Kollywood Hotshots

Selvaraghavan’s two years in the making, action adventure Aayirathil Oruvan is a brave attempt at trying to come out with something new in the placid world of Tamil cinema. Breaking away from the shackles of the stereotypes, the director transports us to a whole new world and at the end of it all, we are dumb stuck by the visuals, the packaging and the new way of storytelling.

The film has a terrific first half with a basic thread, comedy, action, eye catching song picturisation, stunning visuals and grandeur. The film combines ultra-violent action with murky mysticism. The Government appoints a secret team led by archaeologist Anitha Pandian (Reemma) and a military officer Ravi (Azhagamperumal) to track down the missing links after a scientist and archaeologist (Pratap Pothen) vanishes into thin air while he was on his mission to discover the lost Chola civilization!

To help them reach the lost city, Lavanya, daughter of the missing archaeologist is roped in for the mission. And helping the group to carry their belongings through the rough and tough jungle terrain and sea is the Coolie gang led by Muthu (Karthi), a boorish, uncouth, foul mouthed guy with roving eyes. They go through some of the most inhospitable terrain full of hidden danger and nature’s fury.

Suddenly after a tedious expedition, they stumble on the lost Chola civilization and its king (Parthipan) and find unexplained links between them and the world’s earliest culture. What follows is a series of happenings that will leave you glued to the screen.

The subtle message that Selva tries to convey is that a group of people cut away from civilisation, struck with poverty and knowledge is far superior to the present generation who lack values, culture or basic human kindness. All this leads to some unexpected twists and turns in the climax till you find that history repeats once again as Muthu rescues and run away with the King’s son to the darkness, like what happened centuries back!

Aayirathil Oruvan starts with a bang, but it doesn’t unfold quickly. The second half takes a u-turn and is riddled with holes in the plot line and is confusing and tedious. It looks like another film and there are long gaps of silence in the climax which will make an ordinary viewer restless.

Directing an interweaving screenplay, Selva’s narrative structure bursts with sporadic agility along with top class camera work by Ramji.

GV Prakash’s background score and his music is tangy. Un Mela Aasadhan.. sung by Dhanush, Aishwarya Dhanush and Andrea and picturised on the lead trio is a rocker. The remixed old MGR song on Karthi and the coolies is a treat.

Reema brings an uninhibited joie to her role as Anitha and thanks to the ability of the director has extracted a fine performance from her. Andrea is likeable and seems to have enjoyed doing the film. Parthipan is adequate as the king. But it is Karthi, who is a scream. Right from his introduction scene till the end, he is lovable and provides humour. Actually Karthi with his punchlines is getting the loudest claps as the crazy MGR fan and has made a sensational comeback three years after his debut film.

The film has to be seen in the right perspective. Selvaraghavan is trying to explore the frontiers of commercial cinema. For this alone he should be applauded.

Meanwhile, the actor in an interview to a Telugu daily, said that he has a lot of admiration for Tollywood stars, Allu Arjun and NTR for their scintillating dance moves, and Pawan Kalyan and Mahesh Babu for their style. He also added that he goes mad watching the dance of Allu and NTR.

“I have been living in Mumbai since quite a long time now so my son Vedant knows Hindi, English and Marathi but he is not versed with his mother tongue Tamil. Some years ago, my parents insisted me to teach Vedant Tamil,” shares Madhavan.

“Sura’ features Vijay and Tamanna in the lead roles and is directed by S.P. Rajkumar. The director S.P. Rajkumar is making his comeback in Kollywood taking a sabbatical after “Azhagar Malai’. First schedule of the film was recently completed and the entire crew is busily shooting for the following schedules in Pondicherry and Vizag.

According to the trade reports, “Vettaikaran’ has been sold out for very big price throught Tamilnadu and it has gradually encouraged Sun Pictures to ink a deal with Vijay’s “Sura’ as well.

Now Sura being aquired by Sun Pictures, Vijay has proved that he is still the King of Kollywood Box Office.

The meeting was attended by Rajinikanth, Kamal Haasan, Nadigar Sangam president R Sarath Kumar, producer of the movie Radhika Sarath Kumar and chiefs of various associations in the industry.

Speaking on the occasion, Kamal said: "Encouraging piracy is equivalent to sedition. A portion of the revenue generated from the sale of pirated CDs ends up in the hands of anti-national elements."

Urging Sarath Kumar to take it as a free publicity for the movie, he said, "all efforts should be taken to release the movie at the earliest in theatres".

Expressing his solidarity with Sarath Kumar on the issue, Rajinikanth said, "the culprit is not anywhere from outside. It should be one among us. It is time for us to do some introspection. Running from pillar to post for help after an act of negligence is no good. We should stand united and fight against them."

Both Sarath Kumar and Radhika burst into tears. "We are left without words - a sense of anger and dismay prevails amongst us. Our hardwork for over a year to come up with a quality film has been belittled now. The labour of over 100-odd men has been demeaned," they said.

“When Saran completed the script, we found a character which had equal importance as that of the hero. Impressed by it, I expressed my desire to do the role. Saran accepted it happily,” says Ajith.

Saying that one of his getups would surprise the audience, he adds: “The film has lot of surprises. One of them would be my getup. We finalised it only after working on various ideas. In short, ‘Asal’ would be a perfect treat for film buffs.”

Meanwhile, Ajith fans celebrated the audio launch of ‘Asal’ that took place in Chennai on Monday. Music stores all over Tamil Nadu were thronged by enthusiastic fans, who had no patience to listen to the songs from their ‘Thala’ film.

Produced by Prabhu and Ramkumar for Sivaji Films, Sameera Reddy and Bhavana have acted opposite Ajith in the film.

The music album of the Silambarasan-Trisha starrer, directed by Goutham Vasudev Menon, was released in London recently. The function was attended by top musicians in the United Kingdom, besides select guests from Chennai.

‘VTV’ is the first film for Goutham and Rahman to work together. “I am happy that Rahman’s first film after the Oscar honour is directed by me. His music is one of the major highlights of the movie,” says the filmmaker.

Heaping praises on Rahman, the movie’s heroine Trisha says, “I am a great fan of Rahman since my school days. I was literally flying when I was told that he would compose music for ‘VTV’. I had the opportunity to interact with him. He was so simple and humble.”