugu movie buffs, but I'd rather that the stunt sequences better be unexplained on-screen. The dress-up of the lead character as a woman in one of the fight sequence just shows the level of nervousness and depravity with which the spice of novelty has been tried to be brought in the movie.

The screenplay of the movie is wayward, but its the characterization that sets the trajectory towards definite annihilation. The manner in which the lead pair fall in love with each other is as stale as a bottle of buttermilk from the ages of Egyptian Pharoahs. Why the choice of PPP as a representation of villainous identity was made puzzles me more than Shrodinger's equation. What has truly appalled me, is how veteran actors could have donned these roles knowing how weak their on-screen characterization would be.

Apart from spending crores on the shores of Italy and the basins of Africa, I fail to see anything the movie has significantly achieved. Perhaps, in future, if evading taxes were my sole purpose in life, I might actually venture to mimic this Kollywood bravado!

Movie Bottom Line: Can't oh Saamy.

Disclaimers: Movie highly recommended if revenge is your motive and losing 50 bucks is your favourite pastime.

Random Lyric pieces from songs:
En Peru Meenakumari
Yen ooru kanyakumaari

Kaaikari thottahthila naan kathiri
Aangila madhathila naan january

Ohdura andhiyinile naan kaaviri
Asaiva saapaatula naan maan kari

Hey Kandhasamy yen lifela puyala vandha samy..
yen alagu paathu manasula nondha samu che vendha samy,
un azhagunaala illa un imsaiyila nondha samy,
un kaiyila sikka maatan indha samy..

Dasavatharam.. An intricately carved design

It's time I donned the garbs of a critique yet again. Thankfully, in the recent past, not many movies had moved past benchmark required to make me think about writing a note on it. If you had been a regular follower of my reviews, you would even suspect me to be a very captious critic. But then, so is the nature of the job and I am but a faithful follower of the decalogue pertinent to this fraternity. No suprises, this time around friends, this is going to be another abstract set of observations from Kamal's latest flick, Dashavatharam. The first feel that you get immediately after the movie is that of vacuum, not awe, just the general feeling of discomfiture at the hanging pieces of screenplay that you had just witnessed.

The crux of the movie revolves around the well known Chaos theory, in particular the Butterfly effect (Chaos theory ). With such a dicey concept as the baseline, it has to be agreed that Kamal has done a remarkable job of constituting a story out of it. The entire movie is based on the conceptual premises of the cause-effect system. Kamal has done a excellent job in the characterisation of all the ten different roles that he dons. However, it should also be mentioned that some of the roles could have been a mere fabrication to increase the count to 10. If you think it is just a ploy to justify the title, then I'd ask you to read further through the post, just in case your thought needed a revision.

The actor in Kamal has done a resplendent job with regards to the acting, appearace, demanour and dialogue delivery. The job is more than merely well done, it is a class act. Each of the character is distinct, beautifully accented, cleverly masked and well placed. Among the flurry of characters, Nambi, Fletcher, Naidu, Shingen Narahashi and Poovaraghan deserves special mention. The character of Naidu which combines intelligence with wit, accentuates the comical flavour in the movie. Nambi is the epitome of "Bhakthi" with all the characteristics of a blindly devout man. Fletcher dons the most important role for any movie, the villain. Action and comedy are given their due respect and are magnificiently executed. Of course, there are a couple of places where you would still find the hero flying the air and doing somersaults, which are so much an integral part of South Indian movies. All things said and done, you would still feel a couple of characters to be a mere count incrementors. For Non-Kamal fans, the number might be a tad Kamal-Overkill.

The movie is extremely fast paced with Fletcher giving Govid the chase until the end. Thankfully, there are no redundant comedy track that runs between the story line. Neither do we have any dream sequences or songs that seem out of place with plot of the story. The BGM are neat and cleanly done. However the songs are quite unlike the traditional South Indian ones that you would expect from such movies, they definitely show traces of Modern North Indian touch that one cna hear blaring across the street. The most common comment that I have heard from people who watched id was "Disconnects". Yes, the movie definitely doesn't provide you with the connects but leaves it to open interpretation. Which brings me to tell you what I had interpreted (there were some perceptions that aren't mine, the ones that I couldn't connect to).

