Cast

Gist: There is nothing ground breaking in the story. Karthik and Priyamani are lovers. But Priyamani’s father is very particular about caste issues, to the point that he would rather kill than let his daughter marry a person from another caste. Initially Karthik does not take Priyamani seriously, he is more interested in drinking and sleeping with other women. He has no second thoughts on lashing out violently on any one who dares to goad his anger. Later he is moved by Priyamani’s love and the lovers decide to elope leading to a long climax that is partly predictable and partly surprising.

My 2 cents: When you look at the movie you can immediately tell that the director has taken time to thoroughly enjoy every frame of his creation. Aamir not only wants to tell us this love story, but also wants to give us a true flavor of the village he grew up in. He has done it so well and so realistically that Paruthiyoor is more of a character by itself than a setting for the story. Take away the essence of Paruthiyoor, there is nothing more left in the movie! I know for a fact that most of the people in Tamil Nadu are going to love this movie and this movie will be a box office hit.

But I, basically, am a city girl. I felt at times that the essence of Parithiyoor was a bit too much, but again that is pure me. I would have preferred it if the accent of the characters were a little “less villagey”. Except for the dialogues uttered by Karthik and Priyamani I needed captions for the dialogues delivered by other people. Throw in few folk dances by transgenders, few brutal murders, real village people, dark oily faces with out makeup, a graphic climax and going back home to two kids who were screaming their heads(at 1.00AM ,we went for the late night show) off the whole time we were gone because they thought that appa and amma abandoned them; thats why I give it only three stars. Again, its just my perspective. Damn, I have never felt the necessity to explain my ratings before!

Karthik, is this really your first movie?! Looks wise I still like your older brother, but you did hell of a job in your debut. You have lived your part without any inhibitions. The part where you walk behind Priyamani with a stupid grin on your face and tell her, “Namakkum vandhiruchu yilla?” was way too, forgive me for the expression, ‘cute’. Kind of reminded me of Pithamagan Surya, not that you copied his body language or anything. Dude your graph is going to skyrocket.

Priyamani is brilliant, especially in the scenes where she yells for food just after she is beaten blue and black by her father. Apparently Ponvannan really hit her because Aamir wanted the scene to be real. It took 10 retakes, which means she was hit 10 times by an umbrella, her head was banged 10 times against a wall, she was thrown down on the floor 10 times and she was kicked on her stomach 10 times. She must have been really motivated to give a hit movie and make people notice her as an actress to put up with this ordeal!

For Aamir the third time is a charm. It is hard to believe that it is the same Aamir who made Monuman Pesiyadhe! All his three movies (Mounam Pesiyadhe, Raam, Paruthi Veeran) are totally different and one cannot find the shade of the previous movie in the next one.

For people who have missed the title card that the music is by Yuvan, they will end up thinking that the music is by Illayarajaa. Like father, like son.

Other: Check out paruthiveeranthemovie.com

Verdict: Go in expecting to come back with a little bit of Paruthiyoor. Some may like Paruthiyoor some may not, but eitherwaysit is sure to stay with you .

Cast:

Gist: Jeyam Ravi is the only son of mild mannered millionaire BaghyaRaj and ruthlessly ambitious Geetha. He meets Trisha at his cousin’s wedding. Trisha is a simple village girl who adores her brother Prabhu. Prabhu hates rich people. Ravi and Trisha fall for each other. Geetha intervenes and stamps out the romance by insulting Trisha and Prabhu. But Ravi has his mind made up. He begs Prabhu to give him a chance to prove his love for Trisha. Prabhu challenges to a farming contest. If Ravi, a guy who does not know the ABC-s of farming, shows the same yield of crop as that of Prabhu, a seasoned farmer, then he has a chance of win over Trisha. Its game time guys!

My 2 cents: This movie is a remake of a telugu movie by Prabhu Deva. Director Raja seems to have enjoyed the original and has worked hard to preserve the essence of the movie. Raja has relied heavily on ‘cuteness factor’ and it has paid off! Makes me want to see the original.

Except for the jakiradhai joke which is too cliché, other jokes are quite enjoyable. They have taken the whole of the first half to show how love develops between Ravi and Trisha, then the twist and then the climax. By proportioning the movie, they have maintained a good pace.

Ravi learning the tricks and trades of farming is potrayed in a cinematic manner. But it is not possible to cram the whole learning process in a three hour movie, so he shows cute short cuts like headphones while milking cow etc, quite frankly they are enjoyable!

Trisha and Ravi are quite a pair. There is nothing ‘village-y’ about Trisha, but she is quite adorable. Ravi is energetic and shows the right emotion at the right time. Prabhu manages not to over act and BaghyaRaj acts in the only way he knows to act!

Music by Devi Sri Prasad is vibrant and catchy.

Movie is fresh, colorful, youthful, engaging and for the whole family. What more do we want?

Other: To hear songs from this tamil movie click here.
For movie trailers click here.
For picture gallery click here.

Verdict: Something something IS something something.

