Da Vinci Code Movie

Most of the Hollywood movies are adapted from novels. But the question is how many really succeed in satisfying the viewers those who have read the book and those who haven’t read it equally. I think that is the biggest challenge when you adapt movies from novels. Great novels are not always the best sellers. It is safe when the movie is based on a great novel because only after watching the movie most of them would know about the novel and then would go and read it. If the book is the best seller then the makers are really in high pressure to meet the sky high expectations and one need not mention the difficulty if it is a novel like “Da Vinci Code” which is beyond just a best seller which had facts and conspiracy theories leading to lot of controversies and people are still discussing the questions the book rose.

Personally, as I was not an avid reader, I didn’t get a chance of watch movies that are based on novels that I read and liked. “Memoirs of Geisha” was the first movie that I saw based on the novel which I have read. I have read “Da Vinci Code” and I was sure that the movie is not going to make it. “Da Vinci Code” is not an ideal novel to make a movie on. If you make a movie on a biography, there are parts which you can skip to compress the content and present the novel comprehensively on screen without actually loosing the essence of the book. But with a novel like “DVC” where every single incident, every single line of verse, every single twist, every single character, every single conversation is important for what is going to happen, coming up with a convincing screenplay out of it is a next to impossible task.

Why I didn’t like the movie?

Casting of Lead characters, both Tom Hanks and Andrey Tautou doesn’t look like how imagined the characters of Robert Langdon and Sophie or neither it seems they look like how most of the readers imagined their characters. My Robert Langdon didn’t have those long hairs and a dull face, he is a charismatic personality whose mere presence fills the place with the aura of brilliance and intelligence and there is no trace of any of this in the face of Tom Hanks. To my surprise, he looks so less involved in the movie all through. Sophie on the other side is also the same, look for her blank expressions in most of the scenes. For example, when Tom finds that the jumbled words are actually, Leonardo Da Vinci and The Mona Lisa, look for the way Sophie says, “Professor, the Mona Lisa is here” like a kid saying the mugged-up dialogue in a school drama. Her persona or her performance lacks the strong, stubborn and courageous look and feel that the Sophie character demands.

Unlike the novel, Robert Langdon was kind of sidelined giving more importance to Sophie as the other characters most often say in the movie that she is the last descendant of Jesus Christ. Robert Langdon’s genius and his adventures are not explored fully; instead the movie gives more importance to the emotional journey of Sophie. It may be intentional because the whole novel is about how sacred feminine has been suppressed all these years. I never thought Sophie as the central character while reading the novel, though actually she is. Each reader has his own way of interpreting a story which doesn’t mean the story is not clear, it is clear to each one in their own way. It is just that my interpretation of the whole story doesn’t match with that of the makers.

The most fascinating aspect of the novel is not just what happens next but also how it happens. The movie just captures what-happens-next part of it and leaves behind how-it-happens part which makes us not to admire when Robert Langdon finds something to proceed to the next step in their quest. There is so much of thought involved before solving each riddle or puzzle or the anagrams but Robert Langdon seems to get everything in a flash of a second in the movie

For example, there is so much of detailing, debate, conversation and digging into the history involved before they find that the words engraved in the key is actually the address of the Swiss bank and who can forget the detailed explanation about Phi and how it relates to the mathematical precision of everything that exists in the world. In front of the Mona Lisa painting in Louvre museum, Robert Langdon has pages and pages of theories to explain. The interesting conversation between Leigh Teabing, Sophie and Langdon in the plane for solving the Cryptex and the way they arrive at So-phi as the final solution for the Cryptex are missing in the movie.

I know that in the medium of cinema all these lengthy conversations are not possible. But that is why I said the Da Vinci Code is not an ideal novel for making a movie. No movie can give us the same excitement, chill, thrill and suspense which the novel gave us but unfortunately that is what most of the readers of the book expect from the movie. This is also one of the reasons why I felt Robert Langdon character was sidelined and looked less interesting. Explanations of all these facts about theories, history, secret connections by Langdon made us wonder about Langdon’s knowledge in history. When each time Langdon arrives at a solution for each problem by linking all these strange facts made us wonder his acumen. But the audience doesn’t get this kind of amazement and wonderment by looking at Langdon in the movie.

Why I like the movie?

