Sunday, June 19, 2005

Tamil movie Anniyan - Review (with no spoilers)

I remember making three predictions in movie industry so far, and all of them have come true.

When I saw Vikram for the first time in Meera (1992) I knew this guy was a hero material. And I predicted he will be very successful. 5 years later, when Ullasam (1997) flopped at the box office, I was wondering what is wrong, why is he not being accepted by the people as a hero.
But now seeing how he is talked about being the next Rajni of Tamil industry, I am so glad.

The second person is Jothika. When I saw her for the first time in the movie Vaalee (1999), where she made a cameo appearance, I knew she will be a big hit in Tamil movies. That happened too.

The third was Yana Gupta. When I saw her in the song 'Babuji Zara' in the Hindi movie Dum(2002) I knew she was hot and she will be a big hit.That happened too.

Now coming back to the movie...

The movie is an out and out entertainer. From scene one to the last scene the movie does not fail to entertain the viewers.The movie is 3 hours long.

Theme/Concept

of the movie is nothing new. In fact Shankar himself had made his earlier movies Gentleman(1993) & Indian(1996) on the same concept.
The difference in this movie is how he said that using the latest technologies and trends.

Songs

in the movie was actually choreographically disappointing. The first 3 songs, had no good dance movements. They were either standing or walking. That's it.Pathetic.
I had great expectations for the 'Kaadhal Yaanai' song. Honestly it turned out to be the biggest disappointment. I think they basically wasted the talents of Yana Gupta. She is an excellent dancer, but this song had really no good dance movements. I was disappointed.
The best song turned out to be 'Kannum Kannum Nokia'. The dance movements were better, definitely not awesome. But the way the song was shot and the special effects were really good.

Stunt

The stunt at the Vietnamese martial arts center was really good. Even though many of the sequences were a copy from several movies, mostly Matrix, this still had some unique sequences and was really shot well.
Where Shankar made a mistake, in my opinion, was during the fight in the alley. Vikram or Anniyan, was making some supernatural stunt movements, which in my opinion, was crappy. This is not a sci-fi movie. Those sequences were odd. People were laughing at those sequences in the theater. It was worse than Rajni's volley ball fight scene in Baba.

Some of the killing scenes were quite violent. I could hear many ladies in the theater saying 'Ewww'.

Special Effects

was really better in this movie than many other Tamil movies. Time slicing, even though an old technology today, was little different in the fight scene at the martial arts center, where the camera was panned diagonally. I thought that was good.

Comedy

vivek as usual, was excellent. The timings were perfect.

Vikram

was good. The only thing that was of concern was his size. He is not fat, but his body-frame has become very large. He looked odd in dance sequences. But if he had increased his body-frame specifically for this movie, then I hope he reduce it down a little bit.

Sada

was awesome. Many don't like her. Even in the movie Vivek makes fun of her calling her 'Sappai figure'. But I liked her.

The movie overall fares average when it comes to conveying the 'message'. I think 'Indian' and 'Gentleman' were better in that sense.

This movie should be a big success.