Kanthaswamy – Review
Film: Kanthaswamy (Tamil, 2009)
Cast: Vikram, Shriya, Vadivelu, Prabhu and others
Direction: Susi Ganeshan
Music: Devi Sri Prasad
According to Princeton dictionary. Hype: (Verb): publicize in an exaggerated and often misleading manner. The movie Kanthaswamy and the expectations created around it for over 2 years, exactly fits into the princeton’s definition of Hype.
The storyline is not something new to the cinemas. Its a potpourri of atleast 10 Tamil movies with stunts and sequences inspired from Hollywood. The new factor would be the camera angles and lighting. The movie starts with devotees offering their prayers in writing to Lord Kanthaswamy in a temple in Thiruporur. Their prayers are answered (somehow everybody asks only for money… no one asks for health, peace or happiness). Who is delivering all this money and whats the source for this person? It turns out to be our Hero (rather Superhero) in a Rooster costume. Vikram is Kandaswamy, an officer with the CBI. He raids wealthy people and seizes money that are not declared to the government. He leaks away part of the seized money and distributes to the needy who pen their requirements at the temple.
One such wealthy person to be raided is the villain PPP enacted by Aashish Vidhyarthi and his daughter is Subbulakshmi enacted by Shreya Sharan. The story continues in the usual fashion as a cock and bull fight between Kanthaswamy and PPP. Shreya initially vows to avenge Kanthaswamy for the trouble he creates for her father. But later falls in love with him. How Kanthaswamy reveals the villains to the public and law is the remainder of the plot. Extravagent locations, costumes, stunt sequences are the help us stay awake throughout this movie which drags for almost 3 and half hours.
Vikram is as usual an embodiment of talent. He dons the role so well and makes it look like a cakewalk. If at all this movie deserves any applause, its equally shared between Vikram, special effects team and the camera crew. His costumes are good. Liked the parts where he plays Aishwarya Rai and an Old Priest. His masked cape crusader costume fit in well. Shreya is an irritant. RJ Suchi has dubbed for her and it doesn’t fit at all. She is trying to ape Shakira for the hip movements and imitate the bollywood fashion design. None suits her. Shreya wears both an attitude and skimpy outfits and neither does any good to her role. Negate the scenes with Shreya in it and still the movie is complete. She is an unnecessary ingredient for this totally unnecessary movie. Vadivel appears in a couple of comedy sequences, which never walks along with the movie. He is given the role, mainly for his brand name. The sequences are not enjoyable but on the other hand they are boring. His scenes can be negated as well. Prabhu has done a decent part.
With Shreya and Vadivel’s scenes reduced and a few more edits here and there, the entire story could have been an enjoyable 1 hour movie. Just before the climax (5 min before) there is an Item song by Mumaith Khan. After waiting for 3 hours for the movie to end, watching an Item song is totally an unpleasant experience. Post that scene, the villain pays 30 lakhs to Mumaith Khan for a private dance. Kanthaswamy tells him instead he could have adopted a village and helped the poor people for that money. That message is valid not only for the ultra wealthy high class, but also to the normal middle class people. Instead of spending money on unnecessary and trivial stuff, we can help the needy. The message conveyed by the plot is loud and clear. Undeclared money is contributing to the decay of our economy. These assets and liquid cash stowed away in banks and properties around the world has to be smoked out.
Sound Track Music (OST) by Devi Sri Prasad is not enjoyable. Its like a noise jam in the theater. The credits could have been rewritten as Sound pollution by Devi Sri Prasad. But he has done a commendable job with the background score. The remixing makes the movie enjoyable. I learnt that the production unit has adopted a village and helping them with the economic crisis. But still they could have minimized their unnecessary spending to market this movie for 2 whole years. Press meets, advertisements, electronic invitations (Rs 15,000 each), hoardings, Shreya and Vadivel salary and many such overheads could have been reduced to adopt another village. Why not?