The movie gave a chance to me to visit all those places described in the book. It is more vivid for me now and I would really enjoy reading the book next time. The history and the present are well blended in the visuals through special effects. I liked the way the words appear bright when Tom thinks of all possible combinations of words from the anagram. Especially explanation of the last supper painting was so clear which even a layman can understand. I think it is only at this place, the theories, the facts and the history are verbally discussed by the characters, of course it is crucial as it reveals the truth about Mary Magdalene and I like the way this long conversations is blended well within this frame-turner (like page-turner for novels) without boring the audience. To compensate for the inappropriate cast for lead characters, the cast and their performance for supporting characters like Leigh Teabing, Aringarosa, Fache and above all Silas are extremely believable and convincing. Being aware of the constraints that the medium of cinema has in bringing the novel to life on screen, the adapted screenplay is actually good. They have covered all the major happenings in the novel and within the given time it drives the point home clearly and cleverly.

I stayed away from the movie after reading all negative reviews but I am happy that I watched the movie finally. Though it is not completely convincing, it is a must watch for all those who cherished reading “Da Vinci Code” and who are aware that the movie will not be like the novel.

Umrao Jaan Soundtrack

Bollywood is in remake fever giving new sound and colour to yesteryear classics. After the soundtrack of “Don” which faced a lot of harsh criticisms for the music not matching the quality of the original, here comes the sound track of J.P.Dutta’s “Umrao Jaan” with music by Anu Malik and poetry by Javed Akthar . I am happy that I haven’t heard the sound track of the original version, which makes me to listen to the album without any prejudices and expectations. Even if I had heard it, I would never compare it with the original. My high expectation on the album is only because of the Dutta-Malik combination who gave us some worthy soundtracks like “Border” and “Refugee”.

Classics and Nostalgia

No matter how great is the music in the new version; it cannot and will not match the class or standards the original version has set. It is mainly because, it is not just the quality of music which makes us love those old songs so much, there is something more to it, it is the nostalgia of yours attached to each of the songs, which a new soundtrack can never give you. Whenever I listen to “Kaatra En Vaasal (Paigham from Lakeer in Hindi)” song from the Tamil movie soundtrack “Rhythm”, it immediately will remind me of my first day in college, because at that time, it was the newly released A.R.Rahman album and I was listening to it repeatedly while traveling to the college. If they remake the movie “Rhythm” and even if A.R.Rahman scores a better music for the same movie, I would still prefer the music of the original version as it reminds me some of the best episodes of my life but it doesn’t mean that the music of the new version is any lesser good than that of the original version.

New Sound

Also I don’t understand what the big fuss about the new sound is, what matters is the new melody. We people these days look for innovation in sound and rhythm more than the main melody in the song. It is pretty simple, music has to please your soul, relax your mind with fresh melodies and this album has got just that. I am not against new sounds but it is not mandatory for me, what I look in a song is a pleasing melody and only next comes everything else. People would call the music boring and outdated, even if Naushad comes with a “Mughal-E-Azam” in this era. That is the extent to which we have got used to this often misinterpreted term “the new sound”.

Music of Umrao Jaan

Considering the nature of the movie, Anu Malik has concentrated on main melody than innovative orchestration or sounds, like we use to listen in A.R.Rahman’s scores for period films. You cannot listen to a heavy bass line in a mujra (as you can listen in Rahman’s mujra Mein Vaari from Mangal Pandey) of Anu’s score for Umrao Jaan. Anu restricts himself to the style of music and instruments that is authentic to the period and that only adds simplicity and in turn beauty to the score. The songs are situational and are written suiting the various moods and emotions of a courtesan. Strings flowing like a river stream sounding her inner emotions - Sarangi giving the exact sound of the period and adds the sound of various emotions like love, longing and loneliness - Sitar pieces are like plucking the heart strings - tabla beating out with rhythm of Umrao Jaan’s heart - flute flourishing like fresh breathe of her embracing Nawabs in the court – Chal Chal sounds tracing the legs of her and all put together creates the perfect aura of each and every song.

I read in Anu’s interview that Javed Akthar insisted to write the lyrics first for which he had to compose tunes. It is quite a toll task considering the nature of such poems, the music has to complement the beauty of the words in poem and yet find its own beauty in its melody. It is a kind of perfect blend of the beauty of the words in the poem and the melody which can deliver a soul stirring number that also befits the situation in the movie. Anu Malik seems to have struck a right chord in doing that convincingly though not perfectly. The songs are slow, takes it own time to buildup, has got often heard Naushad style of subdued orchestration, nothing new in sounds or overall format but what makes it pleasant and appealing is the simple melody. Alka Yagnik is the voice of new Umrao Jaan, quite a surprising choice but she has done justice to the compositions. I am not going to single out a song as all the songs sound equally good to my ears. This album may not be for everyone, not that it has complex classical compositions but its pace and similar orchestration in all the songs may test one’s patience. Yet the album is a perfect companion for one’s loneliness.

