Superstar daa!

Yesterday, we got to watch the latest Rajni movie, Kabali. All I knew was that :

it had Rajni as a Don...  Nothing new there

Rajni plays an old man .. okay but there were scenes in the trailer where he is in flashback young Rajni mode

No typical Rajni movie soundtrack : okay.. that was a red flag but still..

Went to watch it and came out shaking my head. 

If you don't know what going to a Rajni movie is like..

Imagine you go to a James Bond movie. There is some hint of action for 30 seconds and then Bond comes and shoots once.. the camera iris closes.. blood drop flows down the screen and the Bond movie theme music soars!  

Then the scene moves to a monastery.. Daniel Craig is now a non-violent priest who is training students on tai-chi.. and they don't even show his face.. they show the side and back of his face.. you are to infer that this Bond is not the usual Bond you are used to seeing. Maybe that is a hint for us to get ready for more surprises.. 

The movie keeps going. You are waiting for some hot bombshell pin up girl to join the action... instead you see that Judy Dench is now mother superior and they are taking about starting an orphanage. You scratch your stubble and go "hmm.. ticket says Bond movie... are we sure this is the right theater. these two have acted in other roles in other movies and they are good.. and that tonsured dude does look like Daniel Craig!"  You give it the benefit of doubt and sit down quietly.

Another thirty minutes passes with Bond(if you can still call him that) going into details of Tai-Chi moves in slow motion with a few kids and there is a loud noise.. You are expecting some typical Bond movie style train to run through the monastery and are expecting Craig to remove that head piece to reveal his executive style hair underneath that fake tonsure, to pull off his robe to reveal a charcoal black tux and  to jump on the train to put the brakes on.. but the scene moves to Dench who has just dropped her box full of prayer beads. At this point you have had it.. 

Then Bond smiles at Dench from the corner of his lips and says some quirky one liner and you go "okay.. I think I saw a slight hint of Bond there.. should I jump up and clap because this is where it all begins? or am I going to be the only idiot clapping?". You look to the left and you look to the right and you see other folks in the dimly lit theater doing the same thing.. everyone is looking at everyone with that "what are we do make of this?" look.  You realize that most of the movie is done and your typical hero is nowhere to be seen. Your typical experience for this franchise is not coming.. 

and it dawns on you.. you have been had! After Rumble in the Bronx, this is the worst experience for tralier excitement : Movie reality that you have witnessed. Given you have never forgiven Jackie for tricking you by putting the best stunts in the two minute trailer and filling the rest of the runtime with crap, your blood pressure goes up. 

Right then, there is a scene. Bond does his usual wink and blink and there is a brief scuffle, but it is too little too late.  You come out a litlte confused. If it weren't for the Bond theme music and the single shot fired and the iris closing at the begining of the movie, there was nothing Bond about it! It could have as well been a Tai-Chi documentary. 

As a die hard Bond fan, you convince yourself that you saw glimpses of Bond in a few fleeting moments, but you get very very angry. You wanted the entire movie to be that!

That people was my way of explaining to the world what Kabali was as a Rajni movie. If we didnt have the opening credits showing SUPERSTAR RAJNI in StarWars font capital letters, this had nothing of the typical Superstar in it. It was a violent documentary of the Malaysian Tamil community and its struggle to gain equal rights with respect to opportunities, pay and representation in the government. 

I am not trying to diss that movement or the fact that it gets much needed attention in this movie. Would I go to watch a movie on that topic if it actually had some activists or soap opera actors playing lead roles? Maybe not. Then again they could have made a documentary and have Rajni do the voice like Morgan Freeman does to Penguin movies.. or they could have had him show his support to this movement or set the record straight with a few clips. There was no need to trick me into thinking it was a "Rajni movie" when it clearly was not.

Yes, Ranji was in it.. but that was it! 

Now I have to go watch some old Rajni movies to try and reset my head and expectations on what a superstar movie watching experience is really like!

ps. Used to write  funny posts on Rajni movies or even Kamal movies (by dragging Rajni into it).  Tried to put some frivolity into this post, but deep down I am pissed.

Growing up and Growing old

On a cheeky note, we all grow older at the rate of one year per annum but we grow up at different rates...

Case in point, the 25 something crowd of more than 20 guys who happened to be in the theater last night for a show of "Mayakkam Enna". Had gone to watch the evening show with Balaji last night and it was a full house.

Mayakkam Enna (you can watch trailer here) is a movie by Selvaraghavan with his brother Dhanush as the hero. If you thought this was some feel good, masala romance movie that targets the twenty something youth, you may be mistaken.

It is a visceral movie about a group of friends growing up and growing old based on the circumstances they face in life. Some deal with the hand they are dealt with courage and conviction while others simply struggle to pick up the pieces. Selvaraghavan does a fantastic job of creating vivid images of the characters with all their idiosyncrasies and Dhanush stands out as an actor. The heroine steals the show throughout the movie. A first timer to Tamil movies, this girl can act.

It is a treat to watch a heroine in a Tamil movie get a chance to show her acting skills as opposed to just showing herself for a change.

Went to the movie without knowing anything about the movie. Had not heard about the storyline, the cast, nothing. Just that Sangeetha watched it the previous night and said "you will like this movie because there is a lot of good photography in the movie".

Came out loving it. Sad part was that the crowd of guys totally spoiled the movie going experience. They simply could not handle the serious scenes and would start making loud ridiculous comments to the whole theater which was not much different from little kids who act out to crave attention.

Was telling Balaji that one needs to be a husband and or a parent to understand "the growing up" aspect of life and clearly this crowd was not ready for it.

This movie was 80% tragedy, 20% happy go lucky and another bonus 10% if you managed to connect the dots between the two.

A must watch for a mature audience!

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Someone has made it big?

It looks like our wedding Videographer has finally made it big in the movie industry!

Watched the latest Ajith movie yesterday and it did not impress me. Yes, it is impressive that Ajith (who is a mainstream hero with probably 3 hits out of 50 films that you can name off the top of your head) decided to play an anti hero role in his 50th movie! That still doesn't make the movie good or different.

There are lot many movies today that are more experimental than this one which are not getting the same hype! Most of the scenes that got claps are copies from other movies, even the song in the background score with the movie title sounds like a rip from Kaminey!

Anyways, it is very difficult for someone like me who has seen way too many movies and remembers things to appreciate "imported" scenes in Tamil movies. If you have seen Angelina Jolie pull James McAvoy into a car as she spins it towards him, it is difficult to appreciate Arjun doing the same thing and clap.

Folks who have not seen "Wanted" will jump up and clap. Again, this post meanders into a movie critique. That was not the intent..

There is one song in this movie, which is a take off from a beer commercial where everything except the people builds itself (the walls, furniture , etc. ) in some kind of self assembly format. The focus is so much on the special effects that you miss the song, the actors and everything else.

Classic case of overdoing a special effect.. kind of like our wedding video!

Ajith multiples in much the same fashion I did in our wedding video! That leaves us to the inescapable conclusion...

Wedding videographers, keep practicing your special effects and one day you too can make it big in the movies!

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