Jailer movie review - more a parole than a release

I watched Jailer this morning and this is my first visit to a movie theater after many years. And it is quite possible that that last movie I saw in a theater was Durbar. 

This is the 3rd day since the movie was released, and I caught a 9 AM show at PVR Cinemas in Express Avenue Mall – again my first visit to any mall in many years! For someone who was visiting every mall in the city every weekend (sometimes many in a single evening https://jawaman.blogspot.com/2006/10/mall-hopping_115981030706845969.html) , this is clearly a sign of advancing age. 

And if you want proof of my ageing, please note that the title of this blog indicates that this is a review of the movie Jailer, but for the past 125+ words, I have talked about many other things. Before I forget, let me begin. Also please beware of spoilers ahead. 

Jailer is a tailor-made movie for an ageing (again age!) Superstar whose fan adulation literally surpasses any logic defined so far in the annals of human history. Thankfully, he plays a character close to his age (a retired Jail warden), has a grandkid, and gets henchmen and sharpshooters to finish off most of the baddies. There is no romance either, even in the flashback. 

This is a revenge movie, of a father who is out to avenge the death of those Idol smugglers who killed his son. The movie runs for around 160 minutes, and to a large extent is well packaged. There are inevitable lulls in the narration, but they are not jarring. There is subtle thread of humour running throughout the movie despite its overall vengeful tone. 

Before I start complaining, I really liked the way the villain was projected. He was a ruthless guy and thankfully, could speak Tamil (but with a mild Mallu accent). And he didn’t do any shenanigans or display weird body language or catch-phrase. It was a solid performance by a good actor of a neatly defined character. On a side note, one of his over-zealous henchmen is possibly one of the best non-main characters one can come across in a movie. The way he complains about having to sit on the lap of a man was just out of the world and I haven’t laughed out hard so much in recent times. 

Now, to some of the loopholes of the plot. Apart from mouthing some platitudes, there is no clear proof of what the Jailer did as part of reforming these the thugs, from whom he takes help in his revenge. One, Jackie Shroff, sends henchmen at the behest of the villain and then regrets it because he didn’t know who the target was; he even appears at the end driving a JCB to help the Jailer. Another, Shivaraj Rajkumar, says he is now a changed guy, but he helps the Jailer with bouncer level bodyguards who are also expert snipers. The last one, Mohanlal, doesn’t seem to have had any interaction in the past with the Jailer, but again supplies heavy artillery to the Jailer. There was one more goon whose ear the Jailer chops off, while in jail, but he sends his Sardar henchmen to support the Jailer. The flashback doesn’t really establish the Jailer as a Do-Ankhen-Barah-Haath kind of warden who reforms prisoners, nor is there any clear debt they owe to the Jailer!

Then there is this whole attempt at a Baasha like transformation of the Hero in front of his family. Now, in Baasha, the step siblings had no clue and so they were really shocked about the change. As audiences, we too didn’t know about the backdrop and so that transformation scene is still a template for many movies. Here, however, everyone – the characters and the audience – knows that this a retired cop. And going by the flashback, he is one who makes his own rules. So why would his wife be shocked by his transformation? 

The biggest letdown however, is the son’s characterisation. He is shown as an honest cop and a loveable family man. He displays no conflict with his father in terms of approach in life either. And to see him suddenly having a negative streak, after being kidnapped by the villain was a little jarring. For him to claim that all his years of investigation and catching the low-level smugglers was just to meet the main villain, with a motive of sharing the loot, didn’t carry much logic. This was a little bit of lazy writing, with the main intent being to present a shock to the audience at the end – the Jailer killing off his own son for being a bad guy. This was treated much better in Indian – where the son is clearly shown as a corrupt fellow and the honest father stabs him to death. The shock that Indian created was certainly absent here. 

And the entire segment about the heist, was quite idiotic to say the least. It added no value to the storyline, and it was hardly a surprise that the Jailer had only stolen a fake crown and the real one was still where it was. That entire portion should have been handled better, and the only good thing that came out of it was the Kaavaalaa song. 

Yet, the movie was still packaged quite well and could tide over some of these irritants. And one doesn’t have to say much about Rajni’s performance. He still has the suave, the style and his screen presence has not waned despite him clearly being a frail 72-year-old man. There are more slow-motion walks than required and he either wears spectacles or sunglasses throughout. Yet, and much to my own chagrin, I couldn’t but howl at the way he lights up the cigar – his first smoking scene in 20+ years. 

All in all, this is a good timepass movie, and with a better heist segment and slightly better writing of the son’s character, this would have been a must watch Rajni movie. 

P.S.: I wanted to shout “Once more” for the Kaavaalaa song. But seeing the nature of the crowd in the theater, I made a sensible decision not to. 

 

Review of Kaala - No masala

The movie is a classic example of what is wrong with Tamil movies – the promise of a good story and plotline, compromised to accommodate the image of the lead actor and a Director who equally sees himself to be a messiah of sorts.

The movie does have some “mass moments” made for Rajni and he still delivers them with ease. The scene when Kaala and Hari meet is hands-down, the high-point of the movie. Sadly, there isn’t much else of substance except, the second direct meeting between these two. I think the Director basically gave all his focus only to these two scenes.

As you may have heard by now, Kaala is an old Don who is still wielding significant influence with his men in Daravi. Bad politicians are trying to promote the space to build infra projects and Kaala tries to stop it. Rather, stops it. Ho-hum. Seen in too many movies. And will be seen in many more to come too. So, not a new story by any stretch of imagination.

However, the first half of the movie did make you sit up, primarily because of the introduction of a character that comes to help these slum-dwellers. While this too is probably standard, the interesting aspect is that she is a former lover of Kaala. And this fact is known to all and sundry. And we also get to see them interact and make it clear that the past should be left in the past. It was quite a welcome change from the regulation in Tamil movies, where true love means death, when circumstances split lovers. Then, these two are also at loggerheads with the first project that is proposed and you start thinking that, the scorned woman is going to seek revenge. That doesn’t happen and by the time the movie ends, you realize that the only reason for having that character is to show some white skin in an otherwise dark-skinned movie – yet another trap that Tamil cinema can’t get out of. 

Otherwise, you get to see all the standard tropes laid out one after the other. Young kid suddenly being giving advice usually means he is going to be killed or would turn out to be a traitor. Son who is the brawn for the ageing Daddy Don, gets killed. Don’s wife gets killed right after a "cute" scene. Hindu Don offering Namaz. One son who is defiant and others who want to. Etc.

