Biriyani Movie Review

Staring : Karthi, Hansika, Premgi

Director : Venkat Prabhu

Music : Yuvan Shankar Raja

Production : Studio Green

Director Venkat Prabhu has a rare distinction as a non-linear story-teller. Be it Saroja or Mankatha, he induced his trademark style in the narrative. In Biriyani, he took a linear route with some sparks of connecting the dots game during the climax. In all his previous outings, the master-stroke lies in the black comedy he manages to generate without going overboard. Here too, backed by some fine performances, he pulled it off with finesse. The movie is also a litmus test for Karthi after going through a lean patch in this year, and comes out with flying colors in this spicy offering.

The film explodes with a ‘Men at Work – Take Diversion’ board and the smoke trail leads to a flashback that paved way for all the comic elements in the film. The creative touch of the director is seen right from the first frame when he gives credit to himself – a Venkat Prabhu diet – on a traffic police barricade. This one is followed by a chase involving Karthi and his friend Premji Amaran. The latter narrates the story in a flashback mode. Get ready for more of ‘Flashback’ and ‘Live’ cards on screen.

Karthi is cool and goes easy on girls. It takes him few seconds to woo someone. Not only that, girls give him a rating of 12/10! Moving with him Premji sees no chance to find love as he plays spoilsport always. This attitude becomes the causative factor for a strained relationship with his girlfriend played by Hansika. On the other side, he goes to a town to help his would-be brother-in-law in his business (Heavy product placement of Mahindra can be seen here). The follow of events and his fetish for biriyani puts him in deep soup. The rest of the story revolves around how Karthi sets things right.

The first half of the film never gives an inkling of a thriller. It fills the air with comedy and romance and just when the film is inching towards the interval the film shifts gears and slips into a thriller zone. The second half is where the entire core lies in. Many creative ‘black comedy’ elements hit you in the face. Even a sad situation was not spared to tickle the funny bone. The director rewrites an unwritten rule that comic episodes can be built with many characters. Here, he uses only two characters in problematic surroundings to bring the house down.

Venkat Prabhu packs a lot of concepts in the songs. He effortlessly laces them with extra gloss to make them more appealing. In one song you can see freeze frames, underwater singing, and in the other you can feel the retro vibe. One is targeted at the front benchers and the others act as catalysts for the narration. Yuvan Shankar Raja hits a century with Biriyani, and he is credited for this at the beginning. He becomes a pivotal cog in the film’s wheel and his background score knew no bounds and blends with the proceedings. The way he conjures myriad pieces is laudable.

A few surprises come in late and you would be eager to see where the story is headed. Though the movie is replete with creative treatment, the masala staples become unavoidable. A fight sequence becomes mandatory for the hero – even in the climax when the suspense unfolds. Even some unwarranted scenes bring down the pace. The assassin / hit woman is a faint reference to many Hollywood films and some are archetypal Guy Ritchie.

Karthi has a worldly charm. He takes you through a wide array of emotions and expressions. He is playful at the start, moves into a confused zone when the film hits the midpoint; his true grit and intensity surfaces towards the end. Premji does what he is good at – make a mockery of him, and try to break the barrier of tolerance. In a finely crafted role, he complements Karthi in every act. Hansika has little to offer and lightens the screen only in a couple of songs. Nasser gets to do a comic act in the climax.

Biriyani is a taut thriller with some loose ends. The way the suspense unfolds in a simplistic way may be unpalatable. Even most of the scenes give a feeling of déjà vu. While it’s refreshing to see a film-maker refine a format, on the other side it’s painstaking that he can’t do away with force-fit commercial elements. But Venkat Prabhu must be applauded for the way he has embedded a wafer-thin story line in multiple layers of entertainment. He climbs a few notches in the ‘black comedy’ thriller genre.

Verdict : Spicy offering in a linear mode!!

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

Kajal Agarwal to get a BMW Car

Long, long ago, we read a story that detailed that Nayanthara was gifted with a BMW car for maintaining friendship with an actor in Andhra and that followed by Simbhu dropping out Nayan.

Kajal Agarwal, who is now 27 years old, was in search of one such filthy rich guy in Andhra and has managed to identify one for her.

Though Kajal was not able to fly high when she was in this Kollywood few years before but now, she is one of the most sought out girl in Kollywood.

The reason is said to be associated with her relationship with one of the giant producer from Andhra, who owns a production company that starts with the letter ‘A’.

Now, she is doing All in Alagu Raja with Karthi and Thalaiva with Vijay. She is not doing any movies in Andhra.

Soon, Kajal will get a knot tied in her neck by that filthy rich Andhrite.

