Naan Sigappu Manithan Movie Review

Staring : Vishal, Lakshmi Menon, Saranya Ponvannan, Sunder Ramu

Director : Thiru

Music : GV Prakash Kumar

Production : UTV, VFF, Vendhar Movies

Come to think of it, Thiru’s Naan Sigappu Manithan (NSM) is a simple revenge saga that gets interesting because of the inclusion of a rare sleeping disorder called Narcolepsy into the narrative. This also proves that there are several ways to narrate a story that has been milked dry for decades now. NSM becomes a fine example of presenting a simple story just the way you and I would have never imagined and yet feature elements that will appeal to the masses.

How does Indran (Vishal) suffering from a sleep disorder called Narcolepsy, which sends a patient to deep sleep whenever extreme emotion is experienced, take revenge against those responsible for something extremely painful in his life?

Director Thiru deserves to be lauded for a spinning an engaging thriller in which you don’t have anyone to root for. Of course, we have the hero, played by Vishal, but he keeps falling asleep every time he experiences extreme emotion. This being the case, audiences don’t even get an opportunity to cheer for a hero or their star. Nevertheless, you connect with film more on an emotional level and that is one of the reasons you won’t NSM even though it has very weird twist in the second half.

While the twist does have strong reasons that are neatly justified in the narrative, you’re still not convinced with it. This could be one of the factors many may dislike or even love the film. I, for a reason, didn’t quite like the twist and was left a little disappointed. Nevertheless, it’s a film that you would enjoy mostly, thanks to an engaging narrative and Vishal’s subtle performance.

After Pandiya Nadu, good luck continues for Vishal with NSM, in which he plays the role quite convincingly. Let’s not forget that he’s a six-footer and for someone of his height to keep falling off at regular intervals, is not easy, as each fall should also look authentic.

Naan Sigappu Manithan is not an exception thriller, but it definitely has the potential to keep you hooked for over two and a half hours.

Verdict : Not an exception thriller, but it definitely has the potential to keep you hooked for over two and a half hours

All in All Azhaguraja Movie Review

Starring : Karthi, Kajal, Santhanam, Prabhu, Saranya Ponvannan

Direction : Rajesh M

Music : Thaman SS

Production : Studio Green

Well, it was bound to happen someday. After three consecutive hits, Tamil cinema’s luckiest filmmaker has made a film that’s so awful, its success would result in me losing faith in our people. It’s not like M. Rajesh is new to making bad movies. I absolutely loathed “Siva Manasula Shakthi” and “Oru Kal Oru Kannadi”, but enjoyed “Boss (a) Baskaran” quite a bit. It’s just that none of his previous films have been a catastrophe of this magnitude.

Rajesh has made a conscious effort to make his fourth film different from his previous three. The difference is that it showed a hint of having a proper story in its early minutes. But that’s where the deceit lies. It’s still the same old trash – only less funny and more unbearable. There’s Santhanam playing a drag queen for whom an old man develops feelings. Boy, I wonder if this is the first time in our history that a film has tried to milk humor out of a man dressed as a woman. For the sake of tackling a period setting, Rajesh creates a laboriously painful backstory involving Prabhu which does nothing to make the film better.

Raja (Karthi) runs an obscure television channel and tells his parents that he wouldn’t marry until he makes his channel the best in the market. Kalyanam (Santhanam) is a friend/employee/lapdog who continues to stick around and do things for Raja for reasons unknown. Raja is a total loser who does nothing to achieve that goal of his.. a goal which we are made to believe is what driving the film. The moment he meets the girl, he throws everything aside and inadvertently does everything to sabotage her career. The film is over-written with too many subplots, none of which make any sense.

I had a minor panic attack when I noticed on the Censor board certificate that the film’s running time was close to 180 minutes. That’s about as long as Francis Ford Coppola’s “The Godfather”. With only five minutes worth of humor, you have to be on a suicide mission to make such a long film with so little to offer.

“Azhaguraja” is a deeply misogynistic film which treats its lead female character terribly; I felt very sorry for Kajal Aggarwal’s Devi Priya. She is the most adorable Grammar Nazi in the world. She shows her displeasure when Raja sends a note along with a bouquet that reads, “I Love U”, and asks him to spell ‘You’ correctly without exactly being a dick about it. There’s an excess of the typical OTT elements in her character, but there’s some novelty too. She isn’t swept off her feet that easily. She manages her father’s cinema and wedding hall, and wishes to make a mark in the entertainment industry in some way. But then something very awful happens. She meets Raja who irresponsibly kills her self-confidence and turns her into a consolatory “housewife”. He brings her down to his state and eventually makes her say, “I Love U”. He domesticates her, that bastard.