The Director presents the protagonist always in black and the antagonist always in white, when usually it is the other way around. I felt it was a nice touch, but sadly, he ruined it by literally spelling it out in the second one-on-one meeting between these two. And this second scene is almost a replay of the first scene with all roles swapped; in a way it is an interesting premise.

A jarring note in the entire movie is that none of them speak properly. The Director should have concentrated more in fine-tuning the dialogue delivery of Eshwari Rao – her Telugu accent makes its presence above the Tirunelveli slang, thereby dampening an otherwise awesome performance. Like one reviewer said, this is how one portrays innocence. Similarly, Nana being made to talk in Tamizh is equally jarring. Agreed, he’s a Mumbai guy (reel and real) and can speak only broken Tamizh, but once it was decided that it had to be Tamizh, he should have at least spoken it loudly.

One must be really blind to miss the subliminal messaging scattered across the movie. You get to see or hear Buddha, Ambedkar or Bhim in every scene or the other – when the good guys are shown. Characters often say they were born in Bhim Nagar. You also see Ram and Ganesh when the bad guys come up. There was an over-sprinkling of Swastik and Om symbols in Nana’s public meeting. In fact, the lead up to the climax has a parallel scene of the Yudha Kandam of Ramayana being narrated at the antagonist’s house. The message, if it was still not clear, Ravana is the victim and Rama is the perpetrator. The Director also doesn’t leave the chance to splash the screen (quite literally) with his favorite colors of Black, Red and Blue. The end credits also show up anti-NEET protests!

Even if you ignore all these aspects, one cannot miss the shadow of the Tuticorin Sterlite agitation looming large over the movie. This movie was not made after the incident, but there are enough scenes that resemble what happened there.

If you treat this as a mass movie, it fails miserably because the protagonist has not really taken direct revenge on the guy who destroyed his direct family and the extended one in the slum. If you want to treat is a non-mass movie, then it fails even more miserably, because all the tropes of a standard masala movie are presented in abundance and there is an obvious lack of story.

Rajni does get some acting scope and his mass scenes still deliver what his fans expect. So yes, you can watch the movie because it is not in the league of Baba or Sura. But you don’t have to feel bad if you don’t.

Airlift – Lifts your spirit in the air

I watched Airlift at Palazzo Cinemas in Vijaya Forum Mall, on 30^th Jan. The movie, to put it quite simply, was brilliant. Is a must watch for any movie watcher, which in India, is pretty much every other person.

The story is about how a group of people are impacted by events beyond their control, lose their property, are stranded and left to survive on their own, with complete Government apathy and how a a large-hearted individual helps these people reach a safe state. No, this movie is not about the Chennai deluge of December 2015, but rather, it is set in Kuwait, circa 1990, when Saddam invaded Kuwait and portrays a born-Indian-now-Kuwaiti businessman’s single minded dogged pursuit of rescuing 1.7 lakh Indians stuck in Kuwait. This story is inspired by real life events where two people coordinated this entire rescue operation with the help of Government officials in India.

The movie simply revolves around Akshay Kumar, who one has to admit, has done an outstanding job clearly proving yet again, that the brash young Khiladi is now a mature veteran. He is practically present in every scene and looks very much the part.

I believe there is influence of Malayalam cinema in this movie in the form of the co-producer or Director and it is something that is needed. I am sure it helped Akshay emote within limits and helped keep the movie real. There was a scene where he meets with Iraqi minister Tariq Aziz and I don’t remember seeing anyone act with their body like Akshay did; facial expressions are easily done by most, but body-language is not something that everyone looks into and Akshay nailed it here.

The other good thing about the movie was the absence of the pace impeding song-dance-fight sequences. There were a couple of songs in between, but they were more of voice-overs with the purpose of moving the story along.

For a movie that was all about Indians being stranded in what became no-man’s land and where everyone wanted to return back home, there was literally NO jingoism. Possibly the flag-raising sequence at the end was in that territory, but again there was nothing over the top. And it was in fact a genuine scene placement, blending well with the situation.

Another aspect was that despite being an inspired story, the main character was retained as a Punjabi Hindu; possibly Sikh, but not as a Muslim, just to cater to some “class” audience. The Director had abundant opportunity to fit in a Hindu vs Muslim fight in the camp and then getting the main character to give a sermon about the greatness of India, the commonality of religion etc. Admirably, the Director (influenced or not by the Producers) has chosen not to go in that route and focuses only on the logistical challenges that the protagonist faces.

Yes, you can get nit-picky and point out to discrepancies – like Akshay’s stubble pretty much remaining constant over so many days; or the people dancing to Bhangra when mostly they are Malayalis etc. – but I think in the overall context of the movie, these can be excused.

All in all, a great movie and an inspiring story. This is a story, which I wouldn’t have accepted 2 months back. But seeing the numerous Volunteer stories from Chennai floods of December 2015, I can completely understand and accept that at times of great distress, people like Ranjit Katiyal can and do shed their hides, to become extraordinary human beings. 

P.S.: I still wonder why it has taken someone 25 years to make a movie on this evacuation. Were the Khans and chamchas afraid to show Iraq in poor light?

Movie review of PK – It is just PuKe

I happened to watch the movie PK last weekend and with the entire buzz that the movie is generating, I thought I should add my 10 paise with this review. The post is rather long and is more than just a review; it is almost a scene-by-scene narration; enough reason why I can never be a proper film critic. I was watching a Hindi movie on the big screen after many years and realized that maybe that was a statistic that needn’t have been corrected.

Word on one side of the street is that the movie is awesome, with phenomenal acting by Aamir Khan. Word on the right side of that same street is that the movie denigrates Hindus. For once, I don’t think the right side is wrong in feeling offended with what was shown on screen.

Before I get into the bad aspects of the movie, let me admit that the first one hour of the movie is really funny. Come on – when you see a guy pull out a pyjama stuck between the ass cheeks of another man, anyone will laugh. And when the former tries to put back the jammies to the same place where it resided earlier, anyone will be ROFL. If you didn’t laugh, maybe there is something up your ass.

Funny as that scene may have been, what it really means in the context of the movie is how the movie managed to ridicule my belief system and shoved it up my ass with the makers and watchers enjoying the pain.

Now, before I get into how the movie mocked everything that Hindus do, I will first describe why I think this was a badly made movie. That way, hopefully, you will realize why the movie is bad by itself in the first place and then understand how bad it shows the Hindu way of worship.