As I had initially mentioned, the key to perceive the connection in the story is the chaos theory. A set of seemingly insignificant events contributing to a much larger phenomenon. Similarly, a set of distinct, insignigicant characters contributing to a greater cause of saving the world from a bio-chemical infection. The scientist, Govind comes across so many characters and forms a part of the intricate pattern which conspires to bring the plot into effect. To follow a simple chain, Govind got knocked off the railings to fall into the package that went to India. He meets the mentally unstable lady, Krishnaveni paati, who drops the infectious vial into the idol. Comes Shingen, who, for the sake of revenge protects Govind. Similarly, all the characters in one way or the other, knowingly or unknowingly helps Govind's cause. It fairly conforms to the chaos theory that we have seen earlier. Kamal has also touched the concept of re-incarnation in the form of Govind and Nambi, if you had noticed the similarities among the two characters including a scar in the forehead :). Asin's dual portrayal is just another allusion to the same fact. The concept of Karma has also been dealt with deftly. In the previous life, Asin was ready to give up God for the sake of her husband's life whereas Nambi was too attached to let go off. In the later life, they swap places where Kamal says, "It would have been great if God were there". Also they re-unite in the same place where they were separated, another implication of the chaos theory and circular pattern of events. The idol that was immersed ignobly into the ocean wedged itself between the tectonic plates triggering the Tsumani at the easiest provocation of the phenomenon. Another instance of the chaos theory.

The ten characters in the story can be roughly mapped to the mythological dasavatharams by Lord Vishnu. Some of the most obviously visible juxtapositions are

* Kalki - Govind, the humanitarian out to save the world.
* Balarama - the name is indicative enough, Balaram Naidu.
* Matsya - Nambi, who went into the ocean with his Lord's idol.
* varaha - Krishnaveni paati who hides the vial inside the idol.
* Rama - Avtar singh who is ever devoted to his wife, ready to sacrifice his voice for his wife.
* Krishna - The dark complexioned, compassionate Poovaraghan says it all. Like Lord Krishna, he dies due to a foot injury!
* Parasurama - Fletcher, who else ?? :). A killing machine, just like Parasurama whose purpose was to eliminate the Kshatriyas.
* Narasimha - The name Shingen Narahashi, does it ring a bell ?
* vamana- Kalifulla who is as gigantic as the Vamana ?

Well, these are just some interpretations that I managed to secure from various sources and the choice is upto you to reject them. As you can see, there is a lot more than mere screenplay and fast paced action that you can see obviously in the movie. I would really not know if these facts were introduced into the movie consciously, but if it were, Kudos to Kamal !! If not, perhaps, yet another example of chaos theory ! ;-)

Go Spidey !

No way I am gonna miss the review for the most awaited movie of the year.. Spidey 3. Needless to emphasize, the excitement was in plenty... when I say that,believe me.. I mean that ! We had even booked tickets almost 4 days in advance. If seeing an action movie is what you define as thrilling, seeing it in imax is an out of the world experience altogether.The big screen simply gobbles you up. If you as me 'can you touch your heart and say that you have ever followed an entire movie without missing every spoken word ?' I would today say.. "Yes..". The entire movie was of amazing quality with an unerring crystal clear sound.. Oh ! I am not canvassing for imax guys.. it's just that the technology amazes me.

Back to spidey... The instant hit formula of recapitulating the prequels during the title is what greets you as soon as the movie begins. And then you get to see what is quite unusual for an action flick... A song $#$%@@#$..! Spidey's gal is singin it and our spidey is a front bencher in the opera. Things are quite different in this spidey..

* The eternal belligerence between Mr.Jameson and Spidey seems to have abated.
* Spidey is no longer feared. He has now become the uncommonly common 'friendly neighbour'.
* Spidey can shake a leg or two.
* His gal knows that Spidey is Peter and gets ennerve of his success.
* Spidey makes a public appearance to cheer the kids.
* Spidey turns Romeo ! Finally decides to propose to MJ.
* Spidey knows how to forgive people.
and now the most important..
* Spidey aint a pizza boy any more..

Ahem, ahem...Okay.. I can see you getting the movie outline.. Nay ! c'on guys... after all spidey is one among the genetically branched out homo-sapiens.

Spidey's gal has been going through a rough patch where she finds herself as a restaurant singer from a Broadway star. And she expects spidey's 8th sense to tell him about her tragedy...no way..she wouldnt tell him her plight till the end. Now that unfortunately that strains their relationship..If that wasnt enough, during a public appearance, spidey manages to launch a kiss on the anchor girl(oh no.. not Shilpa again !! ). Yet another thorn.., the villain(???) forces MJ to say that she doesnt love Spidey any more. Gosh ! what a debacle.

