Nanban!

The frame by frame remake of 3 idiots - Nanban, has indeed been one of the most awaited movies this New year. And, the verdict - from what I see, seems to be divided. The biggest obstacle to any remake is casting. That too for a multi-starrer college based story! The director/producer should literally look out for heroes who can fit in as a college student. Casting is what made the audience wait for this movie. Ilaya Thalapathi Vijay as a College student-who changes the education system is something that only Shankar could have thought of. I guess its the Rajini power that has got into him!

Probably everyone who knew Hindi or even had Hindi literate friends would have watched 3 Idiots. ( Thats what an Aamir Khan movie does to the audience.) A remake of such a remarkable movie is no joke. Shankar has remade this movie shot by shot. Overall, it does look good. I am on the that side of the audience who thought it was not bad at all. Yes, Vijay didn't have the Aamir khan aura around him. He definitely didn't look like the star of the college. But, he did what ever he could. Most importantly, he didn't overact. He did look convincing as Paari. If you are a theevira vijay hater - I am sorry I can't help you. Srikanth and jeeva, fit in really well, and Srikanth's narration was complete justice to the original. Sathyan, as silencer - the California's kongu magan was good, but not perfect. There was no way the Kovai accent could get out of him-even when he says California! Nevertheless, he was funny. Sathyaraj, finally acted in one movie without his stupid misfit punch lines. And thank god he didn't drag his son in to do a role. There were some parts where I thought Boman Irani outplayed him. Oh! I forgot Ileana - she comes in between scenes. She has tried to do a Kareena kapoor, not the Princpal's daughter. So effectively she was ineffective! Anuya as Sathyaraj's elder daughter was a surprise. (Adhukulla heroine ku akka role a!)

Music - Harris saar: Pinnipedal eduthutar. I guess you would have seen the link already, if not please do.

While I do all this, in the other tab of my browser, I am downloading the solutions manual for tomorrow's assignment. Before we decide if Vijay was the right replacement for Aamir Khan, lets just pause for a while and think-"Am I passionate about what I am doing now"? We have successfully engineered a generation, but we fail to realize all that we lost in the process. Keep thinking. And, I wait for the solution manual to download.

KO-A complete entertainer.

It is not often that a film comes along that highlights a range of social issues relevant today and still manages to include time-tested commercial elements to keep everyone happy.KO manages to do just that.Barring a few instances lacking logic, the film manages to keep the audience hooked and how!

The film begins with Ashwin(Jeeva), who is a photo journalist working in a tamil daily, happening to chance upon a bank robbery, gives chase and helps the cops nab the culprits.What follows is the daily's coverage of elections in the state which is so much reflective of the recent elections in our state, interspersed with the love triangle between coworkers in the newspaper.With such brutal honesty in portraying the elections as it happens today,one really begins to wonder if the film was deliberately delayed in its release.

The film has enough twists to keep us in the edge of our seats and the director should be lauded for his screenplay.The unexpected twist in the end makes it a worthwhile story.The social responsibility(or irresponsibility) of the media personnel and the politicians' hypocrisy are well emphasised in the sequences.Kudos to the director for handling it with such honesty.With no separate comedy track,the film has just the right amount of humor without going overboard.The hero runs around shooting pictures from impossible positions and not giving a damn,typical of a journalist.And he has a knack of appearing in the right place at the right time!

As for the performances, Jeeva does a neat job and the two girls(Karthika and Piaa) are just adequate.Praksh Raj and Kotta Srinivasa Rao as political bigwigs at loggerheads are convincing and Ajmal,as the face of youth in the election has done a great job.

Now come the no brainers.How does the director expect us to believe that someone can win a clear majority the first time they contest?As if that was not enough we have our hero escaping from two bomb blasts without any serious injuries!The songs(Harris Jeyaraj) fail to make an impact except for Ennamo Edho which is humworthy.The two songs in the second half are ill placed and really hampers the speed fo the movie.The length of the movie(a tad too long) would have been just right if the songs had been done away with!On a scale of 10, the movie would just cross the 7 mark!

A movie worth watching indeed!