So, according to the plot, PK is this alien from another planet where the living beings are exactly like the humans on planet Earth. On landing here to research the human race, the alien is instantly robbed and loses his transmitter/locator: ergo he can’t contact his space ship and reach home. What complicates things is that this alien cannot talk because in his planet, everyone communicates by telepathy. The alien also conveys later in the movie that because they communicate by telepathy, they don’t have to speak verbally. Therefore they also don’t lie to each other like humans do – think something and say/act otherwise.

Later on, this alien says that by holding hands of any human being, it will be able to leverage the same teleconnection power and pick up the language skill needed to communicate with the human beings on Earth. With the help of a good Samaritan (sic) portrayed by Sanjay Dutt (ostensibly during one of the many Leave days he gets in Prison – probably more than what Corporates give to employees) the alien connects with a hooker and after 6 hours, of just holding hands, it becomes an expert in Bhojpuri.

Now get this, the alien also picks up one habit of the hooker, which is eating paan. Somehow, of all the knowledge that the hooker has in her brain, the alien is able to pick up just the Bhojpuri vocabulary and the habit of eating paan.

The alien then tells Sanjay Dutt about how someone robbed him and is then advised to go to Delhi in search of the thief and remote. In Delhi, the alien now goes around asking all and sundry about the thief and remote. The irked people either ask the alien if he is drunk (hence the alien now calls himself PK) or keep stressing that only God can help him.

I will now break for some doubts:

Doubt#01: After the alien picks up local vocabulary can’t he understand what “peekay” means? So why should he call himself PK? Couldn’t he tell the humans what his name is? Does he have no name in that planet?

Doubt#02: Typically all life forms undergo evolution. It is safe to assume that even PK’s life form has a similar experience. So in a planet where all life forms communicate to each other through telepathy, wouldn’t it be a natural evolutionary process to lose your voice box? Then, how come PK is suddenly able to speak on planet Earth?

Doubt#03: Then the whole “hold hands” for data transfer aspect. While it may be possible for that mode of communication in their planet, how would it work here?

Doubt#04: As mentioned earlier, how come the alien is able to pick up more than just language – he picks up paan eating habit. Why not other habits? Or thoughts?

We now return to the main show.

Now that PK has been told that only God can help him, he now seeks God. He visits a temple and buys an idol from the shop outside. He realizes that the idol is not God and then questions it to the shopkeeper. Thereafter he goes around from temple to church and also attempts an entry into a mosque.

He obviously doesn’t get the answer he wants and comes to the conclusion that there is a lot of hocus pocus going around. All this information is actually shared by PK to a TV reporter who sees the possibility of a story with this person. However, when he talks about him being an alien she doesn’t really believe him and stops listening to his story. When taking leave she suddenly hears him refer to something she hasn’t told him and is now intrigued.

She takes him along and instantly, they are encountered by an old man asking for alms. PK gives some cash and then gives him a separate note asking him to use it for tips. Basically, with the old man holding PK’s hands and asking for alms, PK is able to understand what the old man is up to. He then moves out and the reporter goes to check what the old man is doing. She sees that PK’s assessment was correct. Instantly, she goes after PK and tells him that she will help him.

Doubt#05: How did this reporter not really bother to think that the entire old man sequence was a setup and simply buys what was played out in front of her?

Doubt#06: PK keeps picking up cash from Dancing cars – when couples are doing it in a car, he just sneaks up and picks the cash from their clothes. That is basically stealing. So apparently, in his home planet, people don’t lie but are not averse to stealing. Nice!

Meanwhile PK is still hunting for his remote and when he walks into an idol making workshop by chance, he makes an earnest plea to God to help him go back. He then goes around town printing posters that say that God is missing. He comes across Lord Shiva (someone dressed in that form for a local play) and confronts him. After chasing him around, PK now enters a congregation run by some Godman.

The Godman has hordes of followers and is propagating his request to build a new temple for Lord Shiva. That request he explains, is because he came across a rare gem in the Himalayas and then shows it to the gathering. PK takes a look and lo behold, that gem is the remote that he is looking for. He asks the Godman to give it but is obviously chased away.

The reporter, Jagat Janani played by Anushka Kohli Sharma, now takes him along to the ashram to confront the Godman. She goads PK to bombard the Godman with all the questions he came up with while trying to understand God. He does that dutifully and the Godman is at unease. JJ then starts filming the interaction surreptitiously to use it for her news report.

JJ then conceives a plan for a show on TV where people can call up a number and tell the channel about all the “wrong number” things happening with their religion. People call up a lot and the program is a big hit. But JJ’s father, who is a big bhakt of the Godman, disowns her and she is upset. They even try to get Daddy dearest on their side with some experiment, but he clearly aint budging.

JJ and PK start living in the same flat and go to office on her bike, visit all tourist places around Delhi. Suddenly, PK is now attracted to JJ and falls in love with her. He also finds out that she was in love with someone and that didn’t work out; all this again by holding her hands for a few minutes. By now, the Godman is upset that his business is down and so a challenge is thrown to PK – confront me on Live TV and we will see who is correct.

Doubt#06: So, PK who first says that holding hands helps him pick up a language, is now able to read thoughts as well. So wouldn’t he also have the thoughts of a hooker in his head?

Before the show begins, PK’s long lost friend Sanjay Dutt calls him to say that he is visiting him with the thief who sold his remote to the Godman. But when the train arrives at the station, there is a bomb blast and PK’s friend and the thief die. PK is shaken up and arrives at the show in a sedate state.

The Godman and PK argue about this and that, watched by a live audience in the studio and countless people outside. PK then drags JJ into the discussion and asks her to narrate how the Godman had ruined her love life, by predicting something about her Pakistani lover while studying college in Belgium. So on Live TV, her love story is narrated and everyone gets to know that on the day she and her Paki lover intended to marry (in a church btw), he didn’t show up. She assumed that he abandoned her and got on with her life.

PK then says that maybe he didn’t abandon her and it was a case of mistaken identity. There was another wedding at the same time and a message meant for the other bride was wrongly handed to JJ and then life took a different route. JJ now sees that possibility and after being encouraged by PK, her TV show producer and stage audience, she calls up the Pak embassy in Belgium.

Doubt#06: This is another example of how bad a journalist can be – she is one who just reacts to what is seen and doesn’t bother to dig deeper.

