KANTHASAMY - MY REVIEW

Hi Guyzzz its been long since I wrote a review about a movie...so here comes a new one...this time its Vikram's megabudget movie KANDHASAMY....the movie has been in the news from the day it was announced and people were expecting a lot from this movie....first it started with the E-Invitation cards which contained the trailer of the movie and supposed to have costed Rs.15000/ per piece (Producere mottayadikkarathukku evalavu vazhi!!!)then we heard about the cutting edge technology (grafix) used for the movie and then the pics of Vikram in a female getup etc...the movie was in the making for almost 2 and a half years and the release got postponed numerous times (now I wish the movie release was postponed till eternity!!) due to various reasons (unfortunate demise of Raghuvaran who was cast in the role of CBI-JOINT Director-later played by Telugu veteran Superstar Krishna)(Vikram not happy with certain scenes and wanting to reshoot - LOL we are not happy with any of the scenes!!) etc.....


The movie had it all...a producer who gave him an almost unlimited budget (Paavam manushan!!!)...a mass hero like Vikram...eyecandy Shreya...ilaya thilakam Prabhu...a seasoned villain like Asish Vidyarthi etc etc but the movie lacked one thing A GOOD STORY to accommodate all the above....the story (can i call it that ??) has been told a 100 tyms by 100 directors and the most prominent among them is SHANKAR...I dont know if Susi Ganesan had seen SHIVAJI...coz if he has I dont think he wudve released the movie with almost the same story line (that too when SHIVAJI is fresh in the minds of tamil audience)...the fight against corruption is the main theme of the movie (wasnt GENTLEMAN,MUTHALVAN,INDIAN,ANNIYAN,SAMURAI and SHIVAJI enough ??) and it has been told and retold by many earlier and most of them met with success because of the novelty in story telling and performance of the stars but KANDHASAMY doesnot have anything novel to offer...the songs werent catchy...the stunts below par when compared to many other movies released recently...the performances of the actors were also mediocre....the only plus point according to me is the comedy track involving Vadivelu (and I think those parts were added to the movie at a later stage to include some comedy element which was missing in the movie otherwise)


The movie released in muscat on 20-08-09 (Thursday),a day before the chennai release and me being a hardcore movie fan wanted to watch it on the first day itself and since my bday just passed (17-08) I thought I wud offer this movie as my treat to my friends ..so I asked one of my friend to book the tickets (16tkts) and was overwhelmed with joy when my friend told that he managed to get the tickets…then I asked my friends to join me for the movie…so by 9.30 pm we were all present in the theater and we had to wait for about 30mins outside the theater coz the earlier show ended late (the movie is 3hrs +) and it was bloody hot outside and we were sweating like pigs (do pigs sweat ?? - just checked the net and realised that my usage is wrong - sweating like pig means doing nothing or LAZY and pigs don’t have sweat glands!! Anyway I hope you understood what I meant)…people started to complain and I convinced them stating after a LONG wait comes GOOD things (Dialogukkonnum kurachil ille!!)…..atlast the movie started by 10/10.10 pm and the movie hall was almost full (Housefull I suppose) and the people were all in good mood…obviously most of them were Vikram fans and had come to watch their CHIYAN in action after a long gap (his last outing BHEEMA was a superflop)…


The opening scene shows devotees praying in front of a Murugan aka KANDHASAMY temple and tying their petitions on the branches of a tree coz it is believed that all those petitions will be answered by Lord Kandhasamy…..a woman asks for Rs.100,000/-for her husband's surgery and nextday she sees a bag containing Rs.100,000/- in front of her house…she being a honest woman took the bag to the nearby police station and handed it over to the inspector…the corrupt inspector (played by Mansoor Ali Khan) takes the bag for himself….the same night while he was asleep a mysterious man (???) disguised as a human COCK (hope u understood what I meant!!) attacks him and asks him to give back the money to the lady and then brands his face with a SPEAR symbol (Lord Kandhasamy's weapon)…this scene and getup reminds me of a scene from the French movie VIDOCQ (released -2001) (honestly the only sentence/word I know in french is J'et aime…..I watched the movie VIDOCQ with subtitiles and watched it just a couple of weeks back) where a mysterious man/creature called ALCHEMIST disguises like a BAT with a mirror in the place of face and the action sequences were almost similar though without the COCK mimicing ….next morning when the inspector gets up he is not sure if it was a nightmare or a real happening coz the only evidence of such a thing happened is the branding on his face….a few such incidents and the news spreads like wildfire and the temple is crowded with people asking for divine intervention in solving their issues…..

