Mayakkam Enna (2011)

The Plot
The film is about a struggling photographer Karthik Swaminathan aka 'Genius'.  He aspires to become a wildlife photographer. He has a sister and a loyal group of friends. His life is sustained by his close friend Sundar. They spend their free time drinking like hell.

Sundar's date Yamini falls for Karthik and his moody ways. Karthik struggles with Yamini because he feels he is betraying Sundar and his friendship, though he too has feelings for her.

Finally Karthik and Yamini marry each other, after Sundar comes to know of this. Karthik also faces a major betrayal from an ace photographer whom he treats as his guru. He doesn't handle this betrayal properly and becomes increasingly eccentric and psychotic.

His wife Yamini bears all his mood swings and tolerates him. She loses a lot. Finally Karthik gets his big break and makes it big as a wildlife photographer. He dedicates his success to his close ones and the movie ends like "A Beautiful Mind"

Hits

• Dhanush shows myriad shades of his talent. Particularly after he tastes defeat, anguish and becomes frustrated, eccentric and psychotic, he soars on a really high plane. His best show till date that combines all his previous quality works.
• G.V.Prakash gives the best ever BGM for a Tamil film in a long long time. The film will have repeat value just for his BGM. His songs have become huge hits long time back. G.V.Prakash is slowly but surely becoming Tamil cinema's numero uno. Each of his movies has his trademark brilliance. What a talent. Almost the entire movie has his stamp of mesmerizing brilliance. 
• Richa starts performing brilliantly after she gets married to Dhanush. Towards the end, the way she portrays her pain and her solidarity towards her husband, is top notch. In the first half she is plain, grim and very serious
• The other characters like Karthik's friends, Sundar's father, the egoistic photographer etc. have all added weight to the movie. 
• The photography and the cinematography by Ramji, are a real treat to the eyes.
• Reality all over. No shades of heroism in the hero's character
• Good attempts at animation in the Oda Oda song. 
• A beautiful message about following what your heart says and persisting at it. The struggles that Karthik faces have been shown very truly. 

Comments

• Moves at an unhurried pace. Though never boring for a matured audience. 
• The way that Karthik gets his big break, seems a bit far fetched
• The movie has shades of "A Beautiful Mind" particularly in the second half. 

VERDICT

Selvaraghavan makes a return to what he does best - highly intense and emotional human dramas. A beautiful movie for a mature audience. 

Thulluvadho Ilamai (2002)

The Plot
A bunch of school kids in their teenage, go through the hard realities of life like sexual infatuation, drug addiction, parental pressure at home and lack of proper guidance. Each of these kids has some sort of problem from their parents at home.

They flee home at a stage and don't inform anyone at school either. They encounter a lot of difficulties and 2 of these kids even have sex with each other in the heat of the moment without any thoughts about their future.

In the end, they decide to go back home and their school principal advises their parents about how their lack of proper guidance had made their kids flee home and embarrass everyone. The movie ends on a positive note about the need for parents to handle their kids carefully between the crucial years of 15 to 18

Hits

• Yuvan Shankar Raja's cult songs. Each of them is an evergreen hit. But the picturization of a few songs border on vulgarity. Commercial compulsions I guess. 
• Vijayakumar's strong character role. He takes the cake in the climax
• Sherin looks like a billion bucks. She oozes sensuality, sexuality and no wonder her classmate loses his mind seeing her. The long hair, the seducing eyes and her voluptuous structure are a real delight that made her a sensation at the start of the 21st century. 
• Abinay acts well as the student Vishnu. He is a talent gone wasted sadly

Comments

• Dhanush's first movie. He looks insanely thin and doesn't show one shade of the superstar that he is today. His mustache getup is absolutely funny. 
• Ramesh Khanna stands out like a sore thumb in a very young cast. His usual antics are partly impressive 

Misses

• The sexual angst of students at this age is understandable. But, things go overboard at times. Could have been curbed a bit. Soft porn effect so to speak. 

VERDICT

The movie that launched Dhanush and Selvaraghavan. Has a mix of sleaze and message, and of course the heavenly Sherin. 

Pudhupettai (2006)

Whats it about:
This movie tracks the life of a gangster Kokki Kumar. How he gets into it, how he slowly picks up the tricks of the trade, how he becomes big, how he gets consumed by his greed and lust for power and how he settles in life finally.
     Kumar leaves home fearing for his life after his mom gets killed by his dad. He accidentally gets mixed up with Anbu's gang. He gets into the drug business initially and slowly becomes a dreaded gangster thanks to his expertise with the sword. He kills Murthy's (another big gangster) brother. He goes to the extent of even killing his father for his mother's sake.
     He has an affair going on with Veni, a prostitute. At the same time he also marries Selvi, his friend's sister in a bizarre wedding. Later he marries Veni too learning about her pregnancy.
    He isn't able to control his urge for power and he kills Anbu and heads the gang in no time. He works for Thamizhselvan, a politician. He helps Thamizhselvan many times and but he is refused an MLA seat. His reaction at this, irks and pisses off many.
   He loses Veni and escapes with his baby. He drops off the baby safely and returns to finish off all his remaining enemies and just when we believe he is about to be hung, he is taken away by the ruling party and he joins the party as a replacement for the very same Murthy that he killed.

                                                                   
Hits

• YUVAN. One of his all time best scores. His BGM is scintillating, mesmerizing and suits the mood of the film perfectly. It enhances the movie. That too, the title credits score is something out of the world. And the songs are all cult classics. No need to elaborate more on these songs :)
• Dhanush scores big time too. Initially as the afraid young kid and later as the ruthless and lusting gangster. All expressions are so easy for this national award winning actor. 
• Sneha as the helpless prostitute gets our sympathies. 
• All the other characters coming as gangsters also look and play the part. 
• The action scene with the sword in the first half is classy. But the same sword fight in the climax becomes too unbelievable. 
• The scenes showing how Kumar gets into the gangster world are so full of impact. 
• The final sequence showing Kumar becoming a politician is a nice spoofy take. 

Misses

• Kumar's transition to a feared gangster becomes too soon and abrupt. 
• Some of Kumar's greed and lust doesn't gel with the movie. His marriage with Selvi is one such ridiculous sequence. 
• Dhanush's pencil thin frame doesn't make him look like a gangster though he more than makes up for it with his perfect lingo, body language and expressions. 

VERDICT

With some more fine tuning, this Selvaraghavan film could have become an unanimous favorite.