Now the kind folks at the Pak embassy instantly recognize the JJ has called, conference her Paki lover in Pak and with everyone listening in now, JJ and her lover reunite. The Godman accepts defeat and the remote is handed back to PK.

The movie then pans out to PK going back to the place where he landed and JJ somehow finds out PK is in love with her. But when she questions him indirectly, he lies and she writes in her book, that PK came to Earth with his great thoughts and took our one bad habit that he didn’t have (not eating “paan”, but lying).We get to the end of the movie and there is a blink and you miss appearance by Ranbhir Kapoor.

This completes my movie narration and with some of the Doubts inserted you will see the problems I have with the movie:

1. I haven’t seen a more poorly etched role like that of JJ – a journalist who just cannot ask questions
2. If the Godman indeed predicted that JJ’s lover would ditch her and it did happen, doesn’t that mean that he has powers? Why would you still want to disprove him? Why didn’t you use the same logic with the alien?
3. The alien PK - while Aamir did act well, the character actually didn’t seem to want to go home. The focus was more on helping Earthlings than his need to head home.
4. Also on the acting front – all he did was appear open-eyed. One can convey many emotions by opening your eyes. Anger and Confusion are two such things I can think of easily – but all that he shows is stupidity; which is good, but not necessarily great acting.
5. How did this alien who hadn’t come across the concept of God in his home planet, suddenly start making earnest pleas to the idols – I am sure fans of Aamir are touched by his acting in that scene, but it didn’t suit the character.
6. Basically, the movie didn’t require PK to be an alien. The plot was basically about fish-out-of-water situation and even a regular human being, with possibly amnesia, would have been a better fit.
7. Also, not just the journalist, somehow nobody in the movie seemed to bother about who PK was. Everyone just “accepted” him as is. Even the Godman who was being hounded by this guy, whose business empire was being shattered by this guy, didn’t bother to find out where PK came from.
8. So, you may have laughed a lot, found some funny scenes, seen some decent acting and even heard some questions on religion that you have in mind and are afraid to ask; therefore, you may have come to the conclusion that this was a great movie. However, it was a badly scripted one due to some basic loopholes that I have listed. Let me score some brownie points with Aamir fans and say that I am not complaining about his acting; just that he has starred in a bad movie.
9. But then, should we blame just the Director because the movie was bad? Should we then credit the Directors for all the good movies of Aamir?
10. If the movie didn’t have the pretension of being different and conveying a strong message, I would have ignored all these things. But I get nit-picky simply because it is being hailed as a very great movie.
11. Also, this movie inherits basic concepts and steals scenes primarily from K-PAX, Avatar, Oh My God and Lage Raho Munnabhai.

Now to phase 2 of the review/narration where I try to prove how Hinduism has been ridiculed in the movie.

In the entire movie, you can only see PK making fun of the Hindu way of worship, primarily idol worship. He asks why we have so many Gods. And if you really look at the core sub-plot of PK trying to retrieve the remote from the Godman, he doesn’t really engage in any activity that proves that the Godman is a con. He still questions why God makes you undergo suffering? He asks why God asks you to come to some distant temple.

All the comedy pieces are set only in temples. There is a shot of him going to a church with Hindu based offerings and there, he questions the Christian concept of God and Jesus. Fair deal. But, how come the movie doesn’t show him go to a mosque? They only show a quick shot of him going to a mosque with bottles of wine and he is stopped in the road itself. Chased subsequently, like many other places. So the token references to Christianity and fleeting reference to Islam is done. But the movie can spend about 2 hours focussing on Hinduism? That pretty much defines secularism in India.  

During the whole “wrong number” montages, there is another reference to Christian conversions. But there is nothing really talked about Islamic terror or oppression, other than a one-liner from a girl in burqa wanting to study. But the montage contains many references to the bad elements of Hinduism. Why this discrimination?

When PK goes about sticking posters that God is missing – why didn’t he post anything about Jesus missing or Mohammed missing? Did he already grasp the difference between God and prophet? If he was smart enough to get that, why couldn’t he understand what was going on with Hinduism?

There is also this long drawn scene where he confronts a guy dressed up as Lord Shiva. PK corners him in a public loo and then chases him all over. Which is how he meets the Godman and so as a lead-up to that scene, this may be ok. But do you really have to show Lord Shiva in such poor light? In fact, that actor is supposed to make an entry on stage in some drama and we hear a lady announce that the might Lord Shiva will appear now. We then see Lord Shiva shouting for help, tripping all over the place and run like crazy. Yes it was a funny scene for a 5 year old that has seen similar things in cartoons. Should Lord Shiva be made a caricature on big screen?

Even in the Dravidar Kazhagam School of film making, epitomized in Parasakthi, the protagonist at least mouths powerful dialogues about how he attacked priests in temple, only because he didn’t want the temple to be the residing place of scoundrels. Yes, it was an attack on the Brahmins and priests, but at least, they stuck to the theme of attacking a villainous priest in the movie.

Similarly, in PK, the movie could have actually gone to length to show what a big fraud the Godman was. That wouldn’t have really ruffled feathers and I would have really ignored all the other goof-ups and said this movie rocks. But when you go about calling yourself the epitome of perfection with your movies and make insensitive references to the philosophies of one religion, it just shows how callous a person you are.

Then there is this dialog where JJ remarks that with a name like Jagat Janani she is ruined. Is that really such a bad name? Maybe she thinks Mary or Khadija is a cool name. Or perhaps, prefers the names that Hollywood stars give their children – Apple, son of Gwyneth Paltrow, Coco Riley, kid of Courtney Fox, Destry, kid of Steven Spielberg etc.

To ask a clichéd question – why didn’t you choose to make this movie about PK fighting a Moulvi or a Bishop for that matter? Do you mean to tell me that they are all paragons of virtue who espouse the ideal way of reaching God? Should we pull out statistics of how many paedophiles are there in the Church? Or how many Moulvis are terrorists?  And I am not referring to India, because the defence would be that they are foisted cases.

To sum up this rather long rant, I think the movie was bad on two counts – one for being a badly scripted movie with half-cooked characters and two, for being a vehicle to ridicule Hindus. 

Review of Billa 2 – You will B ill-a.

Review of Billa 2 – You will B ill-a.

Fate often throws a cruel twist in our otherwise mundane existence and I experienced one such twist on Sunday evening – I watched Billa 2. Your condolences are accepted.