Now if that wasnt enough trouble (Any mere mortal would have met his end trying to solve the previous bunch of problems), there are quite a number of 'yaenemies' for him to tackle. His former friend Harry still carries the grudge on Spidey for having killed his father and turns into the 'super goiyyaan' oops..Goblin.. and with his new found moves manages to keep the spidey webs at bay. A 'sand-man' (where do these ppl come from..?) seems to play havoc with the city's banks and later Spidey comes to know that he is the one responsible for his uncle's demise. No..No... wait.. there's more to it.. A symbiote (ET...! whoa ! way to go !) manages to crawl his way through to spidey. The symbiote can enhance the qualities of its host especially those of aggression. Now spidey gets attracted by the symbiotic suite (Dont ask me why it chose his suite as host rather than him..) and commits a series of mistakes before realising that the 'greatest battle lies within'. Finally he manages to rid himself off the symbiote only to pass it on to one of his professional (a photographer) rival, who uses the 'symbiotic power' (whoa ! that term is patented by Mighty-Titan) to seek revenge on spidey.

Now consider this equation of boolean algebra..

Let x = spidey, y= MJ.
let z= Harry.
let m= a photographer , n = the photographer's girl friend.

let -> represent unidirectional love

Then, x -> y.
y -> z apparently.
z -> y truely.
n ^-> x.
x = friend(z) - y.
y -> x truely - n.
z = enemy(x) + y.
m += x^->n?enemy(x):swornenemy(x).
m <-> n.
y ^-> z.

Well, if you can crack that.. you already have one of your foot in an IIT/IIM. Now now.. it aint that complex when are through with the movie. The plot unwinds solving one problem after the other and that is good news guys, coz Spidey can once more attend physics class (he is a class topper .. remember..?). After a couple of songs, a comedy track and a 'heart-touching' rendering of friendship, and a ultra-sacrifice the hero finally finds himself unshackled from all his troubles. Oh no.. have I mixed a bollywood movie ..? :P Think again....

To be fair guys..what I have stated is the post-movie analysis. It was an awesome movie to watch, a movie that you should definitely watch. The movie is packed with breath-taking graphics. The scene where the sandman is born is simply stupendous work. And the screenplay and stunts are something that you'll enjoy sans logic. The screenplay is extremely lucid and fast giving justice to the genre of the movie. Unlike other spidey movies, this one has a intricate mix of emotions which is what justifies the caption ..'The greatest battle lies within'. The entry of venom is quite refreshing and could possibly spawn spidey 4. After my recent movie debacles, it was quite a refreshing movie, one which takes you by storm for a little more two hours...

Technical References:
$gunu:bash$# Reference_1
$gunu:bash$# Reference_2
$gunu:bash$# Reference_3

Movie Bottom-Line : Bollywood graphicized.

Kudos to love

"Sching in the rain .. I am schwaiiing in the rain...! " proclaimed my mobile rippling out a cacophony in the voice of our Kaipulle. I lazily picked it up only to be coaxed by my buddy Mr.GK to a movie. When you are a bachelor, a week end without movie is a unpardonable crime and the poor guy wanted to save me from that blasphemy. Being the valentine week-end (though the D day was more than ordinary for me !!), we decided to commit ourselves to a dedication towards cupid. As the custom is before you any movie, I strolled around the theater looking at the posters of the movie. The caption went as follows..

                      Six different couples
                           twelve different lives
                 One common problem
                           LOVE.....

what the heck...??? Are you insane..? an entire movie full of problems..? Ouch !! where is this leading to... My serenity was disturbed by the rustle of the crowd, and a pair of hands pulled me into the tumult and before I could regroup, I was hoisted into my seat by my dear roomies. A man behind me played tabla on my shoulders and asked gleefully.. "Beta..., Kya yeh picture hindi mein hoti hai..? " Whoa !! No comments... "Telgu mein to nahi hain naa..?" No comments.... "kaise bhi ho koi problemmm nahi..." No comments ...."interval kab ayegaaa..?" No comments... "sunaa hai ki yeh pitchaar achchi hai... ha ha" .. No comments.. One hell of a company I had..

The movie began with the typical style of the Hindi movies of these days....A lovely couple living in their own lil' world of joy and splendor. Title time.... the titles sprang out of nowhere and ran its length wearily.. Bang ! appeared Govinda as a taxi driver.. when did he switch over as a comedian...? Bang ! appeared Anil Kapoor sitting alone in a room, staring vacantly at a digital table clock. Bang ! appeared Akshay driving a stylish car impersonating the rich cool guy. Bang ! appeared Salman as an impostor. Bang ! Appeared Juhi Chawla as a home-maker. Bang ! appeared Priyanka in a song sequence.. Bang ! Bang ! Bang !...... there you are, completely lost.., like a kid in a fair.

