Gangs of Wasseypur 2 review

3 / 5

Gangs of Wasseypur 1 introduced us to the various characters that are involved in this revenge saga. The first part ended with Sardar Khan being brutally shot by Ramadhir Singh’s camp.

The second part takes off from here and we see the next generation of Khans relentlessly try to take revenge on Ramadhir and his gang. Faizal Khan, the second son of Sardar, is the kingpin and he is this menacing man who is always smoking ganja and slowly makes his presence felt, as things go out of hand. At a point there are talks of truce between the two warring clans but soon all hell inevitably breaks loose and we witness more and more dead bodies accumulated.

This revenge saga has been done very stylishly thanks to Rajeev Ravi’s deadly cinematography which is edgy, raw and captures the movie’s dark vibrancy perfectly. The chaste dialogs are a bit tough to understand but they sparkle with humor and catchy lines. The references to Bollywood stars, the film craze and the scene when Faizal deliberates about the name Definite are very enjoyable.

The music by Sneha Khanwalkar is another major plus. They go along with the movie’s flow and often come during the deadly chase scenes and gritty bloodbath. Anurag Kashyap’s ease at using songs in an innovative manner is already well known. G.V.Prakash’s BGM is terrific in the climax particularly.

There are many interesting characters in this bloodbath in the form of the crazily named Perpendicular (Faizal’s younger brother), Definite (Faizal’s step brother) and Tangent. We also have Mohsina (Huma Qureshi), Faizal’s luscious wife. The rest of the characters are aged versions of what we saw in the first part including an old Ramadhir, Sardar’s two wives and his other loyalists.

But it is the delightfully characterized Perpendicular who makes the best impact in a short role. Definite also has a very substantial role and he is styled like Salman Khan from Tere Naam. Nawazuddin Siddiqui carries the movie on his slender shoulders and he occupies majority of the screen space. He is a real firebrand and in the scenes when he is with his ladylove he shows his rustic romantic side. He is one to watch out for. Huma Qureshi is the charismatic female lead and she is very sexy despite never resorting to skin show. Richa Chadda and Reema Sen as the ageing wives don’t have much to do with Richa having comparatively better screen space.

Expletives fly around in scene after scene and the violence is also truly brutal. The balance between style and violence is skewed towards the latter in the climax in particular. This movie is definitely not for the weak hearted people who can’t munch violence. But, for the people initiated to Tarantino and Scorsese, the violence is pretty enjoyable thanks to the making. There are many such tense encounters where the gun dominates. These scenes are arresting. On the downside, the movie is long, there are too many characters and English subtitles could have been added.

To conclude, Anurag Kashyap has presented a bloody stylish revenge saga which has been innovatively released as two parts within a space of just two months. Ram Gopal Varma failed with Rakta Charitra which was another similar attempt but Anurag delivers thanks to his stylish presentation of the most primitive human instinct – revenge.   

VERDICT: This bloody finale to the revenge saga exudes style and raw energy

What more could have been done with Mankatha and Aaranya Kaandam

Music is an integral part of films, be it international movies or our own Indian movies. But, what is termed as music here and there is vastly different. 

While English and other foreign language movies treat music as a strong background element and have song and dance routines very rarely, our desi films trump for songs and dances in film after film. Background music is a part of our films as well but the importance given to commercial exploitation of background music scores is very very sparse. 

We do have a few theme music bits appearing in some music albums of our films but we have never seen an album dedicated to the OST (Original Sound Track) of an Indian film, unlike Hollywood films where the OST scores of Ennio Morricone, Hans Zimmer, James Horner and Clint Mansell to name a few, are strong collectors’ items among movie buffs. The OST of The Dark Knight movies have their own cult following. 

Some of our Tamil films have excellent BGM scores. Recently Yuvan in particular has done terrific RR (re-recording) for movies like Katradhu Thamizh, Billa, Mankatha, 7G, Kaadhal Konden, Raam, Pudhupettai and the recent Aaranya Kaandam, to just name a few. 

The famous theme music bits of Billa and Mankatha found a place in the music albums as well and also in the ringtone lists of the mobile operators. But, anyone who has seen the above mentioned films of Yuvan would aver that these films had terrific BGM scores fit enough to be released as a separate OST album.

The music albums of Pudhupettai and the recent Mugamoodi have been peppered by many good theme music bits. But these are more the exceptions than the norm. Pudhupettai’s BGM score in fact had many more gems in addition to the themes in the music album. There were rumors that the OST of Aaranya Kaandam would be released officially but there has been no action in that regard.

