Unknown (2011)

The Plot
Dr.Martin Harris lands in Berlin for a biotechnology summit where renowned scientist Leo Bressler will be introducing a new type of corn that would eliminate the world's hunger. Harris meets with a car accident and he gets into a coma. After recovering, nobody admits to knowing him. There is another person masquerading as Martin Harris and even his wife is with this new man.

Martin is confused and goes about discovering his identity all over again. He is chased by a lot of people in a bid to kill him. He is helped by a lonely woman Gina and they finally discover his identity.

Martin is actually a hired assassin who is assigned to blow up the Eisenhower suite in the hotel where the summit is happening. Bressler is the target. Martin finds this before it is too late and he saves Bressler and Prince Shada, the Arabian prince who is behind Bressler's efforts.

Hits

• The suspense is well maintained
• The tempo of the film resembles the Bourne series.
• Good chase sequences.
• 2 beautiful ladies along with the brooding Liam Neeson. 

VERDICT

An interesting, fast paced suspense thriller.  

The Hangover Part II (2011)

The Plot
This time it is Stu's wedding and it is gonna be held in Bangkok. The Wolfpack is back for their bachelor party and their adventures and misadventures land them up in a mess, as usual.

Stu's 16 yr old brother-in-law Teddy is lost, Stu has a tattoo on his face, there is a monkey prancing around, Alan has a shaved head and the Chinese pocket-bullet Chow is also there to give them trouble. They use all the evidences to track things and finally Stu makes it to the marriage just in time.

Hits

• Alan's bald make-over is a shocker and Zack carries it off stunningly like a cool dude.
• The antics of the monkey as the middleman between drug dealers, are another shocking surprise. 
• Ken Jeong as Mr. Chow makes you laugh with his dialog delivery style and total irreverence. 
• Stu and Phil do their same routine as in the first part

VERDICT

Some light-hearted time pass with jokes spread over, Todd Phillips style. 

Saheb Biwi Aur Gangster (2011)

The Plot
The movie focuses on 3 individuals - Saheb, his wife Madhavi (Biwi) and a young man Babloo (Gangster) who has come to work with Saheb to eliminate him.

Saheb is a much respected man though he is broke and has to depend on the Queen for money. Saheb has his flings with another Mistress, Mahuva and the Biwi has fits of rage regularly, due to the neglect from her husband.

Babloo is sent by Gainda Singh to finish off Saheb. Gainda and Saheb have a lot of conflicts of interest due to their business dealings. Babloo becomes close to Biwi and they have a physical relationship as well. All this happens while Saheb is busy with Mahuva.

Babloo wants to overthrow Saheb and become the king and have Madhavi all to himself. In the end, one by one all the players get eliminated. It is an engaging drama with betrayal and one upmanship as the core.

Hits

• Randeep Hooda is menacing and very youthful as Babloo. He is wicked and full of energy. The top highlight of the film. 
• Mahie Gill seduces and is damn hot as the Biwi. Her fits of rage are also well enacted. 
• Jimmy Shergill as Saheb is cool, cunning and calculating. His makeover is also royal. 
• The BG score has the Arabic touch and gels with this human drama. 
• The other characters like Kanhaiya (Saheb's man shadow) and Suman (Kanhaiya's daughter and Babloo's secret admirer) also have solid parts. 

VERDICT

Intense and engaging on the lines of Vishal Bharadwaj's 'Omkara'. Has some brilliant acting as well. 

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. 

Vandhaan Vendraan (2011)

The Plot
The movie is about the efforts that Arjun takes to mend his elder step brother Ramana and to bring him back home. Ramana is a dreaded gangster in Mumbai and he is wanted by an opposing gang. He has a lot of connections in the police and has a major illegal business setup in Mumbai.

Arjun uses love as a tool and he tells a love story to Ramana featuring his dream girl Anjana. Arjun tells Ramana that he can get Anjana only if Ramana surrenders as Ramana is the guy who killed Anjana's father. Arjun uses a lot of 'brain' to get Ramana behind bars.

Whether Arjun's love is actually true, whether he gets his lady love and whether Ramana mends his ways and returns back to his family is what the climax is about. It is not as cliched as expected. The ending is particularly interesting with a major twist. The movie has other cinematic elements like Santhanam's hilarious comedy track and good songs

Hits

• The twist in the climax is a major plus. It is a shocker 
• The songs by Thaman are another big highlight. Anjana and Thiranden lead the pack
• Jiiva's costumes are trendy and he looks very fit. 
• Taapsee looks very cute and her role is not as expected.
• Nanda looks menacing as the gangster. But, he is always grim
• Santhanam's comedy is a treat too. 

Misses

• Too many fights and gunfire featuring Ramana and other gangsters. Ramana misses each bullet always. 

VERDICT

An interesting film for sure. Could have performed better at the box-office than what it actually did. The climax lifts the movie considerably. 

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. 

The Adventures of Tintin (2011)

The Plot
The film is about the pursuit for the 3 scrolls that Sir Francis Haddock had hidden away in the mast of 3 ship models. These 3 scrolls have the secret behind the cargo that was hidden in the Unicorn ship captained by Francis, that was ransacked by some pirates headed by Red Rackham.

The cargo had many gold jewels and they get sunk beneath the sea after the failed attempt by Rackham to get away with the treasure. Rackham dies after this attempt while Francis lives on and makes these 3 ship models and hides the scrolls in them. A descendant of Haddock is supposed to find these scrolls and unlock the secret behind the sunken Unicorn.

Young journalist Tintin gets to know of these scrolls and he joins hands with the last descendant of Haddock to stop Sakharine the descendant of Rackham, from getting to the scrolls first. It is a major cat and mouse game featuring the trio and finally Tintin and the forever drunk Haddock succeed in getting to the scrolls first. Their upcoming adventure in getting to the sunken treasures forms the premise for the sequel. 


Hits

• The combination of motion capture animation and traditional animation works perfectly like in all other top notch Hollywood animation films. The animation for Tintin in particular is terrific in its detailing. 
• Some sequences score majorly like the terrific bike chase sequence in Morocco, the opera singer cracking all the glasses, Tintin's dog Snowy's chase to get to his master, the flight in the storm and the fight with the pirates in the ship   
• Lots of visuals give us the WOW factor. 
• The 2 cops Thomson and Thompson who are after the pickpocket in their town provide a lot of funny moments. Captain Haddock also has us in splits of laughter with his drunken antics. 

Comments

• The climax lacked the punch and was quite plain. The premise for the sequel didn't elicit great excitement as expected

VERDICT

A good effort that entertains. But, somehow it isn't the awesome movie that one expected from this team.