Starring: Christopher Reeve, Margot Kidder, Marlon Brando, Glenn Ford, Terence Stamp, Gene Hackman, Ned Beatty, Jackie Cooper, Valerie Perrine, Trevor Howard, Susannah York, Phyllis Thaxter, Marc McClure, Jeff East, Larry Hagman, Phil Brown

Director: Richard Donner

Director: Deepak
Music: Yuvan Shankar Raja
Chennaionline.Com: Bala is the favourite hit-man of gangster Pasupathi (Dev). If Bala is not zooming around in jeeps with a wild looking gang in it, parading down lanes with the same gang faithfully following a step behind him, or knocking down somebody or the other, he’s successfully wooing Arthi, the girl he falls for at first sight. Not surprisingly, Arthi is the daughter of Jeyamani, a rival gangster. Ailing don Paranthaman (Thilakan), mentor of the two rivals, seeing his protgs at each other’s throats, brings a compromise by suggesting that Arthi be married to Pasupathi’s wayward son. Bala naturally becomes a pariah in both the camps, till of course it’s alls well that ends well.

Shaam has put in an effort in the fight scenes, but probably it’s not really his fault if he couldn’t make a convincing rowdy. For he just doesn’t have the body language to carry off the role. There’s more of confidence in Meera Jasmin’s performance here. Kalairani as his blind mother, Karunas as the sidekick, and Thilakan as the ailing don.

Sify.Com: Bala is another action packed love story, directed by Deepak. Shaam makes his debut as an action hero, after doing soft romantic roes in Yeh Nee Romba Azhaga Irukkey and 12B.

Bala (Shaam) is a local dada with a heart of gold and Meera Jasmine, the Run girl is the heroine. She comes into the life of Bala, the hardcore criminal and that changes life for the angry young man. He decides to leave his dangerous life and how he faces the hurdles in his personal and love life is the basis of the film. This is told with all the box office formula along with a neat screenplay. The film has love, sentiments and family drama but action will be the highlight of the film. The film is produced by Raju Mahalingam.

The cast also include Raghuvaran, Thilagan, Nagesh, Rajan.P.Dev and Karunas. Editing is by V.T.Vijayan and camera is by Priyan. Music is by Yuvan Shankar Raja and Brinda is the choreographer. Story, screenplay and dialogues are by the director.
-http://movies.sulekha.com

The subject of the film revolves around bio-war and its potential dangers and how poor gullible Indians are made victims by International pharmaceutical companies that come to India to uses its people as Guiana Pigs to test their new formulations.

The director conveys the seriousness of this issue through “E”, using simple film making techniques – story without clichés, free flowing screenplay, mind-tickling dialogues, nerve wrecking stunts and good acting from all the actors. The people who watch the movie will come out well educated about the problems of human tests. The movie is gloriously entertaining.

Here goes the story…

Eswaran (Jeeva) alias E an orphan is a slum dweller in Chennai. He is supported by an old lady. E along with his friend Tony (Karunas) carries out small crimes to earn money. E brought up in tough conditions, grows up as a tough, fearless and emotionless guy.

Jyoti (Nayanthara), a bar dancer from Mumbai comes to Chennai and stays in a house opposite to E’s. As days go by, Jyoti learns about E’s past. She gets attracted towards E.

Meanwhile; Dr.Ramakrishnan (Ashish Vidyarthi) a quack comes to the slum and projects himself as a do-gooder to people living there. Not knowing his ulterior motives, the slum dwellers keep unshakable faith on him. However, his hidden agenda is to make use of them as guinea pigs to test his new but potentially lethal medicines, which international pharmaceutical companies supply to him for a hefty sum.

One day, Jyoti’s sister and E’s grand mother go to Dr.Ramakrishnan for treatment. Both fall prey to his insidious action. In the meantime, E saves Dr.Ramakrishnan from Nellai Mani (Pasupathy), a terrorist, who is after the Doctor to kill him.

Realizing E’s boldness the Doctor enters into a pact with E to capture Mani in return for a huge sum. E captures Mani and when he takes him to handover him to the doctor. Mani tells about Ramakrishna’s evil designs. The rest of the film is about how E foils the doctor’s malicious actions and brings him to books.

With each film Jeeva is getting better and better and his performance in “E” is exceptional. He is aptly supported Nayanthara. Her looks are ravishing and has performed well too.