May be Ismail Darbar would have done a better job giving new sounds and complex orchestrations by interweaving western classical elements with pure Indian classical melodies, but it is not about who should have done it and how it should have been, we can only judge the songs for what it is. I am not saying that the soundtrack is great but it is not bad either, Infact very good.
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United 93

Have you ever thought about what you were doing at your place when something disastrous was going on in some other part of the world? On 9/11 when it happened, I was sitting cool in my college hostel watching a Tamil movie in KTV. Suddenly when one of the guys switched to the news channel we saw smokes coming out of the targets and we didn’t realize how biggest a disaster was happening at that time and thought it as a fire accident and switched back to KTV. But what if you could see simultaneously what was happening at the same time (i.e., when I was watching movie in KTV) inside those planes that hit the targets. A lot was happening in two other planes one targeted on Pentagon and the other on the White House. “United 93” is one of hardest hitting, real (literally) life docu-drama that brings those moments of chaos in Air control offices and also in the United 93 plane which was hijacked to hit White house, almost exactly like how it happened on that day.

It is quite usual in Hollywood to make movies based on real life incidents and disasters. We had movies like a romantic epic ‘Titanic’ which conceived the accident with a love story in the fore and making the accident as a backdrop. Before, if I were asked about my favourite among the Hollywood movies made, based on real life incidents, my immediate reply would have been Spielberg’s ‘Schindler’s List’ but not anymore. These movies visualized the real incident as authentic as possible but nothing can come near to what Paul Greengrass has achieved in “United 93”. It is really real. The happenings on United 93 are written as authentically as possible based on the information got from the Black box.

There are no newly married couples, no two passengers who fall in love after getting into United 93 and trying to help each other to escape from the situation, no father trying to save his son, no kid trying to save its puppy, no hero fighting with the villains to save the plane and no usual clichés anywhere in the movie. It is just the event; the incident itself is the anti-hero of the movie. You can very well understand the intention of the director not to give importance to any single character from the very first scene of the movie. The passengers who are going to board United 93 flight talk to their relatives and pals over phone and no conversation is given importance and you just hear a lot of noise as like how you would hear those conversations when you were sitting there in the lobby as one of the passenger and even the visuals are the random shots of all the passengers on how one would have a quick look at his co-passengers and this totality remains till the end.

We know what happened, we know the ending, and we know it is going to happen but as the movie races towards the end, out heart beats faster and tense creeps into our mind like those passengers on board and it yearns for the safe landing of the flight. Never before while watching a movie, I have said ‘Oh! My God’ as many times as I said while watching this movie. Even the villain, the hijackers are the not the villains here because they earn equal and sometimes much more sympathy of ours than the passengers get. Their constant prayers to God, their constant dilemma about the intention of their actions, their fear, trembling and one of them saying final goodbye to his wife over phone are as human as no villain can be in a movie. Yet they do what they have been ordered to do. What hell on the earth would have prepared a human mind to blindly follow someone’s instruction and do something like this on the cost of his own life?

More than the happenings in the plane, the chaos in the air control offices in the land is captured authentically with some of the officers playing themselves. It takes a little time to understand at least for a non-American like me who is who and what they all are doing over there, and though initially technical jargons of the officers puts you off, we will slowly get used to the terms and indulge ourselves in the proceedings and that is where the success of the screenplay lies which maintains a right balance between raw real facts and human side of it. Paul Greengrass please take a bow for capturing the things with much sensitivity and yet without hurting any of the victims of the tragedy.

“United 93” is an experience not to be missed.

Mozart Meets India (again)

Tamil Maiyam who produced ‘Thiruvasakam by Illayaraja’ has come up with yet another album of East meets west genre titled ‘Mozart meets India’. I had no expectations on this album but the concept of placing the ragas as it is with a symphony backing just made me curious to buy it. Illayaraja has done a lot like this before. Who can forget his ‘How to Name It’ and ‘Nothing but Wind’? The songs orchestrated by Jesurajan sound almost similar to that of IR’s style, format and structure of orchestration in HTNI and NBW. But I have got no complaints; Jesurajan has done a commendable job in fusing the two forms of music with both of the form following its own grammar.

