3 (Moonu)

Cast: Dhanush, Sruthi Haasan, Siva Karthikeyan

Director:   Aishwarya R Dhanush

Music:  Anirudh

Genre: Drama, Romance

"Hey it is our guy ya", "the songs were cool", "how is kolaveri screened?"

Are some of the loudest chats you get to hear in the theatre threshold before the film.

After the film,

Parents “Should not leave our girl alone that too with a phone, never."

"Is Aishwarya Rajinikanth trying to spoil our culture?"

And not to leave the famous punch...... "the youth these days!"

Kids “sob... sob..."

Some "Machan take out the parking ticket lets get home and sleep", "don't talk to me now."

Some elite critics over the phone "Ya I liked the acting and I swear I will never write anything bad about him, what if he makes another one like this."

Some of the rest, “Will I get a ticket in black, for the next show?"

And of course "This is the movie of the year."

And you also might see these ones  "     "

<no expression, no comments just wide open eyes>

Ok you would have got it. Yes we are talking about 3, the most awaited film. And those comments above, none, can be blamed.

The movie opens with the camera rolling into a porshe apartment house, a death house,  with wonderful tragic music. Sruthi is on the couch lying down crying and the rest standing and crying. The whole movie starrers are there except some side actors. You finally notice that, you had not got the privilege of seeing the corpse, also suddenly something hits you, "Where is Dhanush?"

Debut Director and music director Aishwarya and Anirudh both know what it is to handle a movie. And our guy Dhanush has once again showed that he sure can act. Sruthi Haassan with those innocent looks and I am not from north style Tamil has rocked the screen.

Prabhu's usual grace, Siva Karthikeyan's witty comments and his surprise presence itself, succeed to add the expected colour.

Aishwarya Dhanush marks her debut with a mature rather different movie. She had risked enough directing a tragic flick, and she sure must be congratulated. The films describes three stages of our protagonist, Ram’s (drove by Dhanush) life hence the name “Moonu” (3). Or it can be taken in a different way the ‘happiness’, ‘sadness and difficulty’, and this ‘3’rd one is ‘sorry suspense’ of our hero's life.

Ram who is the son of a rich businessman (Prabhu) is a carefree youth. He falls at the first look of a school girl Janani (Sruthi Haasan), of his age, trying her hands in putting the chain of her cycle, which goes down in the rain. He traces her school by her uniform, which involves a wonderful conversation among his friends, gradually her name then her address. Follows her everywhere, joins her tuition, giving great time for quality comedy. Finally our girl also begins to love him.

The second split involves family negotiations, about their love for each other. This goes smoothly in our hero’s place but ends badly in Janani’s place and she is out of her house. Shiva Karthikeyan goes off the screen suddenly, which is later explained. Prabhu give the newly married couple a apartment. They live happily hero manages to dump the gap and makes the heroine’s family to forgive her. All goes well. The audience begin to think why the movie was not named 2.

Why is he dead? This is answered in the third split. The hero faces sudden depression, fluctuating sadness and euphoria, which all get either explained or left to the audience for good. Here comes real acting and a single awesome fight sequence and a great load of Sruthi Haasan tears.

Dhanush as usual does a good job and fits in well as Ram, he does laugh demanding comedy and decent sentiment. He manages to make the audience react how the makers want them to. The fight sequence and serious looks in the second half are sure to be praised. Sruthi Haasan’s character which doesn’t require great acting, is maneuvered well. She sheds great amount of tears towards the end for which her fans would pray that it must not have took many shots. Siva Karthikeyan who is present in the first one and a quarter chronological splits, did a wonderful job. With perfect punch lines, slap sticks and timely comments he wins high decibel applause and whistle. And Sundar fits in well as a loyal friend and does justice to his role.

The scenes which involve school and tuition are written well armed with perfect dialogues, to which many fall acknowledging the striking resemblance with their own lives. The son-dad conversations during hard turns in hero’s life though seems old, appears good and warm. Our heroine’s younger sister acts as one with hearing impairment. She does not speak owing to this. The kid did her part well, but the scene in which she suddenly starts speaking being under a heavy load of sentiment, looks a stunt and seems a bit childish. A doctor who is consulted by Sundar in the film seems to have acted a bit more than needed. The romance scenes between 12^th grade students seem misleading. Some mostly the elders may not like the marriage scene in a discotheque, but its not much noticed under the cover of Anirudh's peppy music.

Every scene is crafted well and the music hugely supports it. But the film as a whole lacks some explanations which are loosely tried to explain. Overall this is a good attempt in all ways, with a message which though does not need hours to convey. Watching once is worth.

This one may win awards (for the acting or music) but not young children and parents’ thumbs up.

Mappillai

Cast: Dhanush, Manisha Koirala, Hansika Motwani, Vivek and many

Director:   Suraj

Music:  Mani Sharma

Genre: Action Drama

Suraj, not wanting to risk, tries his same old hero-comedian pair from Padikadhavan in his latest film Mappillai. The movie is a remake of the Rajini's 1989 Mappillai, true to the name the lead actor Dhanush is the Mappillai (son-in-law) of the original flick's hero.

The film is all about the ways a hero can express his heroism to his dictating mamiyar (mother-in-law). The movie is about a rowdy like hero falling into love with an equally tough women's daughter, this women also happens to be a rich business magnet. The rest of the story is packed full with clashes between the son-in-law and the mother-in-law.


