PODA PODI

 

Frankly, I wanted to watch poda podi first for diwali, even before thuppakki but eventually it turned out to be the other way round. There was around 70- 80 % occupancy in the theatre but it was quite noisy. Its always tough to release a film , despite knowing the fact that there is another huge film releasing and in all probably your film will only be second best to the big film. But despite hiccups like getting lesser theatres, lesser share in marketing etc ,Credit has to be given to the poda podi team ( with a new director, new heroine , relatively new music director ) for making the release without backing out in favor of the other heavy weight film.

   

                                                     The one-liner, " journey of a couple - their love, marriage, life" is brought about by the director in various episodes with catchy names. As typical Rom-Com , Poda Podi starts briskly with the introductions and then ,the hero and heroine falling for each other but soon the story and screenplay keep meandering away or remain stagnant as far as the plot is concerned. But when we start thinking such way , STR , VTV ganesh and some peppy music pulls us back into the movie and sustain our interest in the movie. The second half  is much better than the first half in the sense that atleast the story keeps moving forward.

PERFORMANCES - STR fits into the character of arjun to the T, as a cool, modern day urban yet possessive youth. He gives an energetic performance which actually tries to lifts the whole movie up ( Again thankfully no bulid ups, no punch dialogues, no beating up 100 goons), there is only one fight which is pretty relevant to the plot. STR emotes brilliantly ( with his trademark sarcasm), be it comedy ( Chithapa nee adicha jokekukku naan naalaikku sirikkiren ) , or romance. The heroine Varalakshmi is relevant for a dance based story like this  as she was hyped as a good dancer and she justifies her credentials, but there are other skills that require improvement  ,especially dubbing. VTV ganesh's timing comedy works in most parts.

HITS - Dharan's music with some refreshing and peppy numbers , dance by the lead pair , STR - ganesh timing comedies, Vivid portrayal of London are the high points of the movie. Climax, though ' Rab ne Bana de jodi - ISH " , is new to tamil cinema and rightfully gets good response from the audience.

MISSES - Are a plenty in this movie. The basic script and the screenplay look flawed and incomplete.Editing too is not what you would expect in a mainstream movie. Also, there are only 4 main characters in the story which itself gives a dull feel. Plus there are scenes which are bad copies of bollywood rom-coms like salaam namaste and hum tum. Some dialogues , though getting claps and whistles from the front benchers, are extremely male centric and could have been avoided.

                                             Poda podi is thus an average rom- com taken forward by the youthful songs, dances ,colorful numbers and some decent comedy but pegged back by the lack of substance in the script.

                                             

THUPPAKKI

The Mushrooming of Mulitplexes and sophisticated cinema theatres in most parts of the state, and the fact that i was out of the state for a year meant i had missed a lot of action at the tamil box office over the last year or so. Diwali at home, And a Big Film, with a Big director, Big hero, Big Music Director releasing excited me, for diwali or any festival for that matter is incomplete without a movie !!!
                                                So Diwali day night show, i show up at the theatre and find massive crowd ! fighting, haggling, getting beaten by police but ready to be beaten yet want to catch up their "thalapathy" ( DISCLAIMER - IAM NO VIJAY  OR AJITH FAN , but I do like and appreciate their wonderful entertainers). Having grown up watching and worshipping Rajini , for the first time i felt "VIJAY HAS ARRIVED AND FITS RIGHT UP THERE " yesterday, or in other words, i was forced into that conclusion by the massive,massive crowd that had turned up.
                                                  Now, coming to the movie itself, It gets into "bullet" mode straight away despite having the usual masala hero introduction and a song ( very very subtle compared to pathetic introductions of vijay in movies like sivakasi, sura ). Scenes are cleverly woven and murugadoss successfully tries to give logics to them ( eg. the fight game cleverly finishes vijay s intro and gets us into that "mode" and doesnt intrigue us when he uses games with his batchmates further down the movie). Screenplay completely engrosses the audience with some "delicious masala elements" like finding the gagged bomber in vijay's room, 12 simultaneous hits in vijay's "game" and so on.. Movie races to the interval with frequent pit stops in the form of songs.
                           The second half too, goes at considerable pace , but as the plot heats up the love scenes, songs become burdensome and seriously hamper the pace of the movie. Yet murugadoss being the kind of story teller he is, sustains the interest till the very end.

HITS - Murugadoss's screenplay is the biggest plus. With the same one line of thuppakki , the screenplay of someone like perarasu would have made thuppakki into one of those vijayakanth's movies - which is why murugadoss's screenplay ( with elements like the sleeper cells ) is the movie's biggest strength , as big as the hero itself.The new villain vidyut jamwal is also refreshing and lends a good hand for the movie's cause. Thankfully no loud punch dialogues from vijay.

MISSES - Thuppakki doesnt have a proper comedy track because its supposed to be a serious movie. If thats the case then why have the romantic portions and songs ??? they only hamper the movie's speed. Jayaram ,sathyan double up as comedians and provide supporting roles which further slows down proceedings. Plus the usual logical questions of masala movies, "gilli" like climax.

                                      Usually in such cat and mouse plots between hero and villain, the recent trend has been to show the villain very powerful and hero just about retaliating before a final blow or the hero completely blows away the villain. But in thuppakki,the villain character is very powerful yet the hero always outhinks and stays ahead in the game (except in the final stages) Things like this is what separates thuppakki from other similar movies at the tamil box office.

                                        I have heard many comments like " Vijay only remakes hit films" , " Vijay is fit for remake of mahesh babu only " and so on.. For all those, Vijay shoots his answers loud through thuppaki  - Its time for the mahesh babu s and Salman khans, to line up and get ready to remake " Namma vijay's " thuppakki !!!