The movie is supposedly a prequel to Ajith’s Billa released a couple of years back. I haven’t watched that movie per se, but have heard that it was a “slick” movie – till date I really don’t know what a slick movie is. As a prequel to that movie, this one is supposed to end with the audience being shown who Billa is and how he became what he became.

The problem with most prequels is that, you know the ending. Actually, in the case of 99% of the Indian movies, you very well know the ending. So, it is safe to assume that this movie is going to end with Billa being shown as an overpowering Don. Then the interest only remains as to how he became such a big shot and also as to why he became a Don and not a Software engineer. Sadly, this movie fails miserably to capture that vital essence.

When you have a prequel, a fundamental establishment of fact is the timeline. This aspect has been conveniently ignored throughout the movie. The movie opens with Billa landing in India as a refugee and by the time the movie ends, the timeline would have actually progressed barely 3 months and I am being very kind on the folks behind the camera with that assumption. You are shown Chennai filled with Ambys & Premier Padminis (Fiats) establishing circa of 1980s, but you also get to see vehicles with registration number in the format of TN-45…etc. which came into vogue in the 90s. You also see him toting Oakley sunglasses, something that is barely 10 years old in India, today. He uses a cell phone towards the end of the movie, something that is again late 90s, but his niece remains at the same age (pre-college) forever.

Billa just moves from one job to another literally every scene. He helps smuggle diamonds and is suddenly introduced to a guy wanting to smuggle cocaine. He volunteers for that job and lands up in Goa, successfully of course. Right when he is settling the deal, he opts to help an International arms dealer by bringing a cache of smuggled arms and ammunition from the Government’s Depot (supposedly recovered by the Govt. from that dealer). That too he does successfully by using a reloading shot gun (the kind used by Terminator 2) in the face of an army using sub-machine guns.

There is this thing called blood splatter. It is again very basic science but that too has been let go in the movie, lest Ajith’s face become too gory. You can see him stab the jugular of every other guy and yet not even one tiny squirt of blood. But then, somebody alerted the film crew and so they have added it in some places – a guy gets stabbed in the right and the blood comes out in the left; that kind of post-production quality.

The final action scene in the helicopter is supposed to be something very exciting for a Tamil movie. Billa is fighting a villain in the chopper and they both throw each other into all parts of the chopper. Quite often, they even hang out and manage to come back. They keep banging each other into the cockpit door. But the pilot doesn’t bother to land the chopper and save his boss. Instead, being a sincere sihaamani, he simply keeps flying!!!

There was also a lot of hype in the media about the leading ladies Parvathy Omanakuttan and Bruna Abdullah. Both of them appear in the movie for around 14 minutes and that duration is their sum total. Whenever the latter appears on screen, she is in a bikini and yet one gets the feeling – sorry, one gets no feeling. The former has given a performance that matches Ajith’s performance in the movie. He has a single expression throughout – a look in the face that one could ostensibly get under severe constipation. She, by virtue of possessing a much better looking and younger face, doesn’t have that constipated look; instead she opts for a dead-pan expression that covers a gamut of emotions like happiness, sadness, jealousy and anger.

There was this kidnap and rescue scene of this Parvathy character and that was definitely a WTF moment. The babe is standing in a field with hand and mouth tied. There are some 4-5 snipers hiding a short distance away, clearly to kill Billa. Then 6 cars come from nowhere; circle the girl for some time and one car stops. Billa is in that car and he picks her up. Then 3 cars go in one direction and the other 3 go in the opposite direction. This leaves the snipers confounded and they don’t kill him. Really? 6 snipers couldn’t shoot down 6 cars? Couldn’t they find that one car stop and pick her up? Couldn’t they track that car alone? Or simply, to be safe, shoot all the 6 cars? Yikes!!!!!

At the beginning of the movie, we are also shown a shady Police officer who for some reason speaks in Hindi to Sri Lankan Tamil refugees. The other glaring part was that the movie was that it is rated “A”, but all the cuss words have been muted.  And before I forget, Billa and his associates are all Sri Lankan Tamil refugees whose Tamil  accent is pretty darn neutral from the first dialogue itself!

The good part of the movie is definitely the fact that there is no kuthu song. Even the 1-2 songs that were there in the movie haven’t registered themselves in my mind. The better part of the movie was the scenes shot in Barovia (which incidentally is a fictional place that is worshipped by many an online gamer). But the best part of the movie was that it ended. 

Indian TV ads reviewed - #007 - Airtel Friends

This is a review long due.

Airtel started launching a set of ads late last year, with the target audience being the youth who want to stay in touch with every friend of theirs.
While the series has quite a few variants on this theme, what was probably the best was the one about the kid giving a missed call to the Police. The ad can be seen here:

As a series, the ads were good. Conveyed the message clearly, though they couldnt really come up with too many types of friends in individual ads. The jingle was catchy and so was the original "हर एक friend ज़रूरी है" tagline (though the one in Tamizh sounded quite odd).

Year 2011 retrospective

A quick summary of how/what 2011was for me: 

The good:

1. First Android phone and also a new laptop

2. Inverter installed at home

3. Cleared out a long pending due (Rakhi gift not given for few years)

4. Trip to Bangalore with parents; that too by 1st AC

5. Visited Thanjavur for a team member’s wedding and enjoyed the temple and museum

6. Drastic reduction in the number of purposeless mall visits

The bad:

1. Still single

2. Had to buy new laptop because the old one crashed

3. Clocked some 12K Kms on self-drive to office

4. Didn’t make proper use of the gym

5. Mother affected by some infection or the other

6. A very promising team member died in an accident

The ugly:

1. Still in the same office

2. Anchored a client visit that pretty showed me what my boss and my Company stands for

3. Watched movies like Ra.One, Deivya Tirumagal and Mankatha

4. Met a potential bride who had no qualms in eating non-veg since it helped her career

5. Had bouts of indigestion and general infections

6. I am yet to start writing a book 

Movie review of The Dirty Picture – what is Dirty?

The Dirty Picture is a biopic on Silk Smitha, though the makers of the movie prefer to say that it is just a movie about an item girl in South Indian Film Industry circa 1980. And yet, they have the guts to name the title character, “Silk”, supposedly a take-off on her original name of Reshma.

Since it is a movie about a vamp, there is absolutely no dearth in the skin show from Vidya Balan. And boy has she given us a feast. And for someone who has generally shown more of histrionics on screen, she has been able to carry off this show quite well. But truth be told, her physique is better off not shown.