Cast

Gist: Vishaal visits his friend after completing college. He not only falls in love with his friend’s sister, Meera, but also gets involved in a fight with the local rowdy. Vishaal whups the rowdy and returns to his family. The rowdy wants revenge. He lands up in Vishaal’s village only to find out that Vishaal’s father Rajkiran is a bigshot and it is next to impossible to lay his hands on Vishaal. In the climax Vishaal and the rowdy butt heads and Vishaal triumphs.

My 2 cents: Even though there is nothing novel about the story of this tamil movie, Sandaikozhi is a well rounded action-masala from Lingusamy. I loved the song “Dhavani potta deepavail” by Yuvan Shankar Raja.

Meera is pretty, needless to say, and wins our hearts with her rowdy behaviour. Vishaal plays shy guy in front of Meera, but shines well in action sequences. Rajkiran plays a local big shot just like in Nanda. Timely dialogues by Kanjaa Karuppu are enjoyable.

Other: For songs, click here.
For Sandaokozhi trailers, click here.
For Sandaikozhi production photgraphs, click here.

Verdict: Sandaikozhi is spicy.

Cast

Gist: Saranya is the daughter of SarathBabu. She works as a maid in Seetha’s house. Seetha learns that Saranya’s family used to be affluent, but all the wealth has dried up presently. Seetha is very impressed by Saranya’s warm and lovable nature. She is so impressed that she decides to make Saranya her daughter-in-law. She informs her husband(PrakashRaj) and son(PrithviRaj) of her decision, but she does not disclose the identity of the bride to be. Unexpectedly Seetha sustains a head injury and dies before she could tell PrakashRaj and PrithviRaj who she has picked out to be her DIL. PrakashRaj and PrithviRaj are determined to fulfill Seetha’s last wish, but are mislead and confused. Now enters BaghyaRaj with his usual sense of wit and helps father and son to solve the mystery.

My 2 cents: At a time where the whole tamil movie world is going ga-ga over movies about underworld and hit men, Paarijatham which deals with family drama is a breath of fresh air.

Another heroine oriented subject from the master screenplay writer, BaghyaRaj. He has proved time and again that he can captivate the audience with scanty story line. The movie is littered with typical BaghyaRaj-isms. But since we are watching his work after a very long time, it does not irritate us.

For a debut, Saranya gives a decent performance. Prithiviraj has played a romantic hero, very much different from his previous role as a loan shark(Movie Kana Kandein).

We all know how the movie will end, it is an ending we all expect. The strength of the movie lies in the screen play which keeps us guessing on the route BagyaRaj takes to arrive at the ending. So no complaints about a predictable ending! Anything but the predictable ending, I would’nt have liked the movie, after all I was looking for something light.

Other: To hear songs from this tamil movie click here.
For movie trailers click here.
For picture gallery click here 

Verdict: But for the gross comedy track towards the end of the movie, this would have been a wholesome entertainment for the entire family.

Cast

Gist: Vijay and his family move from Delhi to Chennai and he joins the same college in which Trisha is studying. Trisha is a college student with an air of mystery around her. Same is the case with Vijay. Later they find out that they are actually cousins who got split up when the villain butchered the rest of their family. The duo team up to avenge the death of their family members.

My 2 cents: Vijay and Trisha join hands, to do another Teulgu remake, hoping to create another super duper hit like Gilli. Unlike Thirupachi, Trisha is not used just for duets, she is actually a part of the story! The first scene of the movie, with Trisha stabbing Devan, is very intriguing. After that every other scene is predictable.

When we see that both Trisha and Vijay like to eat ice cream while getting wet in the rain, we can put two and two together and guess the rest of the story. After all we have seen only a few dozen movies with the same story line, haven’t we?!

Of the people who form Vijay and Trisha’s family, Prakash Raj is the only one who sticks to the mind. Too many people, the way they are related is not explained, except for the fact that Trisha and Vijay are cousins, everything else was a blur. Malavika, Livingstone(hopefully I have spelled his name right) and a whole bunch of others are wasted by making appearances without even a single dialogue. Vivek’s comedy is very umimpressive. So is music director Vidhyasagar. By the way, whats with Vijay’s hair?!!

Other: To hear songs from this tamil movie click here.
For movie gallery click here.
For movie trailer click here.

Verdict: Aadhi fails to recreate the Gilli charm.

Gist: A regular ‘boy loves girl, girl loves another boy, that boy loves some other girl’ story. Barath comes to city in search of his lover, Dheepu only to find that she is in love with Arunkumar. Barath meets Mallika Kapoor who is nursing a secret crush for Arunkumar. So Barath and Mallika Kapoor team up to split Arunkumar and Dheepu. But there is a neat little twist after the intermission. The girl Barath is in love is Mallika Kapoor and not Dheepu. Barath sacrifies his love to make Mallika Kapoor’s love come true.

My 2 cents: Mallika Kapoor and Barath have the right chemistry. Renuka, as Barath’s mother has delivered a good performance. The plans Barath and Mallika Kapoor come up to split up Arunkumar and Dheepu invokes laughter. Old fashioned but cute cartoons that pop up in the first half of the movie are worth mentioning.

Other: To hear songs from this tamil movie click here.
For movie gallery clickhere.
For movie trailer click here.

Verdict: No double/triple meaning dialogues, no explict sexual content, decent U rated entertainment for the whole family.