Hardcore fans of the composer do manage to record these BGM bits from all these films and share it online. The quality is not any great though. But, if these tracks are released officially in good quality with catchy track names, am sure there are people who would be ready to pay money and buy them. 

Not only Yuvan, masters Ilayaraja, Rahman and other current day hotshots like Harris (in movies like Kaakha Kaakha, Vettaiyadu Vilaiyadu, Vaaranam Aayiram to name a few) and G.V.Prakash (in movies like Mayakkam Enna, Aadukalam and Deivathirumagal) have also dazzled with their RR in various movies. Isaignani is a cult in this area. Just imagine if someone had the foresight to release the BGM scores of Ilayaraja or Rahman as a separate OST album. Fans would lap it up. Same with the other composers and their fans. 

All it takes is some initiative from some of the big audio labels in the industry. In their quest to present new albums, they can definitely look to offer OSTs of some of the best films to the audience who are always looking for quality entertainment.

There would be two music launches for every film. One (the songs release) prior to the film’s release and the other (the OST release) post the film’s release. This is assuming the composer has come up with an outstanding BGM score for the movie. 

A sub-revenue stream would open up for the music industry.

Konjam Koffee Konjam Kaadhal music review

2.5 / 5

Konjam Koffee Konjam Kaadhal

Director: Venky

Producer: Ganeswar Tripathy and Venky

Music Director: Phani Kalyan

Cast: Hridayaraaj, Aditi, Revathi Menon, Nassar

The audio of K4 was recently launched by Kamal Haasan. Another young team embarks on its journey with this romantic movie. The hero, Hriday, was one of the young sons of the lead pair in Mani Ratnam’s Bombay while the heroine is another newcomer. Composer Phani Kalyan is another protégé of A.R.Rahman’s KM Music Conservatory.

Kaadhalae ... thumbs up

Prasanna, Neha Nair

This is a pleasant and lilting melody with mellifluous vocals by both the singers. Both the instrumental interludes are unique. While the first interlude has western opera touches the second one is classical. Neha Nair might give the likes of Shreya Ghoshal a solid run for their money. 

Konjam Koffee Konjam Kaadhal ... thumbs up

Suchit Suresan, Snigdha Chandra, Ranina Reddy

Straightaway the energy levels are set with the rock and roll jazzy style of the song. The song has more than a slight resemblance to Sillunu Oru Kaadhal’s title song. This is an experimental genre of song that is not generally tried in Tamil cinema. The instrumentals are typical of other songs in the ‘Blues’ genre and a pat to all the energetic singers. 

Uyir Thozha ... thumbs up

Nivas, Gayathri SG, Shakthishree Gopalan, Phani Kalyan, Abhay Jodhpurkar

This song is reminiscent of rock songs with inspirational lyrics. The instrumentals are typically heavy with the guitar being very prominent. The vocals and instrumentals also have a slight classical touch at places giving the song a nice fusion touch. An innovative cocktail, this number is.

Sakkarakatti ...

Yazin Nazar, Pooja

The piano instrumentals at the start set the mood for the song. It turns out to be a decent melody with the vocals falling a bit short. We expected more after the beautiful opening instrumentals.

Sakkarakatti(Dance Mix) ...

Phani Kalyan, Ranina Reddy

A remix of the earlier duet which has the general techno elements associated with other remixes. Its foot tapping and serves the purpose expected of a remix.

Adi Thaahira ...

Sathya Prakash, Sharanya Srinivasan, Swara Swami

This song doesn’t make much of an impact with just the chorus bits adding some mischief and fun elements to it. The lyrics of this passable number give friendship some brownie points.

I Love You ...

Mann Taneja

Such mushy songs are generally a part of candy floss Hindi rom-coms. This one is short and entirely in English. A feel-good one.

VERDICT: The songs are perfect for a movie in the romance genre. The focus has been on feel-good songs and Phani Kalyan is another promising newbie on the block. Worth a shot for the energetic title number, the innovative Uyir Thozha and the lilting Kaadhalae.

Jism 2 review

0.5 / 5

There was a fair bit of buzz on Jism 2 prior to release thanks to just one name, Sunny Leone. The hot promos and posters offered fair bit of titillation and ensured that there would be some footfalls at the theater on the release weekend. Does the actual movie live up to the promise of an erotic thriller?

There is fair bit of erotica thanks to Sunny Leone’s prior professional expertise. Her clothes are extremely sexy and she carries it with the expected ease. The male populace is sure to drop their jaws in awe while those who are already initiated to Sunny Leone won’t find her ‘dare to bare’ act that shocking.