We don’t have to get much into the story details because it is quite straight-forward. Young girl comes to big city in search of movie chance, ends up becoming an item girl whose in-your-face sexuality becomes a rage, then realises that there is nobody to care for her and finally commits suicide. This is pretty much the story of the original Silk and in fact, many a starlet in the movie industry.

Coming to the good portions of the movie, the best part is easily the dialogues. The first half was filled with lines that packed quite a punch. There are enough double innuendos to keep everyone happy and there are even some straight lines that really hit you. One sample: When a reporter comes to report on Silk’s house, she welcomes him to her one-room shack while taking a bath in her bath-tub right in the middle of the room. She then asks the reporter, “Don’t you want to know about my house?” and he says “When the Devi is giving darshan, why should I write about the temple?” In another instance, she is told to act like she is making love and the Director asks her “Were you thinking about Suryakanth?” She replies, “Why should think of something when I have it!” These may not sound great and you can blame my translation for that. But when you hear it in Hindi and in the context of the movie, you will realise how superb those lines were.

The other good thing about the movie was definitely Vidya Balan’s acting. It is perfectly normal to say that all she did was flaunt a lot of skin, but the sheer brashness with which she carried herself will leave you impressed. And like I mentioned before, she is not one who has ever appeared as a sexy person and so this was clearly out of her zone in terms of the role she essayed. So, definitely, she needs to be given a lot of credit.

The other big names in the movie have also done a pretty good job. There was certainly no hamming on anyone’s part and the overall casting also appeared to be quite good.

I now come to my favourite part of a movie review, the bad stuff. While the screenplay was not as horrendous, like say in Ra.One, there were quite a lot of loose ends that should have been addressed. Let us start with a simple one – the lead character is named Reshma. Now, it may very well be a good name and quite common too, but can you tell me how many Reshmas you know, who come from a village in Tamil Nadu? And that too someone who was born in the 70s?

Moving on to more serious issues, the whole movie is quite vague in terms of timeline. There are vague references to it being the 80s, but a rags-to-riches-to-trenches story cannot simply be narrated without even a cursory title cue that says “a few years later”. At least, if the characters had all aged, I can assume that the Director expected the audience to be intelligent enough to understand that a few years have passed by. But not even one person is shown to have aged – the cinema hero not appearing old can be thought of as a part of his “image”, but what about the producer who discovers Silk? Can’t he at least get a bit of white hair?

I also couldn’t find any concrete evidence on why the lead character suddenly opted to become an item girl. We get to see her try out for a movie chance only once. Then she is offered money to spend some time with an old man in a movie hall. This spurs her on to approach the casting agent and immediately agrees to do an item song. It was not like she came to the big city to become a vamp and so, in the absence of clear ground-work that established her struggles to break into regular roles, her decision to take up dancing sounded quite hollow.

After her first official item song, which is incidentally with the biggest star of the times – Suryakanth – she is shown as having arrived. She goes to a movie hall to watch her movie and the theatre is empty at first. The usher in fact tells her that there would be a crowd soon. Then, just before her song appears, a whole lot of people enter the hall, enjoy the song and then leave the hall when the song is over. If this Suryakanth was indeed a big star, it is shocking to see the movie hall to be so empty at release time. And if the word had already spread about Silk, then interestingly, the “fans” who storm the movie hall somehow don’t realise that their fantasy-girl is sitting right there with them.

In the very next scene, she is seen gloating about her success to the big hero, who for some strange reason is happy that she’s become successful while his movie is clearly not. He even goes to the extent of recommending her to the Director who comes up to discuss his next movie with him. The Director claims to be not interested in sleaze and walks out of the room. Silk is waiting right outside and confronts him – confront in a flirtatious way and not an aggressive manner. Right there she makes a statement that movies sell only because of “entertainment, entertainment and entertainment” and that she, is entertainment! As a punch dialogue it is great, but in the context of her relative inexperience in the movie industry – it is ridiculous. Nobody in the industry, except perhaps those who have strong lineage in it, ever makes such egoistic statements after their first movie.

Another minor fact that has been overlooked is the fact that Stardust has always been only a Hindi movie magazine, whereas it is constantly shown in this movie for reference. Didn’t the movie makers know about Paesum Padam or Bommai? Then there is this character called “Rathna amma”, who appears to be her guardian in the city, but goes missing all of a sudden.

Silk’s relationship with Ramakanth, the brother of Suryakanth, is not clearly defined as well. Did she go after him as retaliation against Suryakanth? Or did she genuinely like him? Or in true movie fashion, did the latter happen as part of the former?

Things move quite slowly in the second half of the movie and slower in the second half of the second half. They could have definitely done away with the song featuring Himesh, especially because it featured him singing a true love song and in contradicting that mood, it had Silk gyrating sexily as ever!

There is also abundance of the Tamil stereotype that an average North Indian sees – every guy in the movie, especially those watching movies or those who are attendants or light boys, are all sporting viboothi! I mean, lot of us do wear it, but not all of us do. There was also this minor irritant in the form of the whole Kanth family appearing in Mallu traditional wear (white silk saree for crying out loud), while they were supposed to be Tamilians.

Yet, I liked the movie and haven’t been able to find that many fundamental glitches. Was it because of the very powerful first half? Or was it because I was able to sympathize with the lead character? Or is it a case of my social sensibilities trying to prove to the world, that this movie has something more than sleaze?

The Silk character says at one point in the movie, that everyone enjoys the dirty pleasure, never accepts it in public and yet, she is the one deemed dirty.  Makes me wonder, if I really like the movie or if I am trying to over-compensate that statement?

Indian TV ads reviewed - #006 - Times of India Chennai Edition

This ad is simply superb.

The ad shows clips of different events that happen around us - typically what you would see in a newspaper. You see a guy holding a newspaper and yet, he is fast asleep.

The ad conveys the message that the reporting in the leading newspaper in Chennai (It is still The Hindu) is quite boring. [It is very much the general perception, though it is also a habit that nobody wants to give up.]

The video clipping has been shot well. And the music - it really puts the listener to sleep.

Awesome ad, though I don't necessarily subscribe to the message being conveyed. 

Indian TV ads reviewed - #005 - Hero Moto Corp

This is the new ad for the "new" company - Hero Moto Corp.

The purpose of the ad is not really to showcase the vehicles made by this company. This ad is more an exercise in re-branding.

