Sunday, September 03, 2006
Vettaiyadu Vilayadu
VV is a successful film because it has some really important things going for it. And for this reason I admire it. I also salvage some dignity by insisting that my qualifiers to this praise are not forced, to feign some sort of neutrality: I actually like the film.
Most Tamil films enter that phase in their production where lab dates and release dates give people heart attacks. This film too, (from what I have heard) unfortunately fell prey to the demon that plagues Tamil cinema post-production. As a result, the grading and the sound mix are rubbish. Not that it had any great cinematography or premixes to even start with.
The strength is the screenplay, which is not tight, but certainly engaging. The direction of actors is for once in Tamil cinema, a factor to even consider, if not to mark for praise. The performances of all actors including Kamal, helps tremendously in 'engaging' in the screenplay. Gautham could even have cut down a bit of flab off it considering his ability to extract excellent stuff from his actors. Nevertheless, the platform he has created for these performances is straight out of the American Television 'textbook' (the widescreen HD sort anyway). This is probably the biggest 'affectation' he suffers from; but for Gautham, the roving camera, and the staccato cuts are borrowed devices of a grammar he understands really well. He thus saves himself from a 'pretentiousness' tag.
Indian filmmakers have always been lazy enough to make 'lifts', while it appears Gautham is instead trying to seek the reason for the boringly pervasive success of slick Hollywood productions. And if he finds consistent success, he will surely get more people thinking of Tamil cinema as a larger investment destination.
Kamal Hassan is paunchy and balding, and Jyothika is sagging, wide and unpainted— the stuff Tamil cinema does not have the expertise to hide, but the temerity to be in denial of. Gautham has slyly piped up and pointed out that the king is indeed naked; while appropriating for himself a great deal of respect for doing so. Another stumbling baby step towards better Indian cinema.
For trivia and goofs, please go elsewhere.
Comments to Vettaiyadu Vilayadu
Easily one of the worst movies tht i've ever seen.No two ways about this.
Find some good stories guys!!!!
vijay
(movie buff ....n yes another aspiring filmmaker!!!:-))
posted by 
Amen to that Vijay
posted by 
Suresh ET
A bloody sensible review if ever there was one....awesome buddy...movie was okay...new in many angles, decent portrayal of the New york segment and brave decision to stick to English with Tam subtitles atleast we dont need to find Delhi Ganesh settled in the US as the long lost uncle again...
posted by Unknown
the thechnical aspects are good..thats a welcome change...
But overall the movie sucks.... certainly not for Kamal
posted by
VV does leave me with a sense of deja vu of 'Kakka kakka' - Kamal has downplayed his emotions to such a level, that one doesnt get the feeling that he is acting! the best part IMO, is the way the Kamal-Jyotika angle has been handled! very very very mature for a Tamil movie! and Daniel Balaji has given a stunning performance
the movie has the overall brooding, dark, grave feel/sheen and look that is required of its storyline - but Harris Jeyaraj's BGM is at times, B grade TV serial stuff, while at times v.v.good, while at other times, he just doesnt seem to know what to compose for certain scenes/situations
and another sore point IMHO, is the sometimes- unnecessarily tacky way of hastening shots - it is the screenplay that ought to be fast-paced and not just the camera movement/editing! the best example is that of "Apoorva Sahodharargal" which had a racy screenplay and did not have any of the tacky technical unwanted glitz!
the interactions between Anderson and Kamal in the US have been well-thought of and executed - but once they stumble upon the bad guys, the thrill element went amiss! - since it became all too evident that the chase would carry them on to India and the confrontation as well, I expected a much more creative way of narration during the last 25 min!
any well-executed 'whodunit' story needs to keep the viewers on razor's edge by the sheer pacing of the screenplay with twists and turns, development of characters and also the performance - the latter two elements were perfect in the movie, but the screenplay beyond a certain point lacked the twists that I expected - to give an example here, the 1980s 'Tik tik tik' or even the slickly made 'Kalaignan' had interesting screenplay components, with 'kalaignan' having a disappointing last 15 min, while 'tik tik tik' was good all the way, but still failed to impress audiences
IMHO, Gautam could have perhaps recruited the talents of Sujatha or maybe Randor Guy to straighten out the edges from the final screenplay which would have carved out a classic whodunit movie!
I found the subtleties of Kamal's acting immensely satisfying and also he does look fit in that khakhi uniform and is quite agile!
posted by
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