The harmony in the songs is so beautiful, pleasant and relaxing to a large extent. May be the chosen ragas itself has got these qualities in it but the orchestral music running behind is written in a subtle and a modest way that it doesn’t distract the flow and the melody of the carnatic ragas played in the fore, which I feel is a no easy task to achieve. Predominantly the string section of the orchestra is used giving a breezy feel to all the songs and occasionally other instruments like oboe, French horn, clarinet, celesta peeps in. This is also where the problem arises as they sound like being added on compulsion as to show that a whole symphony orchestra is there playing in the background along with the strings. But the choirs are added perfectly in blend with the rest of ensemble.

Tracks like “Mystic Meanderings” and “Yathum Oorae” goes a little modern with the use of e-beats, acoustic drums and Piano, involving less of the orchestra. “Yathum Oorae” with Kadri Gopalnath on Sax sounds like how a fusion of Kenny G’s Sax and Yanni’s keys would sound if they play carnatic music. The tracks with vocals like Bombay Jayshree and O.S. Arun sounds really interesting as if the singers by mistake have entered a symphonic concert hall instead of a Carnatic katcheri Sabha. There is an emotional depth in the performance of both Bombay Jayshree and O.S. Arun which adds to the divinity and beauty of the tracks involving their vocals. It would really be great watching our classical singers sitting in the middle of a symphony orchestra performing those complex ragas in synch with the orchestral music.

Usually in Carnatic concerts, singers just have to concentrate on their own sruthi, rhythm and improvisations but not (to a large extent) on how well their rendition goes in synch with the Gatam, mirudangam or Violin that is playing along, but here the synergy and harmony with the orchestra is equally important. If at all they perform these pieces alive, (which didn’t happen as they announced earlier) it would really be interesting to watch. The tracks each with Violin, Veena and Sitar as the lead playing some beautiful ragas are also equally good. The one with Sitar named ‘Hymn to Silence’ has a serious Naushad sound to it may be because of the Hindustani connection.

On the whole, it definitely is a very good album to listen but I won’t agree if either Tamil Maiyam or anyone involved in the project claim this work to be the first of its kind in India. Mozart meets India (again). I heard that the intention of the album is to present Indian classical music in a globally understandable form. Who cares whether it reaches global audience or not? I feel so satisfied and relaxed when I listen to this album and that matters more than anything else. I listen to the album at least once in a day for the kind of calmness and peace it injects in my soul.

For a far more in-depth technical review on the album, I recommend this article.

Veyil Music - Cool

Factors like Shankar production and music being composed by A.R.Rahman’s nephew G.V. Prakash Kumar are enough to create expectations on the soundtrack of ‘Veyyil’. More than meeting our expectations, I think album meets the needs of the movie well as a soundtrack. It has got a mix of good melodies and earthy folk numbers that should work well with the film than being a hit material. Though there are no ground breaking numbers which it not required for a movie of this kind, they are good and from the quality of the songs I feel G.V. Prakash is here to stay. It is good that the music doesn’t sound like a newcomers work, there is finesse in the orchestration and arrangements and ofcoure Rahman’s influence is there but not to a large unbearable extent. Na.Muthukumar’s lyrics give life to the music.

“Veyilodu Velaiayadu” has got some earthy and catchy beats and some unusual singers like Frankom, Jessie gift and Tipu for a folk song. The good thing is that there are not too many layers in the background; just the vocals and percussion carry the song all through. The song sets the right mood for the rest to follow. “Uruguthey” is one of the most simple and beautiful romantic melodies in the recent past. With just Dholaks and a bass guitar in the background, the song rides primarily on the soulful tune and expressive singing by Shankar Mahadevan and Shreya Ghosal. Interludes are beautifully arranged with beautiful Guitar, flute, Sarangi and sitar pieces.

“Ooranthotathilae” is another earthy folk number. The tune is catchy and the lyrics are funny but the rhythm reminds of lot of other songs. Rahman’s touch is more in this song in terms of arrangement especially the Guitar usage. Yet I don’t think no body had used Harmonica in the way it has been used in this type of song so far. And Sriram’s voice adds to the sounds-like factor of the song. Contrary to “Uruguthey”, “Kadhal Neruppin” is full of synth stuff with interesting sound loops and layers in the background. It is another good melody with Rahman kind of foot tapping western bits sandwiched between melodious parts. Karthik and Chinmayi have done a fine job in the song.