Karthi admits his failures in Saguni and Alexpandiyan

The Paruthiveeran of Kollywood, Karthi’s career has hit quite a rough patch after back to back disasters in Saguni and Alex Pandiyan. Karthi however has pinned all his hopes on Venkat Prabhu’s Biriyani to salvage his career again.
In a recent interview to a evening daily Karthi had this to say “My last two films have been big failures and have heavily damaged my image in Kollywood. But that’s all in the past, Biriyani will change all that as it will appeal to all the audiences.”

Karthi shuffles between Biriyani, All in All Azhagu Raja

Actor Karthi seems to be in full swing these days. After Alex Pandiyan, Karthi is busy with his next flick Biriyani and All in All Azhagu Raja. Director Venkat Prabhu is directing Biriyani and All in All Azhagu Raja will be canned by Rajesh and shooting starts from March.

Karthi-Venkat Prabhu’s Biriyani has musical scores by Yuvan Shankar Raja. Hansika is playing as female lead and Santhanam is ready to entertain with his comedy. K.E.Gnanavel Raja is producing this film under Studio Green productions.

Simultaneously Karthi will also shoot for All in All Azhagu Raja under M.Rajesh direction. As per reports, All in All Azhagu Raja will also have Santhanam in prominent role and Kajal Agarwal as female lead. S.S.Thaman will compose tunes for this movie and produced by the same producer K.E.Gnanavel Raja under Studio Green productions.

Alexpandiyan Movie Review

Starring : Karthi, Anushka Shetty, Santhanam, Nikhita, Thukral Sanusha, Prathap Pothen

Direction : Suraaj

Music : Devi Sri Prasad

Production : K E Gnanavelraja

Karthi is one actor who didn’t had any failure till Saguni. But looks like the actor is fond of mass action entertainers and this time he is back with “Alex Pandian” which is directed by Suraaj. Does Alex Pandian lives up to the expectation?

The plot is nothing new, a bunch of villains chasing the heroine and our hero saves her single handedly. Karthi plays a rogue who kidnaps CM’s daughter Anushka. During the kidnapping episode, Anushka falls in love with Karthi and the rest of the so called story tells us how Karthi saves Anushka and most importantly the entire state from villains who are threatening the CM (Visu) to sign in a deal for supplying prohibited antibiotics to the people.

Karthi looks charming and the star has a lot of energy but all his energy goes with the lagging screenplay and the story which doesn’thave any logic. Anushka looks so matured and disinterested in many sequences. The only saving grace of the movie is Santhanam and his funny episodes in the first half is really engaging. But the double meaning dialogues and the high glamour quotient in the name of Santhanam’s sisters doesn’t entertain family audience.

Suraaj has adopted the same Padikathavan formula yet again. He had already proved that he is good in comic sequences but why is he continuously adopting stories which is not having any logic?. The stunt choreography in the movie is one of the worst in recent times and it seems they have totally forgot Newton’s gravitational law!!.

Devi Sri Prasad’s song and background score is too loud andSaravanan’s cinematography is stylish and editing is okay. On the whole, Alex Pandian might satisfy the audience who loves mindless action masalas.

Alex Pandian Musical night on Dec 30

Here is good news for Karthi fans. Makers of Alex Pandian are planning to arrange a musical night on the on 30th December at YMCA grounds in Chennai.

As KT reported viewers earlier, Devi Sri Prasad [DSP] has composed the music notes for Karthi, Anushka, Santhanam, Nikhitha Thukral and Sanusha starring Suraaj directing Alex Pandian. The heart-melting composer will be performing all the songs from Studio Greens presenting Alex Pandian music album and few of Suriya’s soundtracks live on stage for Suriya-Karthi fans on December 30.

Alex Pandian Musical Night seems to be an idea to promote Alex Pandian movie, which makes the way for big ticketing Vendhar movies producing Alex Pandian. Suriya and Karthi are the main highlights of the event as the brothers will be present at the Alex Pandian Musical Night along with the whole cast and crew of the film.

Karthi does Gangnam style in Bad Boys song

Karthi starrer Alex Pandian is gearing up for a grand release for Pongal and meanwhile the promotional activities are on full swing by the makers Studio Green.
While the theatrical release has been released a month ago, now the makers have released ‘Bad Boys..’ full song on Sun Music in which Karthi has done the Gangnam style moves. The song is expected to be a mass hit.
Alex Pandian is commercial mass entertainer casting Anushka as Karthi’s lady love while Santhanam is doing a full-fledged comedy role. Suraj has wielded the megaphone for the movie. Devi Sri Prasad has provided the tunes for the film.
Let’s wait for Pongal 2013 for the release of Alex Pandian film