As the movie proceeds, the plot reveals and shows the faint outlines of the lives of these fine six pair of people. Priyanka, an actress who wants to move from the 'item' gal to be a 'Karan Johar' gal and Salman plays the prevaricated lover boy for her publicity stint. Anil Kapoor, a middle(old ??) aged professional who wants to have an exciting life which he seeks through a dancer he met in a train. Akshay, a 'kewl' dude who doesnt want to shoulder the responsibilities of marriage. Govinda, who looks for a valentine in a foreigner. And John Abraham, a man doted on his wife, a journalist who subsequently loses her memory in an accident. Whew..! I think that should surmise what the movie is all about. What....? Did the story fit in a paragraph..! No way !!!

People, believe me, I must be going cranky..... coz the movie lasted a solid 3:20 minutes on screen !! I felt thoroughly cheated twice, when I felt sure that the movie was about to end and the screen proudly presented the words 'INTERVAL' . Gosh ! Song sequences came blistering one after another in a never ending stream, sequence of dis-connected comical interludes and sentiment, sentiment and more sentiment.....! Ouch !! I almost had a heart-stroke... It seemed very complicated to me that though two people had mutual love, they had a zillion problems between them. For some inexplicable reasons each had an intricate problem that was infinitely complex to solve. The caption that I read slowly began to make sense to me... The director didn't get that one wrong...at least this once...

With these six stories going parallel, the movie marathon goes on and on... The credit should go to us all, for having the perseverance to stay on till the end. The screenplayer decides to end the movie bringing together all the pieces through some means or the other. By then, most of us are given up to deep to question any sort of logic in the movie. Oh ! and the man behind me was right... we dont need to either hindi or logic to get the movie right. Never I felt more weary after watching a movie.. Guys, sympathize with me... I am sharing the sorrows of six couples. ! Believe me people, we can never imagine love can cause so much a trouble.One thing is for sure... No more valentine's day for me.. ..!

Movie BottomLine : Pay for one movie, Get five free !!

Tidings of a Kingpin

Now I have least doubts on which of my posts are preferred by my readers.. No guesses .. its Movie reviews. Well, what canI do, but to sympathize our beloved movie patrons.(I cant/am not supposed to find mistakes with myself u see :P). Well after a golti flick it is time for Tamil Epoch to rule my pages. No, never think I would watch any tamil movies on a diwali day. Neither would I watch a tamil movie in Hyd. There happened certain miraculous comedies that made me go to chennai in the recent past. And so I decided to make the best out of the trip with back to back diwali flicks. After four months the first movie I watched in tamil was vattaram, so I deserve your outright sympathy !! "Annan paechu eppovume one way. Angarundu return paechu varapdadu."

Lets get down to business now. And if you thought this review is about vattaram, then perhaps you had ignored my request for sympathy. Grrrr.. The movie theatre was packed to brim with thala fans. Then came the Ultimate Star on the screen with an apparent style that brought a couple of loud cheers from his fans. By the way FYI it was only his shadow that was visible ! Then the priciple of Advaita is shown by the screen-player(huh !?) with the look-alike father-son topology of plot. The rich father pampers his only son(or is it not ??) with all the pleasures in the earth, and the good son refrains from becoming the vitiated tyke. The story moves ahead with the two signing a pact with the former giving up 'sutta' for the latter taking up social work. All this trouble only to launch the US's(acronym for Ultimate Star) would-be lady love. Guys, you cant help it, its the director who has the first,last and the only say in this regard.

The lady love acts as a concubine to teach the hero some lessons on civility or to chase his band-wagon back from their camp.(I am still not able to identify the exact reason, so thought I could add both the possible reasons. Precision is of Ultimate importance u see !!) But the US is magnanimous to ring the wedding bells despite the obvious and what more do you need to spark a romance ?? Well, they get engaged and then one can see a "marked-change" in the US's characteristics. he behaves as a vagabound and ruffian. He even tries to kill the elder US. Well, I should say at this point that if the triple role ad funda could have been avoided, it would have been a better suspense.