Sunny flaunts her tits in blazing costumes. The bikini or some fashionable lingerie are the only piece of clothing on her. Even in the few scenes, when she decides to dress up more, we get to see her bulging boobs in tight tops or her hot legs in micro-mini costumes. There are even scenes of a topless Sunny Leone but we don't get to see her frontal boobs. It is alas an Indian film. For people who want to see a nude Sunny Leone, she has her own site where she lets out XXX videos in amazing quality. :-)

The 2 male leads have enjoyed with her in many intense love making scenes. Behind the scenes footage of these scenes, would be a feast :). I stop my assessment of Jism 2's erotic content at this. My perverted mind would take over completely, else. 

In Jism 2, she plays Izna, a porn star, who is given a task by a couple of intelligence agents to infiltrate a dreaded gangster named Kabir. She is chosen because of her previous affair and proximity with Kabir. Now, whether she completes the said mission, what is the actual purpose of the mission and whether passion comes into the picture are knots that will be untied by the movie.

Randeep Hooda as Kabir looks imposing and cold but he drags the movie with his poetic monologues which are boring to say the least. Sunny Leone’s acting is better left unanalyzed. Her skin show can only help the movie that much. Arunoday Singh as the young intelligence agent has good screen presence and has a good future thanks to his good looks.

The songs are very melodious but they just keep coming at regular intervals. The Srilankan locations are terrific and the camera has also captured the beauty of Galle in its entire splendor. The songs and the locations are among the very few highlights.

The movie is gripping at very few instances and for a movie that is supposed to be a thriller, this is a big flaw.

As said before, the movie is really slow and you just wait for the movie to get over. Lot of questions are answered in the climax but, by that time you tend to lose interest with the movie.

VERDICT: A Dragging and tiresome watch

Madhubana Kadai review

2 / 5

Drinking is a way of life for a major chunk of the men in our state and the TASMAC wine shop is the place which is the biggest unifier as people from different backgrounds congregate to drown themselves in alcohol.

Madhubana Kadai traces a single day in the functioning of a typical wine shop. That day happens to be prior to Gandhi Jayanthi, which is one of the few days when the wine shop is actually closed. All sorts of people come to the shop and it is a roller-coaster at the shop as each character gets into some mischief or the other. Such is the power of intoxication.

The episodes involving two perennial drinkers, Chinnarasu and Petition Mani, are definitely enjoyable. While school kids, people who dress up as Gods and young professionals also make an appearance at the bar much to the amusement of us.

We have had many Tamil films where the wine shop is the scene of action for a few scenes. Santhanam has provided many a funny moment in films like SMS and OKOK. But here, the entire movie is replete with such incidents which just become an overdose beyond a point. You just become numb as the same incidents revolving around alcohol are played out over and over again.

A love track involving the wine shop owner’s daughter and one of the employees in the shop named Rafeeq is one of the very few distractions from the scene of action.

The actors in this movie don’t have any face value and you might recognize just a few character actors. Rest all are newcomers just getting into the skin of the character.  

The director Kamalakannan has also used this movie to highlight some issues like illegal adulteration of alcohol and the fact that laborers like drainage cleaners depend on alcohol for some peace of mind.

Ved Shankar has given two enjoyable mass numbers while the song that comes before the finale, is poignant. His re-recording tends to become too noisy at times in his attempt to capture the ambience of the wine shop authentically.

The camera is constrained within the wine shop for almost the entire movie while the set design for the wine shop has been done authentically.

The target audience for Madhubana Kadai is restricted and some people might even get second thoughts just seeing the title of the movie.

To conclude, the director has intentionally avoided any structured narrative and has just showcased some incidents that happen in a typical day at the wine shop. One can safely say that it is an out of the box attempt

VERDICT: Experimental attempt at chronicling a typical day in a wine shop

Imported Daredevils of Kollywood

Action movies have always occupied a favored spot in the minds of fans, since time immemorial. Heroes attempt the action genre and if they succeed at it, they generally go to the next level in the star race. 

Off late, there is this fad of using foreign stunt masters and fighters to give that extra pace and effect to the fight scenes. With fans increasingly getting exposed to English films and other martial arts films, they won’t settle for anything less. When they see implausible fight sequences, they just laugh it off. 

With Billa 2 being noted for its marvelous stunt scenes choreographed by foreign stunt masters, we decided to dig more and find about the foreign stunt masters and fighters who have dazzled in popular recent Tamil movies. 