The ensemble of support cast has given a very realistic performance. The director should be credited for chosen a complex issue- plaguing the country today- and portraying it in a simple way that even a common man understands. His sharp screenplay and simple narration makes it simple.

Ekambaram’s brilliant cinematography is a visual treat. Srikanth Deva has scored a few racy numbers and V.T.Vijayan’s crisp editing makes the movie watchable without a wink of an eye. Go and enjoy.

Bharath runs a five star hotel in Singapore who falls in love with a Squash champion Sana Khan who accepts his love but decides to settle down in marital bliss only after she achieves a considerable position in squash. Meanwhile in a birthday party, Bharath realizes that his biological parents are not the ones with whom he has been raised for so long. He sets out on a mission (!) to unravel the mystery shrouding his lineage and reaches Chennai. The events that follow his Chennai trip form the rest of this unexciting film.
Thambikku Indha Ooru

Story till this point moves at a languid pace. Prabhu appears fifteen minutes before the interval and energizes the film for some time and with his fading out, it falls flat again. Whenever Prabhu materializes, story surfaces and vice versa. Director could have just shown this part alone and the duration of our ordeal would have been considerably lessened. On the whole, the narration lags, screen play meanders and the film flounders.

Vivek, in the name of comedy dishes out some despicable double entendres while M S Bhaskar’s antics are just about ok. On the whole humor component in TIO is something that is unforgettable.

However Bharath is sincere in this anachronistic venture and showcases his skills in an earnest manner. Sana Khan who sizzled in Silambattam does not have much scope but all the same does her role satisfactorily. Madalasa is just another addition. Nizhalgal Ravi and Thalaivasal Vijay form the supporting cast.

Nothing to say about Dharan’s music.

It indeed requires expertise to deliver entertaining and engaging masala flicks but due to the inept screenplay, TIO loses fizz and falls flat
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Venkat Prabhu has managed to keep his reputation intact. Quite like ‘Chennai 28′ and ‘Saroja’, he doesn’t take himself very serious in ‘Goa’ too. All is well but for few hiccups. The movie sets out to explore the changing relationships among the youths including being ‘gay’. But that’s takes very very little of the screen space.

The movie revolves around three youths who sets out on a trip to Goa only with a mission to fall in love with a white woman, get married and go abroad. The twists and turns they come across in their mission makes up the story.

A spoof of few popular Tamil films and songs does add to the merriment. With Premji, Jai and Vaibhav around, one is ensured of fun and frolic. There are some surprises in the form of Sampath Raj, Sneha, Silambarasan and Prasanna.

The movie begins in Pannapuram, a remote village near Madurai (the native place of Venkat Prabhu’s family). Three youngsters Samikannu (Premji Amaran), Vinayakam (Jai) and Ramarajan (Vaibhav) are callous who spend all their time doing nothing. Their acts invite the wrath of the villagers and the village panchayat decides that the three should never meet again in future for the welfare and peace of the village.

The trio decides to run away from the village and spend few days peacefully in Madurai. When they reach their friend’s place they come to know that he has married a foreign woman whom he met in Goa and that he would be flying to London soon. This results in them deciding to try their luck in Goa. They set off with a plan to lure a white woman and marry her.

They come across one Danny (Arvind Akash) who helps them with food and shelter in Goa and expose them to the party culture. Roshini (Piya) a singer in a hotel falls for Vinayakam, while Jesika (Melanie), a white lady follows Samikannu from Madurai attracted by his innocence. Now enters Dany’s friend Jack (Sampath), a gay who has affinity for Danny.

Soon Danny and Jack help the trio get an image makeover and start helping them in their mission. Ramarajan’s life takes a twist after he comes across Suhasini (Sneha), a rich Casino owner in Goa. They get attracted towards each other and eventually get married. But the true colour of Suhasini is revealed and he manages to escape from trouble there with the help of his friends.

Vinayakam is finally convinced by Roshini’s sincere love while Samikannu gets wedlocked with Jesica. After some twists and turns in the story, all ends well and the boys return to their village to start a new life. Vaibhav has a surprise when he lands in Pannapuram in the form of Nayanthara.

Premji Amaran, Jai and Vaibhav have equal screen space and they bring the roof down with laughter. Premji is impressive with his ‘familiar one-liners’ while Jai trying to speak in English and Vaibhav getting into trouble for his own acts are appreciable.