“Iraivanai” is a short and sweet situational melody sung beautifully by Prashanthi (I think she is daughter of Malayasia Vasudevan). “Sethvadam” is another short sober song sung by Manicka Vinayagam. And next is an authentic street folk number similar to the one we heard in Virumandi but this is not composed by GVP. A very interesting number with lot of twists and turns in rhythm and mood. It is good that directors choose to have such songs on their soundtrack without which we don’t often get a chance to listen to such songs often.

Sillunu Oru Kadhal

Year 2006 seem to be the year of disappointments, especially the movies that comes with so much hype and hoopla failed to impress all kind of target audience. “Pudupettai” had a classic first half, but self indulgence of Selvaraghavan spoiled the second half and it neither was called a crap or a classic which Selvaraghavan aimed and expected the movie to be? Then came much expected “Imsai Arasan 23m Pulikesi”. which in spite of being made as socio-historic-satirical comedy in a different way, couldn’t impress all kind of audience. Gautam Menon’s ‘Vettaiyadu Vilayadu’ was a disappointment considering that it was expected to be a (so called) masterpiece by KK fans and as a quite different movie from KK by Kamal fans as we have Kamal Haasan as hero but it is more of a Gautam movie that Kamal’s and it failed to satisfy either. Though it worked partly up until the first half, second half went haywire. These aren’t as bad as a movie which we are going to talk about now, it is just that they didn’t meet our expectations.

Here comes ‘Sillunu Oru Kadhal’ which is the biggest disappointments of this year. At least the other three movies were genuine attempts in which makers have tried hard to do something different in Tamil cinema but this one though it tries to be poetic and romantic all through it turns out to be none of what it expected to be. Instead it turns out to be a fashion show of Surya, Jyothika and Bhoomika with various colorful costumes and hair styles. Krishna has got an interesting plot but his execution and screenplay which is made to fit in all commercial ingredients spoiled the novelty in the theme. The movie is all about a wife who comes to know about her husband’s past love from his personal diary. The only wish of her husband is to live with his ex-ladylove at least for one day in his life. And what will happen when a wife decides to make such a wish of her husband’s to come true?

Nothing much really happens in the first half, it is filled with unnecessary comedy scenes of Vadivelu which evokes yawn than laughter. Though it starts quite interestingly with Surya and Jyothika getting married without any interest, it soon shifts to their life after 6 years in Mumbai. It would have been better it Krishna had few interesting scenes to show how their relationship got better and how they started loving each other so much. The story doesn’t really take off in the first half, and for good or bad Jyothika finds Surya’s personal diary too late in the movie. Second half is even worse (except for Santhanam’s usual witty one-liners) with the Surya and Bhoomika love portrayed in an even more unconvincing way. The basic flaw in the movie is that though it deals with two deep love of Surya at two different times, both are shown in a shallow and unconvincing way and as the screenplay is pivoted around these two love stories, it fails miserably.

R.D.Rajasekhar and Antony does their usual job well and it helps the movie look technically sound and savvy. A.R.Rahman’s background score is as bad as the movie. Though the songs are good, it is simply wasted. In spite of a bad screenplay, Surya gives a neat performance. See for a mix of shock, surprise, fear, embarrassment all at once in his face when he sees Bhoomika in his house after six years. Jyothika is OK. Bhoomika is weakest character in the movie and so is her performance.

The couple who looks like made-for-each-other in their real life marriage photos lacks chemistry on screen in this movie and that is the (lack of) power of the screenplay of Krishna. Sillunu Oru Kadhal – NIL.

Don Soundtrack

When Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy (SEL), Javed Akthar and Farhan Akthar join hands for a score, the output has always been something new and interesting. The expectations are higher than normal now as their latest venture is a remake of a yesteryear Amitabh classic ‘Don’. The composers has to walk on a tight rope as their compositions should satisfy the modern and sophisticated look of the movie and in turn the music listeners of now and yet retain the nostalgic sound of 70’s to please the oldies. SEL have successfully managed to do that. The sophistication is there just in the orchestration and arrangements but the tune of all the songs has got the same old sound. Even the most techno sounding title track is done like this.

