Sunday, November 25, 2007
Polladhavan
I enjoyed watching polladhavan today -- the director has done a great job with the story and the screenplay -- the dialogue also deserves special mention which is teeming with wit, at the same time maintaining the nativity and realism.
The story which is essentially the bond that an youngster forms with his bike is refreshing.
The screenplay is engrossing (minus the songs) and the director employs a nice technique of shifting the narrative when the two protagonists criss-cross with each other.
However, the thing that impressed me the most about the movie is the fact that it is refreshingly non-judgmental -- the director clearly does not thrust his opinions on us, instead, letting us decide if we like the characters. The reason the director is able to achieve this is mainly because of the script -- the script lets most of the people behave in a "reasonable" fashion.
Consider the two gangster chacters 'selvam' and 'out' who are almost portrayed as following the hindu philosophy of 'karmayoga'!! (although some may allege they are glorified) Or consider the police, who sure take bribes from gangsters, but show common-sense throughout the movie, expecially in the scence in which they let dhanush go since he has a proper alibi.
The only character that is clearly 'evil' is the villain -- but one can easily empathize with this character even.
------------------------Digression starts---------------------------------------------------------------
What do you do when you are constantly under the shadow of a more "powerful" (as the villain sees) guy. If you fail to reconcile with this fact, how do you gain your own 'self-respect'? Ofcourse, the answer is
by resorting to "villainous" deeds to regain "control".
-----------------------Digression Ends-------------------------------------------------------------------
Polladhavan is an entertaining movie with an intelligent script, great screenplay, impressive acting and mildly irritating songs.
The story which is essentially the bond that an youngster forms with his bike is refreshing.
The screenplay is engrossing (minus the songs) and the director employs a nice technique of shifting the narrative when the two protagonists criss-cross with each other.
However, the thing that impressed me the most about the movie is the fact that it is refreshingly non-judgmental -- the director clearly does not thrust his opinions on us, instead, letting us decide if we like the characters. The reason the director is able to achieve this is mainly because of the script -- the script lets most of the people behave in a "reasonable" fashion.
Consider the two gangster chacters 'selvam' and 'out' who are almost portrayed as following the hindu philosophy of 'karmayoga'!! (although some may allege they are glorified) Or consider the police, who sure take bribes from gangsters, but show common-sense throughout the movie, expecially in the scence in which they let dhanush go since he has a proper alibi.
The only character that is clearly 'evil' is the villain -- but one can easily empathize with this character even.
------------------------Digression starts---------------------------------------------------------------
What do you do when you are constantly under the shadow of a more "powerful" (as the villain sees) guy. If you fail to reconcile with this fact, how do you gain your own 'self-respect'? Ofcourse, the answer is
by resorting to "villainous" deeds to regain "control".
-----------------------Digression Ends-------------------------------------------------------------------
Polladhavan is an entertaining movie with an intelligent script, great screenplay, impressive acting and mildly irritating songs.
Comments:
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This weekend I re-watched (after many years) one of my favourite movies: Mouna Ragam. Watching that movie makes me sad for a couple of days.
varun, no I didnt watch it in santa barbara. I didnt see any theatres that showed indian films in santa barbara.
srikanth, yeah 'mouna ragam' is a nice movie -- one of the best efforts of mani ratnam.
--
vijay
srikanth, yeah 'mouna ragam' is a nice movie -- one of the best efforts of mani ratnam.
--
vijay
# posted by 
: 6:48 PM
: 6:48 PM
Come-on da,
I dont think this movie shud deserve such good praise from any movie "analyser" like u or Balaji.
1)Like most movies I hate the "immediate falling in love unnaturally" which this movie repeats. Ofcourse, director can argue that those scenes are "assumed to be happened" not shown in the movie. But the course of scenes doesnt suggest so. One of the reasons I thot Indian was good atleast began with the main Kamal/Manisha already in love,rather than showing unnatural bullshit.
2)Its hard to believe any sane person wud go to the extent of killing so many lives just for a bike even if it is his passion, his practical mind shud set in. If this was a child doing it, its a different story.
However it had many good things like:
1)Villian(elder) will keep advising his brother not make the fight with Danush any big to invite unnecc trouble. This is realistic, i.e instead of showing his heroism/revenge, he doesnt want to do anything unnecc. i.e Like u say the director doesnt protray him always doing bad as a bad guy, instead a normal rowdy.
2)Same way danush also is not portrayed as hero(all good guy) - he doesnt pick a fight when he meets villian at hospital. He says "u have so many ppl here, Im nothing to u." .
IMO, this is only an above avg movie. Pudhupettai was much better.
Btw, yday only Balaji and me talked abt this movie.
I dont think this movie shud deserve such good praise from any movie "analyser" like u or Balaji.
1)Like most movies I hate the "immediate falling in love unnaturally" which this movie repeats. Ofcourse, director can argue that those scenes are "assumed to be happened" not shown in the movie. But the course of scenes doesnt suggest so. One of the reasons I thot Indian was good atleast began with the main Kamal/Manisha already in love,rather than showing unnatural bullshit.
2)Its hard to believe any sane person wud go to the extent of killing so many lives just for a bike even if it is his passion, his practical mind shud set in. If this was a child doing it, its a different story.
However it had many good things like:
1)Villian(elder) will keep advising his brother not make the fight with Danush any big to invite unnecc trouble. This is realistic, i.e instead of showing his heroism/revenge, he doesnt want to do anything unnecc. i.e Like u say the director doesnt protray him always doing bad as a bad guy, instead a normal rowdy.
2)Same way danush also is not portrayed as hero(all good guy) - he doesnt pick a fight when he meets villian at hospital. He says "u have so many ppl here, Im nothing to u." .
IMO, this is only an above avg movie. Pudhupettai was much better.
Btw, yday only Balaji and me talked abt this movie.
Arun,
He doesn't kill anyone for the bike right? He kills only when they attack him and he has no choice.
The director takes special care in showing how he gets dragged into it and makes it believable.
What I liked about this movie was that it had a flow, the kind that Mani Ratnam movies have.
Sudhir
He doesn't kill anyone for the bike right? He kills only when they attack him and he has no choice.
The director takes special care in showing how he gets dragged into it and makes it believable.
What I liked about this movie was that it had a flow, the kind that Mani Ratnam movies have.
Sudhir
Right sudhir, I talked abt it with arun.
Yes the screenplay was pretty good, I am impressed by this vettrimaran.
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Yes the screenplay was pretty good, I am impressed by this vettrimaran.
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