Movie Marathon

I had a movie marathon in the last few days and here are some reviews.

Aathi: Either my taste has gone bad or my immunity has reached sky levels because I watched Aathi and I liked it. I admit it is masala movie. There is an intro scene for Vijay where he saves a guy from suicide just to let him rattle off a few punch dialogues. It has lots of stereotypes unique to Tamil cinemas and Vijay. There is hyper irritating phrase that is more common nowadays in Vijay's movies: 'Nee enna periya Gilli'aa?' Still it is a good time pass.

Vijay and Trisha are from the same family. She is like a mora ponnu to Vijay. They are in a big joint family whose head is the irritating Vijayakumar. Vijay's dad is the honest police officer Prakash Raj. Their entire family gets killed by the villain after Prakash Raj has a run-in with him. Trisha escapes with her Dad played by Nasser while Vijay escapes alone. Their paths are separated. Vijay is adopted by Manivannan and his wife and they raise him in Delhi. Vijay comes to Chennai for college and starts killing off the Villains one by one and the climax scenes include how Vijay and Trisha discover each other to be related (Not as anna-thangai though as this will render all duet songs redundant) and they kill the villain.

Happy Days: I saw this Telugu movie after a friend recommended it. I watched it with subtitles of course. The movie is about a group of students who get into college in Hyderabad. The movie takes us through their 4 years together as they start out as freshers, experience ragging, fall in love, struggle through friendships, lessons etc. It is a neat, feel-good movie and has the same main theme as Ullam Kekume. Ullam Kekume was a director's movie. It had some subtle nuances and touches. It carries a distinct heaviness throughtout the movie (well captured in that single song 'Mazhai mazhai').

Harry Potter & the Half-Blood Prince: Generally for movies which are based on books, such as this, I give the director some leeway. Mainly because of the inevitable comparison that ensues which usually ends the same way: the book was much better than the movie. Even with Ron Howard's Da Vinci Code, I actually enjoyed the movie when many people did not. They accused that the movie took on a softer stand, left out crucial details etc.

Similarly, I enjoyed Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince book. It had lots of magic, action and other good scenes. So I went to the movie with good expectations. But about 2hours into the movie I was squinting at my watch in the darkness and thought "What the hell? the movie is only half hour more and they showed nothing till now. When are they going to get the Horcrux, when will Dumbledore die, etc." And as I feared they were more like passing references. The bulk of the movie was focused on how pink could Hermione's cheeks get from crying and feeling jealous and for how long could Ginny stay away from giving Harry that inevitable kiss. I felt like watching a teenage drama. My friend argues rather pedantically that these scenes were very much a part of the book. But, I say, it had much more in the book than blooming love.

So, anyway, it was a total yawn fest.

The Hangover: It is a good movie. A bridegroom-to-be is given a bachelor party at Las Vegas by 3 guys. They get drunk and drugged and have a wild night about which they have no recollections on the next morning. But the problem is the bridegroom is missing. So the rest of the movie is about how they find the guy. The plot takes us through some funny scenes. But I didn't find them too funny. I think American Pie was more hilarious, given that both movies dealt with slapstick humor of the same level.

Weekends are good!