Piaa and Aravind Akash have meaty roles to play while it is a surprise to see rough-and-tough Sampath playing a gay. Sneha though appears briefly seems to have shed her ‘homely’ image to do a dare bare role. She has done full justice to it. The rest of the cast includes Vijayakumar, Shanmuga Sundaram, Anandhraj, Sathyapriya among others.

Yuvanshankar Raja is the real scene-stealer. A total of 9 songs including Goa theme are peppy and interesting to listen to. Sakthi Saravanan’s camera is equally appealing capturing the sands and sea-shores with clarity.

Goa is Soundarya Rajinikanth’s maiden production venture on behalf of Ocher Picture Productions. Once can applaud her commitment in taking the risk to deviate from the regular run-of-the-mill stuff and try something different.

However on the flip side, the movie might throw some shock to a section of conservative film audience. Also the second half wanders aimlessly and needs an immediate trimming.

At the same time, one has to say that Venkat Prabhu was clear on what he wanted to do on screen and has rightly delivered the same. If you want to unwind yourself, forget all logics and enjoy, then the destination ‘Goa’
-www.indiglitz.com

Thamizh Padam has done it nicely without hurting the sentiments or feelings of any body. Though only regular movie goers will identify every spoof still they will enjoy it even if it is of their favourite heroes. Director Amudhan has walked the tight rope very effectively.

The film starts with a mother giving birth to a child – our hero Shiva- on a rainy night in a typical village which detests male babies being born in the village. The ‘Nattamai’ of the village had already passed a decree to kill any male child born to any body in the village for a peculiar reason. The male children don’t stay in the village when they grow up. So the father asks his mother-Paravai Muniamma-to kill the baby. When the old lady is about to feed the baby with branded cactus milk in tetra pack the infant pleads with the grand mother to put him in a goods train so that he can reach the city and become a big man. Why a goods train? Because the infant knew all goods train leaving a village is destined to reach Chennai city.

Touched by the aspiration of the infant the old lady takes the baby herself to Chennai to help him achieve his dream. In Chennai Shiva grows at the spin of a cycle wheel up and spends time with his college going friends Nakul, Siddharth and Bharath – MS Bhaskar, Manobala and Vennira Aadai Murthy. Shiva who appears to be a spoiled child actually is an undercover cop like Pokkiri Vijay. He eliminates the city rowdies like Thirupachi Vijay using techniques of Ghajini Suriya, Anniyan Vikram and Apoorva Sahodarargal Kamal Haasan.

Meanwhile on the other side of his life Shiva sees Disha like Kadhalukku Mariyadhai Vijay and love strikes like Mozhi Prithviraj. Shiva expresses his love to her like Maounaragam Karthik. But Disha’s father doesn’t approve their love because Shiva is poor and doesn’t know who his father is. Humiliated Shiva decides to become rich and find his father in the village. He becomes rich in a jiffy like Annamalai Rajini and Sivaji Rajini. The love finally succeeds.

Then in search of his father Shiva lands in his ancestral village Cinemapatti like Winner Prashanth. Its a village where couples go to bed only when Vaidegi Kathirunthal Vijaykanth starts singing ‘Netru rathiri yamma’ at night. He searches his long lost father in the neighbouring villages Serialpatti and Thangachipatti nad Sentimentpatti in vain. Finally with very little help Shiva finds about his father from one of his associates. The associate gives him a CD of his family song which incidentally is the ‘Michael Learns To Rock’ number, ‘Someday someway’. Armed by the CD Shiva croons the song in public and he is united with his parents and sister.

Now back to the city. Shiva is entrusted with the tough job of finding the main switch of the rowdy gang called ‘D’ gang Chidambara Rahasiyam Delhi Ganesh. The thrilling, breathtaking tasks he undertakes to accomplish his mission and the real identity of the dreaded underworld boss of the ‘D’ gang in the climax sequences are going to be the shockers. When you see the film please don’t reveal the climax to others.

When you enter the theatre knowing the film is a spoof you don’t expect anything logical. The movie has followed every rule of a parody. It has sarcasm, typecast, making fun of scenes from serious movies, violence with no major consequences, obvious references to actions or names, lampooning with no purpose, casual scenes with many layers etc.

Shiva, introduced as Chandramukhi Rajini plays his part to his known character. His timing and dialogue delivery sets him apart. The rip offs from Thalapathy, Kakkha Kakkha, Vettaiyaadu Vilaiyaadu and many more don’t fail to tickle you. Shiva over shadows all other characters just like that with his witty presence in every frame.