The lyrics and voice-over talk about there being a hero within every Hindustani and that the new name for the heartbeat of the nation is Hero Moto Corp.

I am not qualified enough to say if the ad really delivers on the re-branding effort and that is mainly because, the  ad didn't showcase the vehicles made by the company. The ad features so many different plots and barring a couple of them, they don't showcase the vehicles made by the company.

They do show some random set of two-wheelers going around, towards the end of the ad, but I am not impressed.

The other big complaint I have is with the jingle. I am a HUGE fan of ARR, but I felt that his music wasn't anything great. Especially the part where he drags "Ham mein haim Herooooo o ooo" - yikes.

All in all, the ad didn't work for me!

Ra.One Review – makes me want a “Raw” One

As most of you know, I usually don’t watch Hindi movies in the theaters. And even more, I had made it a point not to watch a Shah Rukh Khan movie. But with Ra.One, I decided to make an exception, for the only reason that Thalaivar Rajnikanth appears in it for one scene. I will get to that scene somewhere later in the review.

In my humble opinion, Ra.One is 

Indian TV ads reviewed - #004 - Flipkart.com

These set of ads for Flipkart.com are good.
Ad 1
Ad 2
Ad 3
Ad 4

Fundamentally, these ads serve the main purpose of what is being marketed - benefits of online shopping with Flipkart,com. The best part is that the message is conveyed directly and yet, the ads are funny. Not the ROTFL funny type, but ones that will surely bring about chuckles.
The ads feature kids, who are thankfully, not made to appear as the super smart ones we see in most ads or Indian movies.
On the flip side, there is ample scope for the women to say that the ads are "cute" and "sweet".

I like the ad because it is a series, it conveys its message directly and is a little funny.

Indian TV ads reviewed - #003 - Tanishq Diamond Jewellery

These ads from Tanishq featuring Amitabh and Jaya Bachchan are really cool.

Since there is only so much you can do when it comes to jewellery ads, most of the ads cater only to the emotional aspect - either mushy with young couples or sentimental with family angle.
So, it was quite refreshing to see this first ad and then this follow-up.
It catered to the romantic angle without getting mushy, was funny overall thanks to both AB and JB, talked about the technicalities of the product, indicated that their sales personnel are aware of what they sell and of course, it still stuck to the stereotypes (women always like diamonds and want more of it).

A really good series of ads.

Indian TV ads reviewed - #002 - Tata Docomo

Tata Docomo's latest set of ads with the tag line of "The network that always connects. Everywhere" appear to be good. You can see them all here.

It is not a single ad and is a series featuring some very different situations where one doesn't want to be connected and yet, gets a call. 

You can argue that the "Everywhere" situations shown in the ad are not all places where it is difficult to get calls.  And you are right. This series doesn't show people getting calls while inside an elevator. Or inside a tunnel. But then, even in the heart of the city, sometimes the signal is poor, so we can excuse that aspect. 

However, there are a couple of ads in the series, which seem to be a little offensive. The Tamil guy stopping his wedding ritual to attend a call, didn't look good. Similarly, showing the maid-servant stealing a phone was not in good taste. And the rocking car one, could have been avoided. 

In terms of fun/humor this series of ads are spot on. And it scores even in conveying the main message. A welcome relief from the earlier sets featuring Ranbir Kapoor's stand-up comedy. 

Indian TV ads reviewed - #001 - Bisleri

I am referring to this ad

The ad attempts a twist on the the tag-line/catch-phrase of staying protected with Bisleri.
The thought of doing the twist is good, otherwise the ad would have been quite plain.
But I didn't like the execution.
I wasn't sure if the setting was Arabic (the men looked like ancient Mughals) or Chinese (the dragon was clearly Mongoloid and the paintings shown at the start of the ad looked Chinese).

I didn't like the ad, but didn't hate it either.

P.S.: Yes, I have started reviewing ads. 

Movie review of Mankatha – Ngo…

*************Spoiler Alert*****************

Watched the movie Mankatha with Raghu and his wife, on Saturday evening at Sathyam. Coming as it did barely 24 hours after watching Deiva Thirumagal, I was really hoping to see something good. To know if I did, read on.

This movie is Ajith’s (or should I say Thala’s) 50^th movie and is directed by Venkat Prabhu. Considering the latter’s penchant to break the formula and make urban movies, the former’s status as a crowd-puller and the DMK-family producing and distributing the movie, there was the obvious buzz around it.

The movie opens with the shot of a really open space – almost desert like – with one guy kneeling on the ground and a bunch of Police officers discussing about killing him. They even have some thugs to help them finish off the task in order to escape official scrutiny. The goons are given the go-ahead to shoot and they take aim at the guy, who incidentally is around 20 feet away. Let me now request you to read the first few words of this paragraph again. Please; do it.

So, when the goons are about to take aim, there comes a

Deiva Thirumagal – Movie Review

This movie, Deiva Thirumagal, was released a couple of months back. The Tamil press has been going gaga over the movie and its actors, which finally impressed my mother to want to watch the movie. I couldn’t wriggle out of this one and thankfully, though only momentarily, I was unable to get tickets a couple of weeks back. But with the movie having run its course and with the next mega movie Mankatha being release a couple of days back, tickets for DT were easily available.

Coming to the movie, I just don’t know where to start my rant. I will take up the biggest one first viz., Vikram’s acting. There has been enough promotional material going around the Internet and I was well aware of what the movie was about. I then saw Vikram in the first set of trailers that were released and instantly realised that all the written stuff about his acting was just baloney. My opinion was confirmed after I saw some of the comedy scenes that were telecast on TV. And it got solidified after watching the movie.

He is portrayed as a man whose body has grown

Siruthai Movie review – Sorry.

In my continuing tradition of watching Tamannah's movie in theatres, I watched Siruthai yesterday evening at Sathyam. The movie was released over the Pongal weekend and stars Karthi as the male lead with Tamannanh cast as his love interest.

Basically, the move is a remake of the Telugu movie Vikramarkudu, starring Ravi Teja and Anushka. I have seen bits and pieces of this Telugu movie during the hours of mindless TV surfing I indulge in during the weekends. There was something interesting about the Telugu movie

Enthiran Movie Review

I watched the most anticipated movie of 2010 - Enthiran - at one of the local theatres at Chennai. It was "Rakesh Theatre" an annexe of "Vetri Theatre", Chrompet and the show was at 8 AM! I watched the movie with a couple of my friends from work.