Performance-wise, Santhanam is decent with his peculiar idiosyncrasies. At least he makes an effort. I don’t know if it’s just me but every time I see Prabhu, I immediately think of his Kalyan Jewellers advertisements. MS Bhaskar is worth mentioning, but that’s about it. “Azhaguraja” is punishingly long, achingly unfunny and doesn’t deserve any audience at all.

Verdict : All in All Appalling

Kuttipuli Movie Review

Cast : Sasikumar , Lakshmimenon , Saranya Ponvannan

Direction : Muthaiya

Music : Ghibran

Producer : Red Giant Movies , Sun Pictures

Very few actors have good fan base in A, B & C centers. Sasikumar is one of the very few actors in Tamil Cinema whom people think as their friend / brother. Few movies with less budget and wonderful script ran well in A Centers recently. But, they didn’t manage to even fetch average collections in B & C Centers. But, Sasikumar’s movies till now had run well in all Centers. Hence, the movie had been brought by SUN Pictures and released by Red Giant Movies in record number of theaters (more than 300). Movie had created huge expectation in B & Centers and had been sold for huge price (highest for Sasikumar film). But, the trailer of the movie failed to impress certain section of audience. Trailer shows Sasikumar as an Action Hero with lots of Punch Dialogues. People have accepted him as a next door guy and they may not agree if he is shown as an Action Hero who flies in the air and speaks dialogues which are irrelevant to the movie. Let us see whether this movie will satisfy the Common Man in this review.

Story: It is a women centric movie in which happy go lucky Sasi Kumar turns to a good person after falling in love with Lakshmi Menon. Movie revolves around the relationship between Sasikumar and his mom Saranya Ponvannan with light hearted comedy scenes, sentimental scenes and emotional dialogues.

Sasikumar & Lakshmi Menon – After successful Sundarapandian, they reunite as lead pair in this movie. There were rumours going around as they were acting in consequent movies. Sasikumar cleared the rumours stating that even Abinaya, Ananya too have worked with him in consequent movies. He informed that Actress prefer working with him as they will feel SAFE while working with him.

Sasikumar had acted well in this village-based story as usual. It seems, he learnt Silambam for 2 months and has performed well in the movie. But, this movie doesn’t require Silambam fighting scenes. There are lots of punch dialogues & fight scenes in the movie with lots of blood, which is unusual for a Sasikumar’s movie. Story is as old as Tamil Cinema and hence, it is very difficult to engage the audience. But, Sasikumar’s acting, dialogue modulation, light hearted humour scenes, good dialogues make sure that audience doesn’t get bored.

Lakshmi Menon has good fan base due to her excellent acting in Kumki and her homely face. But, she doesn’t have much scope to perform in this movie and had been used a beautiful doll.

Saranya Ponvannan acts as a mother for Tamil heroes in 8 out of 10 movies and we have started feeling it as stereotypical. But, in this movie, she has more weightage than Sasi Kumar. There is a scene in the movie in which she feels too happy hearing that Sasikumar had agreed to marry Lakshmi Menon. No one can even come closer to her acting in that scene.

Murugadoss as Sasikumar’s friend had done a wonderful job. He had performed well not only in the comedy scenes, but also emotional scenes. Bala (Kana Kaanum Kalangal) receives huge applause for his timing comedy dialogues.

Ghibran – It is his third movie after Vaagai Sooda Vaa and Vathikuchi. “Aruvaakaaran” song was too good, but the other songs were pretty average. He had borrowed music from 1980’s classics for humour scenes. It works in the beginning, but later becomes repetitive.

Cinematographer Mahesh Muthuswamy had made sure that even small streets in the village is covered and really looks good.

Editor Gopi Krishna could have edited few more scenes. Movie runs for 150 minutes, but it looks like 200 minutes as there is absolutely no story in the movie. Even scenes before the climax can be put at any portion after the interval.

Director Muthaiah (assistant director of T P Gajendaran & Bhoopathy Pandian) makes his debut through this movie. Story seems to be inspired from a real-life character of a person who had great helping tendency and respect for women from his village – Srivillputhur. He had tried to give a feature film with just these 2 characteristics of a person and had failed to engage the audience with very average screenplay. Scenes may look good if you watch it in TV. But, when you see it as a full movie, the scenes are not linked and there is no continuity.
Sasikumar must have got convinced to do this movie after hearing the Climax scene which is new to Tamil Cinema. Climax will receive mixed response.

Overall, Kuttipuli is not as GOOD as earlier Sasikumar’s movies. It is a movie for only ‘C’ Centers with lots of mother sentiment scenes and comedy scenes which don’t create any impact on the movie.

Verdict : Movie for C Centers Only