Friday, March 14, 2008

Anjaathe

It’s been long since I saw Anjaathe and decided to write about it. So I have forgotten a lot of what I initially had planned to write. Even after hearing raving reviews of the film, I wasn’t expecting too much from the movie and it turned out to be a surprisingly enjoyable experience overall. It has been quite a while I really enjoyed watching a movie. Despite few glaringly stupid moments (like the one where a cop explains to his team that they have been fooled by the villains by leading the police away from them in a totally opposite direction by letting the police “track” them via their mobile signal), the movie had quite a few ORIGINAL scenes which were kind of totally unexpected. Well, at least not something that you would normally expect in a Tamil movie. While the story, admittedly, is not entirely different, the treatment is quite refreshingly new for a tam film. In particular, the scene where all you see on the screen is just the legs of the actors. Well, this movie does it really, unlike Billa, which according to many "has taken tam cinema to Hollywood level".

The film as a whole packs a lot of surprises in terms of scenes as well as the actors chosen for the different roles. Especially Prasanna’s performance was pleasantly surprising, his terrible wig notwithstanding. One look at that horrible wig, it dawns upon you this is a film is a damn low budget one! While all that he does almost throughout the first half of the film is to just stand, head hanging down and those odd strands of that eccentric wig falling all over his face, you see him slowly transform into a totally convincing villain in the later half. That too, without raising the decibel levels and without any punch dialogues. I wonder whether Naren really “acted”, because he was bumbling in a program on Sun Music, just as he was in the movie.

And it seems Mysskin has a penchant for yellow sari: Malavika was in yellow in Vaala meenukkum and the girl in Kathaazha kannaala also is decked up in the same color. The climax was a real thriller… cat-mouse game set in a sugarcane field. A lot lot better than the supposedly “the most thrilling cop flick of 2007” – Vettaiyadu Vilayadu, which was absolute crap. That said, the film could have done without the portion that extends for really longgg after Prasanna is killed. Again, unlike VV, which had possibly the worst ever BGM for a thriller, the background music of Anjaathe was a lot intelligent and interesting. The songs weren’t bad either; at least you feel that way once you see the movie.

Equally entertaining was the crowd at Mayajaal with lots of hilarious comments all through the movie. Here’s few that I remember: When Naren washes his hands on receiving a call while eating (as we typically see in a lot of movies) “Deii… yenda enthiruchu poi kai kaluva maatiyaa? Antha saapada vera yaaravathu saapduvaangalla..” And when Ponvannan tells Naren that they will go to his house and change clothes and then go… “Appavae sonnen shirt romba gabbadikuthu… thovaichu podu nu… paaru ippa ivanum athaae thaan solraan…” And finally, my dear roommate’s gem for the opening scene where the camera is almost on the ground focusing on the clouds above for a long time… “Windows XP!!!”

3 comments:

Unknown said...

Dei Jumbak,

Am commenting again, even though u didnt approve my comment for one of ur earlier post :P Good review, thou I havent seen the movie yet..you didnt mention anything abt the heroine..but y that frustration over VV?? I still feel VV is a much better movie compared to stupid ones like ATM and pazhani...if u want real quality movies i suggest u watch veerasamy !!

Anonymous said...

sk.. ungalukku vayasu ayiduchu!!! "the treatment is quite refreshingly new for a tam film. In particular, the scene where all you see on the screen is just the legs of the actors".. this was absolutely ridiculous. i know y u liked that scene ;)
-PJ

Anonymous said...

Good review but waste of time