I am not going to compare the soundtrack with the original which I feel is a waste of time and unnecessary. So my opinion is purely based on how well these songs would gel as a soundtrack with the movie. From the look and feel of the movie (in trailers) the songs would surely be an apt score for the movie. It seems Farhan has asked SEL not to use any live instruments. All the songs have heavy thumping beats and lot of techno sounds added to it. But these layering of sounds are done with such finesse that they don’t sound noisy and make us feel irritated. SEL has added notes to even these synth sounds thereby changing the sound of just a sound into sound of music.

“Kaike Paan Banaraswala” shines mainly because of Udit’s brilliant singing in a local dialect with lot of expressions. SEL manages to strike a balance between old and new sound by shifting between the Dholak’s and e-beats for the rhythm. Especially the dholak’s played when Udit sings ‘Kaike’ cannot be replaced by any modern beat with the same effect. “Yeh Mera Dil” is a sample of how remixes should be done by just replacing the instruments in the original with appropriate modern synth sounds and e-beats. Good thing about the song is that they have retained the strings that run in the background of the song which is the soul for such songs made in those times. Sunidhi has done a good job but I would still prefer Ashaji. She still has got that pep in her voice.

“Maurya Re” takes time to grow. The loud percussions and chorus brings alive the aura of Ganesh pooja. Shankar Mahadevan does a neat job in singing this number. I liked the usage of Mandolin and the tune played with it in this song which adds a fresh sound to the song. “Aaj Ki Raat” is an interesting song in the album in a way that it is not a remix of some old song but yet it sounds like an old song. The tune, rhythm and the way chorus sings ‘Aaj Ki Raat’ are all typical 70’s stuff. Even though the sounds and layers are modern they are arranged in such a way that it has this RDB sound.

The title track ‘Main Hoon Don’ has this strong Matrix and James Bond sound in it perfectly underscoring the visual inspirations of the movie. A very enjoyable track with all right elements put in for a hero introduction song. The remix version of the song adds more pep and zing to the already rocking song. “Don Theme” is another energetic track with same tune and feel as the title track in different form interwoven with some popular dialogues uttered by Don.

This is not a soundtrack for those who like SEL for their compositions like ‘Kitni Baatein’ or ‘Kaisi Ha yeh’ but for those who like their peppy dance numbers like ‘Koi Kahe’ and ‘It’s the time to disco’. It is more of an album for your feet than to your heart and an album that provides the apt and necessary sound for the movie as a soundtrack.

Vettaiyaadu Vilayaadu

I am not a big fan of ‘Kaaka Kaaka’, it is good accepted, but I feel that it is one of the most overrated movies. I don’t think it would have been a big hit, if Surya wasn’t there. Surya was so refreshing to watch in a police character. But I didn’t have much expectation on ‘Vettiayadu Vilayadu’. But the presence of Kamal Haasan and interesting premise of tracing out a killer based on incidents happened in Keeranur and New York made me curious. So, I went to the movie on the second day itself and while watching the movie, the interview of Gautam (One of the most straight from the heart and honest ever from a movie director) to Hindu magazine and his words about the movie started running in my mind.

Plot in Gautam’s words

The cop-versus-killer cat-and-mouse game, leads to the same problem as in 'Kaakha Kaakha,' when the cop's personal life gets involved and affected in the course of the investigation. The classic serial killer mystery in the mould of 'Silence of the Lambs' and 'Seven' soon gives away to a full-fledged commercial action film as the cop and the mystery killer go tit-for-tat, says Gautham.

The main problems of the movie are those bold words in the previous paragraph. One of the major problems of KK is its weak villain and so is of VV. I felt the characterization of the villain was a major drawback of Kaaka Kaaka. A hero’s character becomes strong only when the villain’s is stronger. The intentions of the psycho killers in this movie are kiddish. Just because of villain saying like, “killing was like Smoking for me, I was trying hard to stop it” doesn’t make his actions convincing. And what make it even more boring are their predictable tricks to escape from the police. As the character is weak, no matter how hard Balaji tries to perform well, his character loses the appeal.

