With much reluctance, I agreed to go and watch this movie at the Inox theatre last week with my family. My spirits to watch a Kamala Hassan movie got dampened when I noticed that the hall was half empty and felt justified when the show ended! Here's Kamal, a retired Army Major who takes up a job of a detective for Madhavan, an industrialist who asks him to trail Trisha who is a film actor and engaged to Madhavan. Knowing pretty well that Trisha is an actor and has to act in close quarters with all her heroes cast opposite to her, Madhavan and his mother creates ruckus forcing her to take off from her schedule to be with her friend Sangeetha in Paris. In the meantime, the character of Madhavan undergoes a change as he takes to drinking. The way of speaking also changes as he spits venom on Trisha imagining her to be in love with her co-star! K S Ravikumar, the director has not grown up from his younger days and cherishes the olden themes which are no longer relevant in modern times. Kamal, the retired Major is on a spying trail of Trisha and in the bargain takes us around France, Italy and Spain for no reason. Kamal has tried to emulate the style and script of "Crazy Mohan" but has failed to live up to the original creating unnecessary confusion of personalities and the surroundings. The little boy of Sangeetha is an eye sore to the entire movie as he talks and behaves a bit too much for his character and size. There is no music despite the fact that Devi Sri Prasad appears in the title as the music director. Kamal has the habit of overpowering the music directors to sing for himself and i the bargain, you hear an old haggard voice trying to sing in tune! I could see many people walking out of the show in the middle due to absolute boredom but I cling ed to the seat since it provided a nice cushioned seating for relaxing. Kamal still has appetite for acting as Hero when in reality his face and structure looks old and older for an actor like Trisha! He also romances a white girl in the film who looks stunning and even better than Trisha but unfortunately dies in an accident to pave way and scope for Kamal to romance Trisha, all over again? The Major who does all this just to fund the cancer treatment of his ailing friend in Ramesh Arvind has in the process made sure that Ramesh Arvind, who is otherwise a good actor is totally out of the film industry! The role which Ramesh Arvind has doned does not speak well about his future to sustain in the industry. Cleverly at the end, Kamal keeps Trisha for himself and pairs Madhavan with Sangeetha who is a divorcee with 2 ready made kids who have outgrown their size! It will be worthwhile for Madhavan and Ramesh Arvind not to appear in Kamal's films as they don't add up to the value and on the contrary, it only diminishes. K S Ravikumar must go for a directorial course in Hollywood just to replenish his thoughts which are old and stale. The only directorial appreciation in the whole movie is when Kamal explains his life to Trisha when things roll back in the reverse mode. Udayanidhi Stalin must have taken up this project as a sequel and challenge to check mate his relatives in Sun Pictures who made Robot with Rajini and Shankar but must be feeling sorry about the outcome of this movie. Rajini has certainly grown in size, stature and image whereas Kamal is where he was 20 years back! If you are looking for some nice airconditioned relaxation, I would recommend this movie any day!!
The walk from the alighting point up to the baggage claim can measure up to a Kilometer! Obviously, our countrymen find this a difficult encounter as everyone is used to the luxury of not walking inside the airport at all all these years!
Although there are walkalators provided as in Singapore, it was not working in some of the stretches causing little inconvenience to the passengers. I could find quite a few grumbling about this walk to catch a flight or to retrieve the baggage but then, one has to understand that this is how all the big airports outside the country are! There are battery operated carts that cater to the elders and needy to transport them to their respective gates to board like in Singapore. There are many shops and establishments within the airport to amuse the passengers according to their wants and taste! The airport security that frisks the passengers are a bit slow and lethargic in their attitude which is the sole irking point. What requires monitoring is that there are men who hop on to the moving battery operated carts within the airport who keep gossipping with the driver preventing him from discharging his duties towards the public and one really wonders as to how these men get inside the airport? If they are staff attached to some other department then they should be given warning not to hop onto the vehicle that is meant for passenger's use. The experience of T 3 requires appreciation and both the civil aviation minister and the Airport authority deserve it richly!
During my 20 years of banking career with Oriental Bank of Commerce, I dealt with thousands of clients and staff and enriched my experience of dealing with each one of them not necessarily in the same way and often indulging in compromise for the sake of managing the branch affairs! One such personality whom I can not forget in the bank while working at Chennai was a Tamilian, quite fragile looking, advocate like behaviour and a strong memory power which could not be challenged at any point of time! This gentleman named Mani(name changed) always had to say the opposite of whatever you say and used to insist that his view point is correct! The net result was that you could never extract what you wanted from that particular person and it became a known phenomenon in the bank that Mr Mani would never listen to what seniors said ? All the branch incumbents started ignoring this person for the simple reason that he will try and reason out not to fall in your line of thinking! Quite often I was pleasantly reminded of a joke that was in circulation in the 80s which goes like this:
He was confronted by a jury of higher officials and Engineers from the Rail Ministry who posed a question to him. Given a situational cloudy dark evening with expected thunder showers and gusty winds, you find that the fish plates of the rails near the level crossing have been removed and in a matter of 15 minutes some Express train is going to pass by? You as a responsible gate keeper of the level crossing notice this grave situation and want to prevent the train from passing and resulting in accident. what will you do?
Hrithik as a quadriplegic patient has shown what acting is all about siting on a wheel chair or lying on a bed purely with his facial expressions and makes even hard core men jerk their tears with his acting. Aishwarya as a nurse treating Hrithik for well over 12 years is fully decked up and dolled to make any paralysed men to wish for a nurse like Aish!! Aishwarya as a serious nurse devoted in service of Hrithik does well when she argues a point in the court for the quadriplegic patients who opt death instead of undergoing the secluded life and inevitable slow death! The following Spanish dance in a pub explains the talents of this world beauty in dancing, foot tapping and the understanding of the rhythm. The graceful actor does a dance which is the only main entertainment in the whole film!!
The editing of the film is wonderfully mixed with scenes depicting Hrithik as a magician and the performances which are magical and captivating. The 3 scenes of magic that's is pictured is absolutely amazing and the audience watch it with awe! There was an expectation that more of such magic with Hrithik will be shown to keep the audience amused and be mesmerised under the aura of Hrithik who looks more an Italian with his long curls and unshaven beard stubs!
