Skip to main content

KAATRU VELIYIDAI

How many times have we seen a love story from Mani Ratnam’s stable? He pushes the bar a notch higher whenever he does one, filled with something fresh every single time. Kaatru Veliyidai is the latest entrant to the romantic collection of Mani. So what’s different this time? The characters for sure, the premise and of course the treatment.

What makes Mani Ratnam special is that he comes up with some well-designed characters that stay with us long after the film ends. Here again in Kaatru Veliyidai, even after all these years, Mani has two absorbing characters for us to goggle at. At first, you may not understand them, you may, in fact, hate them for a moment but with time we get more involved. Mani Ratnam’s characters are never perfect as they have their share of negatives. Despite their flaws, you would love them and that is how beautifully sketched characters are officer VC (Karthi) and Dr. Leela (Aditi).

Karthi looks in his ostentatious best. He plays a fighter pilot, a role that you see being performed in Tamil cinema once in a blue moon. A pilot who undergoes so much of mental trauma. More than the trauma, it is his personal in born character, a self-centered young man, who likes no one but himself.  That said, one might feel that Karthi is a little less natural in romantic portions.

Leela (Aditi), a doctor who falls head over heels in love with officer VC, a not so stable person. She is at constant pressure, dilemma and there is too much going on in her head. How she handles herself? Is she mentally strong enough to face her problems? This character faces a lot of challenges. So not an easy deal to play Dr. Leela and for a non-Tamil speaking girl like Aditi it is an even tougher job but she has played it well.

There is this one dialogue that describes this movie in nutshell. When Nidhi (Rukmani), tells to Illyas Hussain (RJ Balaji), “I like you, you like Leela and she likes VC but VC likes only himself.” VC likes only VC, yes that’s what the whole subject is about, how love changes an uncaring selfish man’s life.




Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Maaran

Even as early as about five minutes into Maaran, it’s hard to care. The craft seems to belong in a bad TV serial, and the dialogues and performances don't help either. During these opening minutes, you get journalist Sathyamoorthy (Ramki) rambling on about publishing the ‘truth’, while it gets established that his wife is pregnant and ready to deliver ANY SECOND. A pregnant wife on the cusp of delivery in our 'commercial' cinema means that the bad men with sickles are in the vicinity and ready to pounce. Sometimes, it almost feels like they wait around for women to get pregnant, so they can strike. When the expected happens—as it does throughout this cliché-ridden film—you feel no shock. The real shock is when you realise that the director credits belong to the filmmaker who gave us Dhuruvangal Pathinaaru, that the film stars Dhanush, from whom we have come to expect better, much better. Director: Karthick Naren Cast: Dhanush, Malavika Mohanan, Ameer, Samuthirakani Stre...
3 comments
Read more

Kuthiraivaal

  Kuthiraivaal Movie Review:  Manoj Leonel Jahson and Shyam Sunder’s directorial debut Kuthiraivaal brims with colours and striking imagery. This is apparent as early as its first scene, where its protagonist Saravanan alias Freud squirms in his bed, suspecting a bad omen. As some light fills his aesthetic apartment wrapped with vintage wall colours, his discomfort finally makes sense—for he has woken up with a horse’s tail! The scene is set up incredibly, leaving us excited for what is to come. But is the film as magical as the spectacle it presents on screen? Kuthiraivaal revolves around Saravanan (played by a brilliant Kalaiyarasan) and his quest to find out why he suddenly wakes up with a horse’s tail, and on the way, his existence in life. Saravanan’s universe is filled with colourful characters, almost magical yet just real enough—be it his whimsical neighbour Babu (Chetan), who speaks about his love for his dog and loneliness in the same breath, or the corner-side cigar...
1 comment
Read more

Valimai

  H Vinoth's Valimai begins with a series of chain-snatching incidents and smuggling committed by masked men on bikes in Chennai. The public is up in arms against the police force, who are clueless. In an internal monologue, the police chief (Selva) wishes for a super cop to prevent such crimes. The action then cuts to Madurai, where a temple procession is underway.then we are introduced to ACP Arjun (Ajith Kumar), the film’s protagonist, whose introduction is intercut with scenes from the procession. Like a God who is held up high, we see this character rising up from the depths. In short, a whistle-worthy hero-introduction scene. We expect that Vinoth has done away with the mandatory fan service given his star's stature and will get around to making the film he wanted to make. And it does seem so for a while when Arjun gets posted to Chennai and starts investigating a suicide case that seems connected to the chain-snatching and drug-smuggling cases from before. Like in his pr...
4 comments
Read more