All went well when nothing gets personal between the hero and villain but everything falls flat in the second half when it goes to a tit-for-tat mode. Kamal realises it too late in the movie when he says, “It is getting personal”, after they kill and hang up one of the associates of Kamal in the Adyar Bridge (again KK hang over). And the worst happens when the villains kidnap Jyothika to take revenge. Also Gautam looses his eye for small details in the second half. Though his intention of pasting the posters of “Hannibal” and “Psycho” movies make some sense considering that the villains are psycho killers, I don’t know when how these guys were so cool and had time to do all these decorations to their room as they were running from one state to another to escape from the police. Instead, it would have been more appropriate if those movie posters were shown shinning in their residence in New York.

It is very clear that Gautam has got confused how to end the movie, he started to make a great psycho thriller cum a cop story but ended up doing a hi-tech Gilli. The words ‘full fledged commercial film’ crossed my mind when the “Neruppae” (well choreographed though) song came at a crucial point disturbing the pace of the movie. Also unnecessarily lot of large than life stunt sequences are there which hampers the quality of the movie further. And Gautam himself accepts all these as he said

From your earlier film, you have to go five notches higher. Especially with Kamal, I would have loved to do something like a Nayagan, which is an all-time favourite film, don't know how "commercial" it was, but it was a complete film. I didn't do that. I didn't have that kind of time. So, I thought let me make commercial film

From the way he has executed the first half of the movie, I strongly believe Gautam sure have potentials to make a great movie one day, but as he said, he may not have got enough time to make VV as one. Unlike the villains, Kamal and Jyothika’s characters are well etched out. I liked the way the story unfolds in a leisurely pace without any logical flaws. Though it seems the clues are so obvious to trace the killers and it happens too fast, the way it has been presented realistically makes it appealing. Gautam always does these romantic parts well. The matured love story of Kamal and Jyothika is so pleasant and refreshing to watch to an extent that we don’t mind the main plot of the movie getting interrupted by their conversation. Unlike KK, the conversations are so natural and realistic in this movie, especially those between Kamal and Jyothika.

There are some cute one-liners here and there and in one of the scenes Gautam mocks himself through Jyothika’s character saying ‘Yenna Maniratnam padathula vara madhiri aaramikkiranga?’ That was exactly what every one of us would have thought after Kamal asks Jyothika “Yaen (Why?)”. Also Gautam brings a connection between KK and VV by making Kamal’s first love story and its ending like how the love story started and ended in KK. There by if he makes a trilogy, sure he can show this episode as a link between the movies. It would have been better, if Gautam had kept the suspense about the killers till the end. The mind and instinct game was more interesting than boring chasing sequences in the second half. When the villains and their intentions are revealed so suddenly, I was shocked and thought how he is going to proceed from here. And yes, that is what exactly Gautam also would have thought while writing the script.

Here is what Gautam said about first half,

It is realistic. First half is very real, bang on... I've not compromised at all. He's not allowed to take a gun. He has to find out what happened from the local cop there. He walks with the other cop and suggests what they could do... So, it's a sort of an unofficial investigation

Technically the movie is superior. Ravi Verman has done a brilliant job in using right tones and different camera angles to capture the various moods of this thriller. The murder and rap scenes are very gory and authentic. I don’t know why people complaint about this. May be it is not suitable for children and women but that is how it has to be shown when you have the villains as psycho killers. Well done. As always Anthony is there to give a stylish look to the film by his flashy editing. I liked the way the visuals are cut to show the flashing past memories in Kamal’s mind while he is traveling to New York. They have used color grading in quite a lot of places to get authentic mood and look and it gels well with the scenes at most of the places. There is a chasing sequence in the second half where Kamal in a jeep chases a villain on a bike, it happens in early morning 4.30. It is clear that the chasing sequence has been shot in day time and the color grading is done to make it look like 4.30 am. But they missed to watch that there would not be so much traffic in the Tidel park road at 4.30 am. Background score is good in parts.

It is a treat to watch Kamal is such a role giving a subtle performance. So is Jyothika. She has improved a lot. Kamilini just looks pretty and has nothing much to do. Prakash Raj has got minimal screen time but made his presence felt. So, finally here is what Gautam says about the movie and I perfectly agree with him.

It is a good film...nothing else. No problem if they call it another 'Kaakha... Kaakha.' That is a good film. It made for good viewing, good value for money. This is definitely that. It's got good songs, it's got Kamal Hassan. I wanted to go one step beyond that... which im not sure

Pithamagan Background Score

Here is a detailed write-up on background score of Pithamagan by Maestro Illayaraja that I wrote for forumhub magazine. The write-up also includes high quality audio samples. It is one of my all time favourite scores.