So now one face of Vikram is shown…now coming to the 2nd face….Vikram is a strict and no-nonsense CBI officer who toils hard to eradicate corruption (MISSION IMPOSSIBLE!!).The action begins with a raid in Asish Vidyarthi's house….Vikram finds out where Asish keeps his secret documents and manages to seize the documents…Asish Vidyarthi will fake a paralysis (I dunno why the hell he did that…..there is no apparent reason for such a drama) and now Sreya (Asish's daughter) wants to take revenge (Look whos playing BAD girl!!) and she tries to harass or trap Vikram (She goes to Vikram's office and tears off her clothes ………we were all expecting her to tear off a lil more so that atleast we cudve consoled ourself saying - What the hell..we got our money's worth……but unfortunately that too didn’t happen..)

The rest of the story is about how Vikram succeeds in fighting the baddies and a flashback to show us why Vikram and his pals chose to play KANDHASAMY…..the only HIGHLIGHT of the movie is Vikram's disguise as a SEVAL and he to a great extent managed to imitate the actions of a cock (Ivar seval vesham pottu aadarathu pakkaruthukka namma 2.5 varshama kathukkittirunthom ???)…..then there is the female getup which fails to make any impact…Why such gimmicks ?? what are they trying to prove ??......the movie wudve done better if they gave KANDHASAMY a superhero image like KRRISH (atleast kids wudve been happy!!) but director failed to do that also (in the movie itself they explains that the stunts were choreographed with the use of technology and no superpower is involved!!)….the fight scene in Mexico where a blindfolded Vikram defeating the goons are nothing new to us…..Didn’t we see the same thing in Lalettan's YODHA (malayalam movie directed by Rajiv Anchal) which was released before a decade and half ???....even my tamil friends wud remember the movie coz it was dubbed to tamil with the title ASOKAN and telecasted in various tamil channels (esp RAJ TV) numerous times….the actions sequences and overseas locales wudve entertained us few years before coz we werent exposed to such sequences but now we have cable-tv even in the remotest of the villages and people watch hollywood blockbusters on a daily basis so our cheap imitation of hollywood style wont impress them like earlier days….they will watch a movie only if it has something new or entertaining to offer….AYAN/ANNIYAN/SHIVAJI etc had something new to offer and it had some good performances and catchy songs whereas KANDHASAMY has nothing to offer….(Sreya's costumes in song sequences made sure that songs will be WATCHED and remembered eventhough not HEARD and remembered!!!)


First half of the movies was somewhat okey coz we were all expecting that there will be twists and turns as the movie progresses but by the beginning of second half we were pretty sure that NOTHING interesting is going to happen and this realisation made watching the rest of the movie a painful experience…I think the director realised that something is missing when he reached climax and then he inserted an ITEM SONG (Enna kodumai SUSI GANESAN sir ithu….)…Mumaith Khan's dance was missed by most I suppose (coz most of them were almost asleep…it was 1.00AM) and at last after that song director decided to end the movie and there is a climax court scene and like in all movies the HERO, though committed some mistakes was pardoned by the court coz he did what he did for the benefit of the society….


Intha padam pathathukkapparam en friends enne (Aint I the one who made them watch this atrocity ??) kollame vittathukku ore oru reason thaan irukku…coz like them I was also a victim and they knew very well that I did this without malice and I am innocent…..


Some points/questions

1) I really don’t understand why the film took 2.5 years to complete…..
2) Why the hell is Vikram wasting years on such stupid projects ?
3) Why is KALAIPULI THANU (producer) still taking such risks after his AALAVANTHAN experience ?
4) The movie is supposed to be KOLLYWOODs answer to HOLLYWOOD….in what way ???
5) Makeup for makeup's sake will not help in running a movie (the lady getup,the oldman getup etc)…we have seen too much makeup in recent years (AVVAI SHANMUGHI,INDIAN,CITIZEN,DASAVATHARAM,ANNIYAN,PERAZHAGAN,VARANAM AAYIRAM,ANBE SIVAM etc) and it doesn’t fascinate us anymore….