In a nutshell, this movie mainly deals with the conflicts that arise in an Android robot created by a scientist, when he programs the robot to start experiencing human emotions.

That one-liner by itself is something that the Tamil movie industry has not dealt with ever. For that matter, I really cannot think of a Tamil movie that has actually brought science to the forefront, except for the classic variations of mental illnesses like amnesia, schizophrenia etc. The best attempt in dealing with science was perhaps Dasavatharam and that was a movie made only to deal with megalomaniacal needs of one actor, not necessarily to talk about the impact of biological warfare.

Enthiran, on the other hand, deals with Robotics and features Rajni as a scientist who creates an Android (that looks exactly like him), with the aim of introducing such Androids into the Indian Army and save valuable human life. And before he approaches the agency that can certify that the robot is fit enough to be presented to the Armed Forces, he decides to loan it to Aish, his girlfriend, to see how he reacts to the World. And after a few funny sequences and some stupid stunt sequences (they looked better on You Tube), the scientist makes the necessary tweaks and presents it to the agency.

The Board in-charge of granting this permission is headed by Rajni's old professor, Danny Dengzongpa, who is at some level jealous of Rajni and so, ensures that Rajni's robot (named Chitti) does not get the necessary approvals for mass production. The official reasoning given is that, the robot would only follow orders and would not evaluate the emotional aspect of its actions.

So Rajni, starts programming robot to start understanding emotions and lo behold, even the robot realises that Aishwarya Rai (scientist Rajni's girl-friend) is quite attractive. And starts developing feelings of love and affection towards her. That is really where the story starts.

Scientist Rajni again presents the robot to few Army Generals, but the robot starts reciting verses of love. An enraged Rajni then destroys the robot, but the evil Danny goes in search of it in the city's dump yard and restores "life" back to it. Additionally, he gives the robot some negative shades and sets him lose.

Since the robot is now strongly attracted to Aish and has also been given negative traits by Danny, he goes on a mission to abduct Aish and marry her. Along the way, he also manages to create multiple robots like himself and also kills Danny. After kidnapping Aish, there is a rather elaborate sequence where scores of Policemen get killed by the bad robot.

The robot then houses Aish somewhere and tries to convince her to marry him. Scientist Rajni then joins the legions of the robots and tries to sabotage the main bad robot's plans. After a lot of gun-fights, good triumphs over evil and all is settled. The bad robot becomes good again, but the Judiciary orders that it be dismantled. After a poignant speech by the robot, it is laid to rest.

Parts of the story may evoke strong similarities to many Hollywood movies, primarily to Bicentennial Man (which incidentally was released 10 years ago and that is the same 10 years ago that Director Shankar claims to have conceived this movie)!

Now that story narration is done, here are my observations about the movie, covering both the good and the bad, in no specific order:

- Fundamentally, this is not your typical Rajni movie. If you want a Sivaji or a Padaiyappa or even a Chandramukhi type of movie - don't watch Enthiran.
- While it is not a Rajni movie, it is not a proper science fiction either. There are way too many loose ends with the Android and I cannot accept that the robot can be simply programmed to learn emotions in just a couple of weeks.
- The special effects in the movie are good. Then again, it is not at current Hollywood levels for sure. I think the blame for it should not go to technology, but more to the ideation process.
- Rajni the villain is just amazing. We badly need to see him again in a strong negative role. The "black sheep" scene was just awesome.
- Rajni has also completely under-played himself in the role of the scientist. Absolutely no mannerisms, catch-phrases etc.
- Aishwarya Rai looks stunning. And she dances really well, especially in the "Boom Boom Robot da" song.
- The music was quite good and the songs were well picturised. The "Kaadhal Anukkall" song has been shot in an amazing location - some desert that has a stream of water in the middle. Rajni and Aish are the only ones on screen and they are wearing clothes that blend with the location. On the contrary, in the "Kilimanjaro" song, there are way too many group dancers and the costumes are also quite loud. The song has been shot in Machu Picchu, Peru. I felt that the whole loudness of the song and costumes, did not allow the viewer to enjoy the beauty of Machu Picchu.
- The robot is supposed to get charged by using just 2 units of power (1 unit = 1000 Watts per hour). But when the bad robots are all near empty on energy, they simply plug into the batteries of various cars and get full power before you can say WTF. Similarly, in an earlier sequence, the robot charges itself by connecting to a high-tension current from a transformer box.
- The scene that has been setup to prove that while a robot can do amazing things (like rescuing people caught in fire), it cannot react to the emotional needs of people (one of the people caught in the fire is a girl who was having her bath and is hence nude and shouldn't have been brought in public in the same nude state).
- The scene with the robot talking to a mosquito - idiotic.
- Most of the songs have been squeezed into the second-half and sadly, the drag was felt.
- The epilogue of the movie was quite interesting, with a couple of good dialogues. There was an earlier instance too - when the main characters talk about why it is impossible for a machine and human to be married. This scene did not carry the necessary bite and fell flat, primarily due to very bland dialogues.
- The robot's initial interaction with the real world was quite good. Quite a lot of humor was thrown in and they did evoke quite a few guffaws.

In the overall level, I would only give it a 2.5/5. Yes, from now on, my movie reviews are going to get rated.


P.S.: A quick note on the theatre, since I have a feeling that it may have affected my perception of the movie. It was 25 rows long and just wide enough to seat 14 people with a narrow aisle in the middle. The screen was from wall to wall, so you can imagine what a telescopic vision I had of the screen. The fans on the side were actually blocking the end of the screen!
When the first "romantic" scene between Rajni and Aish came up, someone in the audience shouted "Thalaiva, Khabardar", in reference to the speech that Rajni made during the audio launch.
At the very end of the movie, a bunch of school children are shown walking around a museum where the dismantled robot is kept and one of the girls (featured in too many ads and has acted in the movie Sillunu Oru Kaadhal) talks to the robot. The same voice in the audience now yelled "Thalaivaroda adutha pada heroine ready"!

Thillalangadi Movie Review - The-ill-all-and-kadi movie

This movie is really bad. Easily one of the worst I have seen in recent times. Horrible direction. Pathetic editing. Absolutely hideous music. And totally over-the-board acting by everyone. I haven't seen much of Jayam Ravi's movies, but I can say for sure that he is not at all suited for comedy.
The only saving grace of course, for infatuated souls like mine, is watching Tamannah on the big screen.