Kanthaswamy is BandhaaSwamy…
gAdvice: Wait for few months and this movie will be premiered in TV soon.
gRating: 2.5/5
Movies over the Weekend
Have been watching quite a few movies over the past few weeks. Let me sum-up and write out short reviews on the good ones.
Step up 2 the Streets
This is yet another underdog movie. Its about freestyle street dancing. The movie features some fantastic hip hop beats and lots of amazing dance movements. The entire cast is a bunch of rubber bone dancers. The choreography is splendid and attention has been paid to each and every movement. The climax dance in rain is the crown jewel of the movie. The story is not unique but the screenplay keeps you glued to the movie. If you are a fan of gravity defying, super synchronous, rare to watch freestyle dancing, then this movie will prove to be a clean entertainer.
gRate 3.5/5
Jaane Tu Ya Jaane na
Aamir’s blood relation and production house has proved that its worth its value. Imran is totally awesome to watch and so is Genelia. Genelia has come up with a never-before performance, but would seriously advice her to shed the cute-curious-adrenaline-filled college girl image asap, else she would be branded and loose out of the industry soon. The plot is unique and the screenplay is just right. No macho heroism for a debutant from a starry family. No overacting by any of the cast, except the girl who hears the story. My best moments in the movie are the ones with Nazrudin Shah’s appearances. I would not say that this is an out-of-the-box movie, but the somehow this movie relates to at-least a part of every-one’s life. Go watch it and comeback with a super-happy-refreshed-young mind.
gRate 4/5
WALL-E
YAAM (Yet another animated Movie) and YAASM (yet another animated superhit movie). WALL E is about a lonely robot who is left to reside on earth and all the humans fly out to space to live in a spaceship. Their only hope of returning to earth is discovered by WALL E (short for Waste Allocation Lift Loader, Earth-Class)and his gobot (girl robot) EVE ((short for Extra-terrestrial Vegetation Evaluator). Their journey and destiny to bring back the humans to earth and win each other’s robotic heart (or rather Memory/Processing Module) is the storyline. Don’t miss this if you are a fan of animated movies.
gRate 3.5/5
The Superhero Movie
yuk…why do they try satirical comedy if they don’t understand the basic literal meaning of comedy? The aim was to mock spiderman movies make fun of other superhero movies. The target totally missed and the result is a gross boring movie.
gRate 1/5
update!
Kung Fu Panda
After failing to deliver the promised with SHREK 3 and OVER THE HEDGE, Dreamworks animation house is back in business with KungFu Panda. Watching through the movie, initially i was sort of getting bored, but the momentum picked up and the really funny scenes and action sequences started pouring in. Just after Po enters the Jade Palace, its laugh after laugh, excellent voice acting, amazing CG animation. The story was great and the background was beautiful, it really felt like an ancient Chinese city. The plot revolves around a wannabe-kungfu-figher-overweight, cute, clumsy panda called Po(Jack black). He hears that the dragon warrior is going to named and he wants to see it, but sudden turnaround of events, he himself is appointed to be become the Dragon warrior much to the horror of Master Shifu (Dustin Hoffman) and the Furious Five: Tigress (Angelina Jolie), Viper (Lucy Liu), Mantis (Seth Rogen), Crane (David Cross) and Monkey (Jackie Chan). Shifu must find a way to train him. One hilarious moment after another continues until Shifu recognizes Po’s true driving force. This is just in time as the villain Tai Lung (Ian McShane), a snow leopard has returned as he believe is the true Dragon Warrior.
gRate 3/5
Speed Racer
The Wachowski Brothers have done it again! Yes, they have made a splending movie that will link to mythology, karma, parampara and bhavishya. They have made a movie with high octance action sequences and laymen can enjoy the action while the philosophers can get the hidden messages. But its kinda boring and contains highly bollywood-type brother sentiment and family sentiments. Mr and Mr Wachowski, you can’t sell this movie in India, we have seen much more like this.
gRate 2.5/5
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