Music by Kannan is another fine element in the film. The cryptic ‘O Maha Zeeya’ is very watchable on screen. Other songs also match the mood and genre.

Director CS Amudhan is welcomed with open arms. He has revealed that there are still some facets of cinema still unknown to many. A brave new attempt for which there will be many followers in the future.
-http://www.indiaglitz.com

Srikanth looses out terribly with yet another tedious script that doesn’t capture your interests at any points…. Director Vidyadharan has come up with such a storyline that doesn’t hold the attention and the flimsy screenplay adds more to the spoiler factor.

The film is about a cunning blackmailer fallen in love with his childhood friend and wants to marry her. But when things aren’t favorable to his desires, it gets more complicated.

‘Rasikkum Seemane’ is about a conman, whose profession is about blackjacking bigwigs in town by getting into their private lives. Nandu (Srikanth) happens to be a brilliant blackmailer on conning such personalities (played by Kadhal Thandapani, Venniraadai Ramamurthy and Mayilsamy).

With a prologue set in backdrops of schooldays, it’s revealed that Nandu (Srikanth) and his classmate (Aravind Akash) were in love with a lovely belle (Navya Nair). Nonetheless, the young girl clearly admits that it’s not the right age for this relationship and she would marry the one, who becomes a doctor.

Regrettably, when Nandu’s father passes away, his dreams about studying medicine are put at stake. His dad’s close pal (director Vidyadharan) pulls him into the task of blackmailing, assuring him lots of money. And now, when his ladylove develops a great affinity for the other guy for becoming a doc, Nandu cannot bear his defeat and cannot afford to loose her out.

What unfolds next is a series of events that involves Nandu hatching serious plans about accomplishing his desires.

First and foremost, ‘Rasikkum Seemane’ doesn’t carry a strong storyline and the dragging screenplay really tastes your patience. The first half involving Srikanth’s deceitfulness tricks on Mayilsamy, Kadhal Thandapani and others have been narrated are spanking while the latter half throws you into unbearable restlessness.

If Srikanth has any plans to continue his career in screenland, he has to choose a better script. Just imagine his portrayed in debut flick ‘Roja Koottam’ and ‘Poo’: the actor was perfect on all arenas and has to sustain such traits in his upcoming flicks. Navya Nair does justice to her role and for those who expected a glam-feast from her, it’s a mere disappointment. Aravind Akash is okay while director Vidyadharan characterization is subtly delineated.

Musical score by Vijay Anthony doesn’t cater to anyone’s tastes and none of the songs are impressive. Panneer Selvam’s cinematography is average.

On whole, ‘Rasikkum Seemane’ doesn’t deserve a watch for its weak narration and has no chances of surviving at box office.

What works: Navya Nair, few moments in first half….

What didn’t work: unimpressive script, weak screenplay, Srikanth’s performance, music and more…
Verdict: Below average
Production: Thirumalai
Direction: Vidyadharan
-http://kollywood-movie.blogspot.com

Moreover, the screenplay just seems to be similar with reality shows that have dramas of ‘Elimination’, ‘Surprises’ and ‘unwanted special guests’ during the course of film’s protagonist pinning down on girl of his choice.

The film is about happy-go-lucky Karthik (Vishal) on the pursuit of best things in his life. Be the Reynolds pen or the girl he marries, if wants everything to be perfect. Karthik embarks on a completely perplexing journey of developing an affair with three different girls at the same time.

Priya (Sarah Jane) strongly believes falling in love with a person and marrying him while Tejaswani (Neethu Chandra), a top-class millionaire having a bitter experience in love and Jyothi (Tanushree Dutta), an athlete with a disregard for guys.

As Karthik starts flirting around with these gals, he is completely unaware about its consequences, which pits him into deep troubles more than he bargained for.

Vishal makes an effortless performance. But it’s quite interesting to watch him stepping out of stereotyped characterization. Naturally, the frontbenchers are sure to identify themselves with the role of Karthik. Neethu Chandra gets meaty role on different dimensions as she shares more screen space with Vishal. Sarah Jane enchants us with her cherubic looks and scores brownie points with her decorous show. Tanushree Dutta gets a substantial intro, but looses out her very characteristic nature due to filmmaker’s amateur treatment of establishing scenes. Prakash Raj sleepwalks through his role and doesn’t appear more than 3 sequences. Santhanam, Sathyan and Mayilsamy offer us delightful ingredients with witty one-liners. Some of their hilarious quotients keep the first half more spanking.