The scream-play(oops... a honest typo guys !!) proceeds to shows the other sibling of the younger US, who happens to develop a terrible abomination towards the elder US, thanks to his claim that the elder US was the factor behind his mother's mentally challenged stature. Oh !! and despite the obvious resemblance both the younger US and the elder US choose to consider the possibility of him being a sibling. Aw !! what a crunch.. The elder US, who so far was stuck to a wheel chair, stands up and fights to save his life. The acting looked good here fortunately, keeping us actively involved with the screenplay.

It's flash-back time guys !! the elder US goes on to say his past life of a dancer and his marriage becoming a failure due to his lady-like features. Dont probe more into it guys !! He did have his connubial night :D. Well, the act disrupted his ex-fiancee and she goes into the maddy-realm. We have to give 9/10 to US for this portion of the act. He is pretty good at the walk/stance of a feminine grace. Another round of cheer from his fans !! Well the story takes no more twists and goes along the expected lines. After a revelation they realise that there were two siblings(Thats why i asked you to shed ur doubts abt the elder US earlier :P). The elder US sacrifices his life to save his ruffian off-srping and also manages to marry of his good off-srping to his lady love. The End.

No, its not an abrupt end to the story, as u can see.. All's well that ends well.. Oh ! but the punch dialogue at the end could have been avoided. The tactic of spelling the movie title at the end has been adopted too many a times. Nevertheless, it was an efficient way of whiling away three hours of your life.

Movie Bottom-Line : Watchable if you choose to ignore the semantics !!

All 'bout Geometric proportion !!

Writing reviews about movies has been quite refreshing for me everytime I write it. It is like watching the movie once more without having to pay for it ! Nevertheless, it is the fact that the process gives me a lot of scope to narrate incidents associated with it, that gives me the real motive to write movie reviews. Well, now that I am in the Golti land, what more can you expect than a telgu movie. Now dont ask me whatever in the world prompted me to watch a telgu movie... The pathetic situation is that no tamil movie releases in this part of the world.

There is a big conspiracy behind that scenario. Well, I am gonna reveal that to you, the most dark secret that daunts the tamil-telgu movie industry in the modern times. Most, or rather invariably all Hit movies in Tamil is dubbed into Telgu and vice versa. Now that would reduce the profitability when running multi-lingual movies in the same place. But then, there are always people, samaritans, puritans like me who watch a movie even if they dont understand a bit of it ! The venture took off like this.. Me and my rommies (Note : ALL TAMILs without an iota knolwdge in Telgu ), didnt have much to bicker about the choice of the movie. All of us were in synchrony with the 'Thala' movie.



Getting tickets for a chiru movie is the toughest thing in the world. Thanks to our patience we mangaed to gather four tickets. This city has a strange way of crowd management within theatre. They make you wait on road until the movie is about to begin !! Well, make hay when the sun shines, and so we took this opportunity to treat ourselves to a Ginger Tea. When its 'thala' movie, you never need an announcement as to when the movie acutally began. The hooting begins precisement 2 seconds before the movie kicks off. You could expect a gusty entry for our 'thala', and you wont be disappointed.. A punch (verbal and action), preceeds our thala's face occupying the entire screen. By the way, the shoe that our thala wears dominates the screen for the first few minutes... Man !! that shoe manufacturer would have definitely paid some money to get that kind of advertisement !!



The entire movie revolves around our thala and his bravado. A number of footlooses accompany this three hour ride. Thala dance numbers are a must see, especially the 'collar dance' moves were zimbly awesome !! Our thala blends so well with his co-dancers (lots of ladies of course),that we often miss him during his footloose. Then comes the key concept of the film, the magical "mukkuru" (aka Three) where our 'thala' explains the concept of tree(as in Trie structures) coupled with Geometric proportion Series. I know you couldnt make head or tails out of it.. Obviously it aint such a simple concept !! :P Well, It goes as follows.. Thala says that all that a person need to do for the society is to help three persons. Those three will help another three and so on....The entire movie revolves around this eternal concept.Our thala also proves the fact that world is round when his mukkuru help saves him from the traumatic villain's henchmen.

And our thala has a history too... He is invariably the best Major that the Indian Army had in the recent past. After a putting a brave fight in a war, he gets mortally wounded with a bullet safely lodged mm away from his heart. A small push in his body would in turn push the bullet towards his heart. Such a critical scenario for out thala !! :( . But not to worry guys, for there are milliions to pray and push the bullet out for our dear Thala :)... And that's what happens in the end. The GP factor works out for thala and people come in torrents to pray for him.
Movie BottomLine : HENCE THE PROOF.