Saravana (Dhanush), is portrayed as a obedient, regular temple visitor at the beginning of the movie, even the introduction song is a temple festival dance ("Aaru padai" a colourful song sequence). Child Chinna (Vivek) happens to be his neighbor. Vivek has done a childish job as a comedian, people get irritated by the comical sequences in the first half and the style of speech was the worst I have heard. Vivek tries to criticize the present day youth's fashion, by wearing dresses which no one would even dare to look at, this is a over dose of advise to the young, although he manages to get a few claps in the second half where he dons a billionaire Sivaji look.


Chinna asks the hero to help him with Gayathri (played by Hansika Motwani). Just as usual, the hero manages to get the heroin and the comedian looses, yet he remains loyal to the hero in the rest of the film.


At first the heroine's mother Rajeshwari (played excellently by Manisha Koirala), decides to make Saravana her mappillai, falling for his innocent, harmless, obedient and  servant like appearence. But, once the actual terror and rowdy face of Saravana is revealed by one of her politician friend with a "Kuthu song" she arranges the marriage with someone else. Knowing this, our hero hijacks the marriage and marries Gayathri, and leaves the marriage hall walking in the side leaving place for the words "INTERMISSION" in the screen. The rest of the story is Saravana's plight to keep his mamiyar from separating the new couple.


The word "Mappillai" comes as often as possible to wake the audience and make them remember the name. The second half gives a lot of scope for punch dialogs, and every situation is seized and a punch is imparted. Our heroine suffers a lot with the language and her struggle to keep her face in accordance with the dialog is very apparent, and when the pushing point comes she either smiles or laughs, which the director thinks the audience won't mind, (so please don't mind). Dhanush has given the best he can, but with a film like this nothing can be done to make the film look better. The rhymes our hero delivers falls in the most unwanted situations, the other face of the hero hardly surprises the audience. Manisha Koirala, does a good job and manages a respectable amount of claps in the story, one can't find why the director tries to make her as young as the heroin, being her mother. The reason for the yellow glow in Manisha's face in the second half remains a mystery. The director has given a lot of questions to think about, for the audience like, "Where does the money come from to do all this?", "When did he prepare for  this stuff?" and so on, oops and not to miss the main Tamil commercial movie, million dollar question "HOW DID HE DO THAT?"


Overall the film is worth a watch if your below ten, and for others, better reconsider you choice!


And, the last words,
Never worry dear Dhanush fans , the banner will take the movie, or at least push the movie for a respectable period of time.


  

Aadukalam

Cast: Dhanush, Tapsee, Kishore, Jayabalan and many
Director: Vettrimaran
Music:  GV Prakash Kumar
Genre:  Drama

Vettrimaran is back with his two successful actors Dhanush and Kishore in his second film "Aadukalam". In this film the director has made every scene as practical as possible, giving Sun Pictures a sudden transition from their previous film (Endhiran). Dhanush takes up a typical Madurai-born avatar and fits in well.

The film is centered on Rooster fight, where elements like love, friendship, fun, and betrayal revolve around it. The film is split (exactly) into two. The first half is about the scenario of Madurai's Rooster Fight craze through ages, and the second is packed with ego clashes and betrayal. 

Petaikaran (Jayabalan) is a rooster fight trainer, and victorious person who had never lost in a match. He is always with his followers Karuppu (Dhanush), Durai (Kishore) and a gang of rooster trainers and breeders. Rathnaswamy (Naren) a police, who is also a rooster trainer is determined to win Petaikaran. Irene (Tapsee) an Anglo Indian girl happens to meet K P Karuppu, and he falls for her. Dhanush's scenes with the heroine are the ones which impart comedy and colour between the action and tragedy fueled film.

The police Rathanaswamy considers winning Petaikaran as his family's pride. Though he tries to follow ethical means to win the fight, he is lured by his cronies, to follow the shorter route to win the sport. A tournament is held by Petaikaran, and it is a serious one as pride gets involved. The first few matches are won by Petaikaran's team, but, after the police imports roosters from Banglore, and uses steroid like medicines on them, the fight becomes difficult. Dhanush enters at this situation to save his master's pride and wins the matches after a lot of risks and rejection of his master's cautions. Dhanush becomes the hero of the town. This ignites anger and ego in Petaikaran's mind. The rest of the story is the clashes of ego and life or death fights where roosters are replaced by humans.

The scenes where Karuppu tries to impress Irene are wonderfully taken. The helps and tips from friends and companions to impress her are cute, like the one where Durai gives his bike at the mid-night and takes picture of them in a cell phone, and the one where Petaikaran innocently suggests giving malli (jasmine) to her on their meeting not considering the fact that she is a modern Anglo Indian girl.

The rooster fights are awesome and seems real. The depiction of trainer-rooster bond is mind blowing. These fights are shown as fights between the talents of the trainers than the fitness of the roosters. Coming to the human fights, which pops up in between the first half and makes the whole climax, are practical and logical, and are made to look like local street fights without sacrificing heroism. The infinite stamina of the hero at the climax can be forgiven for these practical fights.


The songs fall at right timing. Excellent job by the choreographer, though the steps aren't the professional dancers kind, they suit well for a carefree Madurai youth. 

Standing in the line separating the commercials and the non commercials, this is a decent, worth a watch film.