Thursday, April 17, 2003

Punnagai Poove

Cast - Nandha , Rekha , Kaveri , M.S.Viswanathan , Vadivelu , Senthil
Music - Yuvan Shankar Raja
Direction - Saba Kailash
Review:

Almost every other movie being released these days seems to feature new faces. The good news is that the screening process for the leads seems to be getting tighter since the actors are a lot more presentable than before. The bad news is that the movies themselves offer nothing new or fresh. Punnagai Poove offers a traditional love triangle involving a man and two women and resolves it in the usual fashion.
Meera(Rekha) and Nitya(Kaveri) are best friends but with radically opposite views on love - Meera feels love is inescapabale and essential while Nitya feels that wedding the boy of her parents' choice is all there is to love. True to her word, Nitya is all set to wed her uncle's son Shakti. Meera begins to tease Venkat(Nandha), a new arrival in their apartment complex, over the phone and the teasing gradually turns into love. But when Venkat goes to Meera's house to see her, circumstances lead him to think that it was Nitya whose voice he has heard over the phone.
The whole movie rests on a really shaky foundation which is the fact that Nitya does not come right out and tell Nandha that she is not the girl he has been talking to on the phone. While her silence at their first meeting is understandable considering her position, her inability to tell him the truth when he makes a second trip to her house is not realistic. Her subsequent actions result in her character taking a big hit since she is essentially cheating on her lover, her best friend and the man who has been waiting to marry her!
But the above fact is the weakest link in an otherwise strong chain. The director manages to make the rest of the movie entertaining, as long as one is willing to accept Kaveri's silence and the ethical underpinnings of her character. The phone conversations between Nandha and Rekha are jolly and the feelings they develop for each other are understandable. Not as much time is spent on the relation between Nandha and his grandparents but the scene where he reveals what happened during his first meeting with Kaveri makes us wish that more time had been spent on their relationship. Even sequences which don't really have a bearing on the main story, like the wedding at the apartment complex, has some strong dialogs that make some good points.
It is to the director's credit that he has moved the story along well inspite of our reservations about Kaveri's actions. Enough situations and close calls are created for the truth to come out and all are sidestepped in believable fashion. The movie also takes a couple of unexpected turns that maintain our interest upto the end. But the ending itself is quite lame.
Nandha is probably the most promising among the slew of new heroes we have seen recently. He is handsome, acts well, fights well and has a good physique. Dancing seems to be his sore point. Rekha has a very expressive face and puts it to good use during her phone conversations with Nandha. Kaveri looks surprisingly good in modern clothes and hairdo and convincingly portrays a girl not really comfortable with her own actions. Sarika looks old and jaded in a single song appearance. Yuvan Shankar Raja has some good tunes but could have avoided making an appearance in one of the song sequences. lame.

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Tuesday, April 15, 2003

Kadhal Sadugudu

Cast: Vikram, PriyankaTrivedi, Raghuvaran, Rekha, MN.Nambiar, Nalini
Music: Deva
Director:Durai

Suresh (Vikram) is a poor orphan who goes with his best friend's family to Thathamangalam, a remote village where rich farmers live in 'haveli' type houses. Suresh meets a rich landlord Chidambaram (Prakashraj) who starts hating him after a couple of accidental encounters for no fault of his. Suresh bumps into Kausalya (Priyanka Trivedi), Chidambaram's daughter and it is love for him at the fist sight. When Chidambaram realises that Suresh and Kausalya are in love with each other, he threatens to commit suicide. Suresh by then has won the hearts of Kausalya's grandparents including the lovable 'thatha' (M.N.Nambiar) and other relatives. How Chidambaram realises that he was mistaken about Suresh and how he unites the lovers is the climax.

The film moves in bits and pieces, with details overlooked. The director has not used an actor with caliber such as Vikram properly and the dominant character of Prakashraj subdues the role he plays. Prakashraj makes the most of the scenes. Priyanka though looks sensual doesn't seem to have been dressed up well. Vivek as U.S returned Super Subbu and Parvai Muniamma of Dhool fame comes as his 'paatti' to create a separate comedy track in the film. Though Vivek's attempt at creating social awareness must be appreciated, the jokes through which he tries them doesn't seem to take off well. The lusty dance movements of Alphonsa and Rani (of O'Podu fame) are disgusting. To sum-up, a disappointing movie from the director of Mugavari!!

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