Thani Oruvan - Fantastic

Thani Oruvan, Jeyam Ravi’s third movie this year. He teams up with his brother again, but this time not for a remake. It was surprising and exiting to see m something original from Raja.

It's a story of good vs bad, Ravi vs Arvind, cat and mouse game in which Arvindsamy was one step ahead of Ravi all the time. The chase gets interesting and thrilling frame after frame.

This is one movie where we didn't see many cliches. A charming villain without a six-pack. A love track which doesn't makes you yawn. A heroine character, for a change, which wasn't a comes-in-goes-exotic-location-dances-and-leaves character.

And, the casting and performances were excellent. Jeyam Ravi looked perfect as an IPS officer and Nayantara with an matured performance. But, the man who steals the show was Arvindsamy, a terrific, brainy, cool and suave villain. And a special mention to Thambi Ramaiyah where the director brilliantly infuses comedy into the movie with his character.

This is one movie in recent times where every department clicked. Direction, editing, cinematography, music everything was at their best. SuBa has done a wonderful job with the dialogues and the screenplay. This is their best work for me after Ayan. I really wonder how this combo didn't work well with Shankar in I. “Nalladhu mattume pannanum na KADUVALALA kooda mudiathu”, “ Love at first sight, kill at first betrayal”, few best dialogues and comes out of Villain Arvindsamy’s mouth.

The only thing which could have been different was Ravi gets to know Arvindsamy easily where no one else knows his real face. The way he came to know about his real face could have been told in a different way.

Thanioruvan is one movie in a long time where I didn't look at my watch even though it ran more than 2 hours and 30 minutes. It was like reading an interesting novel, but you wish it never ends. I wish they made this in two parts, where Siddharth Abimanyu wins in this and Mithran comes on top in the second part.

Raja as a director proves his worth with this after a series of remake. And, after two nonsense films this year Ravi also proves his capability. One of the must watch movies of this year.

My Rating - 4.0/5.0.

Scion of Ikshvaku - Amish Tripathi

The title itself was bit like a tongue twister, I heard the name more than once in the trailer they released before the book.

Author Amish Tripathi has found a formula like CB to write his books. For CB its friendship and love, Amish has chosen to rewrite the mythological stories. After his successful Shiva Trilogy, he is back to retell the most famous epic of our country Ramayanam. After Shiva he had chosen Ram this time. And, this one is like a prequel to Shiva Trilogy.

This book was nowhere near his first book of Shiva Trilogy, Immortals of Meluha, IMO. Shiva trilogy was brilliant he brought all the famous characters like Parvathi, Ganesh, Murugan, etc we know into the story beautifully with his own imagination. And, his first book of Shiva trilogy was page turner and took me to that era instantly. Scion of Ikshvaku didn't give me the same feel, this maybe because we are too familiar with the characters even though I haven't read Ramayanam before. But, some of the characters, like Lakshman's wife Urmila, was interesting to know since I didn't know much about her before.

In this book Ravanan was already a villain for Ram's father Dhasrath, he defeated him in a battle on a day where Ram was born. Ram had a tough time growing up since everyone hated him for his father's first defeat in his lifetime. I really liked Bharath character, I always felt like he's going to turn against Ram any moment, but he didn't. Amish didn't change much in his character or in Lakshman's.

The initial portions were very slow and it started to interest me only after the introduction of Sita's character. Once again Sita was a powerful female character just like Sati in Shiva trilogy.  Sita's introduction scene followed by Sita's Swayamvar where Ram wins obviously and a fight in which he defeats Ravanan's soldiers using a biological weapon were exciting parts to me. He exiles himself voluntarily for using this weapon against the law.

There was a reference to Delhi rape incident where Ram's own law was unable to punish the juvenile even though the victim was like his sister. Which didn't add anything to the story.

Ravanan was said to be a demon king in this as well. I don't think he's a demon, he is just a man with extraordinary talents than a normal human being. This book ends with introduction of our favorite character Hanuman and Ravanan kidnapping Sita.

I think there will be two more books in this series, I just hope he makes it more interesting. Also, I am interested in knowing what happens to Ram and Sita after Ram defeating Ravanan, will there be "Agni Paritchai" and also more about Urmila.

Puli Audio - Except Yendi Yendi, others Yenda Ipdi

Puli - One of the much awaited movie of this year for various reasons. Director Chimbudevan's music sense is well known and songs were always the weakest link in his movies so far. And, when its announced that DSP will be scoring the music, the expectation for this album has hit a very low to me. But, to my surprise the first teaser of Yendi Yendi was really good, and made us look forward to this album, maybe because Vijay's movies always manages to get good songs irrespective of the Music Directors.

Yendi Yendi - The only song which stands out from this album. Beautifully sung by Vijay, who's getting better in his singing in every movie, and Shrutihasan, who doesn't need any introduction. It's a beautiful melody and the guitar portions really stands out and this really doesn't like a song from DSP.

Yenda Ipdi - I wanna ask this question to our Rockstar DSP on hearing other songs. Even though each song has some really good singers like Mano, my favorite Chinmayi, Shankar Mahadevan and Tipu couldn't save any songs. Each and every song sound terribly old and the way the male voice sings in Mannavane really sound horrible to me. Jingiliya, Mannavane, Sottavala sound the same, except for that tribal sound in Jingiliya.

I thought DSP's bad album in Tamil recently was Singham II, this one was much similar to that. I really feel this film must have provided him with ample opportunities to experiment and try out different stuffs, but DSP sticks with his tried and tested boring songs and familiar sounds.

DSP's latest Telugu release, Srimandhudu, is much better than this, atleast it has some three songs I liked (Charuseela, Jatha Kalise, Jago). One of the worst album for a Vijay movie in recent times and as far as Chimbudevan is concerned this is much like his any other movies. Expected a different kind of songs for a movie which claims to be different, DSP and Chimbudevan disappointed big time.

Rating - 1.0/5.0. A boring, outdated album.