Debutant Thiru has picked a zippy script well-tailored for youth cohorts, but his screenplay is too predictable right from the beginning till end. Obviously, if you’re quite intelligent, you would guess the girl joining hands with Karthik at last. As mentioned earlier, the way Karthik eliminating each girl when they find out his cloak-and-dagger intentions is so tedious.

Musical score by Yuvan Shankar doesn’t contribute much to the film’s narration. Except ‘En Jannal Vandha’ none of them sounds interesting. Nonetheless, Vishal seems to have focused a lot over technical arenas – costumes and locations particularly.

Aravind Krishna’s cinematography is fantastic as he keeps playing with innovative placements of angles pertaining to psychological aspects of situations. Editing is okay and choreography by Bosco and Ceaser for ‘Theeradha Vilayattu Pillai’ is tremendous.

On whole, ‘Theeradha Vilayattu Pillai’ has convincing elements specially catering for B and C centres. With Sun Pictures handling it all with vigorous promotions, the film may get on for favorable results till next weekend with accordance to other releases.

What works: Vishal, Sarah Jane, Neetu Chandra, Comedy, cinematography…

What doesn’t work: Tanushree Dutta, slow-paced screenplay in second half, predictable moments, unwanted cameo of Sneha, Music….

Verdict: Watch it once…
-http://kollywood-movie.blogspot.com

Stories on father-daughter relationship are rarely made in Tamil cinema. Filmmaker K S Ravikumar, who is known for commercial entertainers, has tried his hands at a touchy tale, however quite typical to his style. There is action, romance and sentiment in the movie which has a strong storyline too.

Unlike earlier movies of Ravikumar, ‘Jaggubhai’ doesn’t involve a huge star cast but the artistes have a role to play in the script. Ravikumar has woven the screenplay around Sarath Kumar and Shriya with enough scope for sentiments and emotions. The whole story is set in Australia.

The movie, seemingly inspired by Japanese film ‘Wasabi’, does leave an impact with audience. Ravikumar has made certain changes that suit to the taste of the local audience.

Jaganathan (Sarath Kumar) is a tough cop, who is known for his rude ways of handling criminals. A bachelor, Jagannathan is dreaded by baddies. One day he gets a call from Australia informing him that his girl friend (Ilavarasi), who he met last some two decades ago had died and that her last wish was that a girl child born to her and Jaganathan be taken care by him.

Jaganathan sets on a trip to Australia to realise her last wish. Flashback reveals the incidents that took place 20 years ago. Jaganathan had been to the abroad country then as an under cover. He goes to the place disguised as Jaggubhai to catch a dreaded criminal (Hamid Ansari).

The Australian government provides a police officer called Man In Black (Goundamani) to help Jaggubhai. One day, Jaggubhai comes across a young girl (Ilavarasi) and slowly develops an affinity with her, He comes to know that she works for the don whom he is searching for.

He hatches a plan by which he decides to marry her. For the wedding cones the don. There a drama unfolds and the don manages to escape holding the girls’s father as bait. Coming to know that Jaggubhai had chosen to marry her only for catching the baddie, she starts to hate him and deserts him.

Come to present, Jaganathan lands in Australia and meets Man in Black. He also meets Monica (Shriya), his daughter. But hides the truth that he is her father and befriends her in the pretext of her care taker. The rest of the events are all how Jagannathan with the help of Man In Black wins over her confidence.

Sarath Kumar, who had played a mass hero untill now, settles down to play a father. Shouldering a major burden, he seems to have come up trumps bringing out the emotions of a dotting dad who wants to reunite with his daughter. He vents out anger, dejection and yearning for the love of his daughter very well.

Shriya, who untill now, has been seen as glamdoll in the industry, has played a spoilt brat. She is chirpy and active all through. Comedian Goundamani makes a comeback to play Sarath Kumar’s friend, who helps him in his mission. He is as usual is impressive with his one-liners.

The action scenes are the hallmark of the movie especially in the climax. The grand locations of Australia and the peppy background score are the USP. Produced by Radhika Sarath Kumar, Jaggubhai is no mindless masala movie, but an emotional tale which sustains interest in good parts.

Jaggubhai – Papa love
-http://kollywood-movie.blogspot.com

Cast:
Sathyaraj as Thangavelu / Nagaraja Cholan
Ranjitha as Uchamma
Manivannan as Manimaran