German stunt master Stefan Richter was responsible for the dangerous helicopter sequence in Billa 2 while stunt master Kecha Khamphakdee and his Jaika Stunt team is also a part of this gangster movie. 

Yuen Woo Ping, the action choreographer in films like The Matrix, Kill Bill Vol.1, Kill Bill Vol. 2 & Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon was Endhiran’s stunt coordinator. The train stunts were jaw dropping truly. 

In 7aum Arivu, the main villain Johnny Tri Nguyen who played Dong Lee, is an acclaimed martial arts expert. He has performed stunts in the 2002 blockbuster Spiderman, in addition to many more movies.

In Jiiva’s upcoming superhero movie, a team of kungfu artists were involved in a very special scene. Before the shoot for Mugamoodi commenced, both Jiiva and Narain underwent special training in martial arts with experts from the Shaolin Temple in China. The climax fight sequences are choreographed by Tony Leung Siu Hung, a veteran stunt coordinator from Hong Kong who has worked with the likes of Bruce Lee and Jackie Chan.

Andy Dixon, of Transporter 2 fame, was involved in those gripping chase sequences in Dasavatharam. Hai-Kido which is a Japanese martial art was also part of the action in this landmark Kamal starrer. For choreographing these shots, Sonny Loke Chuan Sun who is a master of Hai-Kido was brought all the way from Japan to USA.

For his upcoming Vishwaroopam, Kamal has roped in Lee Whittaker for the climatic action blocks. Lee is known for his spectacular work in Pearl Harbor. 

Tom Delmar, of Snatch and Braveheart fame, was involved in the Vijay starrer Velayudham for giving that grandiose treatment to the action scenes atop the train. 

In addition to all these foreign names directly getting involved in Tamil films, some of our highly acclaimed fight sequences in movies like Anniyan, Polladhavan and Ayan were also inspired by some legendary Hollywood action movies. 

The fight scene in the martial arts school in Anniyan reminded us of Kill Bill 1, the Congo fight in Ayan had traces of Bourne Ultimatum and the bare body fight of Dhanush in Polladhavan’s climax gave us glimpses of Brad Pitt from Snatch. 

At the end of the day, inspired or not inspired, the action on screen must give us the kicks and one must say each of these movies mentioned above had hair-raising action sequences. Hats off to the stunt men for that.

Naan music review

2.5 / 5

Naan (2012)

Director: Jeeva Shankar

Starring: Vijay Antony, Siddharth Venugopal, Rupa Manjari and Anuya

Music: Vijay Antony

Naan has been in the news prominently due to the fact that it is Vijay Antony’s debut as the male lead and it also marks his 25^th film as the composer. The audio was launched recently. Does Vijay deliver?

Makkayala … THUMBS UP

Krishan, Maheson, Mark, Shakthi Shree

Lyrics: Priyan

This song follows Vijay Antony’s trademark style of using incomprehensible words as the title. The song is catchy with good electronic beats, good string interludes and a nice guitar presence. There are some rap bits thrown in to make this song an interesting cocktail. The lyrics reek off positive energy.

Thapellam Thappe Illai

Aathi, Santhosh Hariharan

Lyrics: Ashmin

The style of this motivational song is in vogue with the current trend. The lyrics switch between English rap and Tamil. Might make a good impact with visuals. Sounds decent as well thanks to the interesting vocals, the beats and the sound effects akin to a club number.

Thapellam Thappe Illai (version 2)

Vijay Antony

The guitar has a more dominating presence in this version with just the English rap lyrics used from the previous version.

No One is Perfect Theme

A nice mix of strings, piano and pulsating beats that gives the necessary suspense and expectations for the actual movie. The guitar stands out. A good effort with this theme.

Dinnam Dinnam

Deepak

Lyrics: Annmalai

The song begins on a very poignant note with moving strings and the vocals continue the mellow mood all through. The song captures the loneliness and pain of the hero. Will depend on the movie to gain in popularity. The elaborate instrumentals also add to the dramatic and sober mood of the song.

Ulaginil Miga Uyaram

Vijay Antony

Lyrics: Annamalai

The opening humming is typical of previous Vijay Antony songs from Kadhalil Vizhunthen and then he takes over in his earthy and rustic voice. The lyrics are meant to give a boost to the psyche. The beats have been kept slow paced while the instrumentals are pleasant on the ear. 

VERDICT: Generally you expect fast paced numbers from Vijay Antony. But, this must count among his more sober efforts. The songs look like aiding the movie’s flow rather than hampering it. Makkayala will rise up the charts