Back with a Bang

Sorry for the boycottish title but this one rightly justifies the story of two kingly comebacks in tamil cinema. Both of them were seen invincible at a point in time, but fell flat on their face in their previous releases. Yes, Rajnikanth after a serious setback from Baba is back with Chandramukhi. Shankar after disastrous Boys is back with Anniyan. Chandramukhi has already topped the charts and is expected to break all records of collection. Anniyan is no way behind, though released late, it is sure to catch-up with Chandramukhi. In short happy cinemagoers are jubilant again. Apart from being the comeback vehicle these two films have something else in common. If you have seen them, you know it. Otherwise don ' t worry, you will know it as you read this.


Chandramukhi
Baba was calamitous. Poor story, loose screenplay, awful looking Rajni - Manisha, not so good music by Rehman and a blunt climax. It had every ingredient of a flop. The result was obvious, even die-hard Rajni fans found it a bitter thing to swallow. " A poor movie, even if it stars the SUPER STAR will not run " . Industry pundits found the fact a bit unnerving. The man who accepted the fact first, is none other than Superstar himself - “ I am not an elephant, I am a horse, I will get up in no time”, said Rajni.
Award winning ' Manichitra tazh ' from malayalam, modified here and there to suit Rajni - Abaracabadabra!! we have Chandramukhi. This movie, is a mile stone in Rajni ' s career. Sans his gimmicks, punch dialogues and one-man show Chandramukhi is unlike previous Rajni ' s movies.

Sarvanan (Rajni) is a psychiatrist who helps his friend Senthil (Prabhu) and his wife Ganga (Jothika) to find the reason behind all strange things that happen in Senthil ' s ' supposed to be haunted ' palace. In course he comes to know about the story of brutal king who lived there and his dancing lady Chandramukhi. Saravanan finds that Ganga is behind all these weird incidents and also finds that she has Split personality disorder (SPD). How he cures Ganga is the climax.
The crux of the film is in its last 20 minutes, fearing that it would become a short film they have added another 100 minutes masala-mix before it.
Rajni looks good for his age, and looks like he has been transported back in time during the climax. The stylish villainous Rajni of yester-years comes back on the screen with his tongue swirling Lakalakalakalaka ... .
Jothika has performed very well. Though her makeup in the climax is supposed to be frightening ... I cant help laughing after seeing her so for a while. Good work Jo!
Vadivelu ' s graph is pointing North these days. He handles the comedy along with Rajni. Though 90% of them are double meaning ones. I think Rajni can still give a hit without such cheap things.
Everyone else, including the heroine Nayanthara (looks very old for her age), Prabhu, Nasar don ' t have much to do. They deliver their dialogues and leave the scene. Nothing more, Nothing less.
Music by Vidyasagar - 3 songs are good. The Rajni ' s intro-song Devuda Devuda will top the charts for a while.
Kudos to director P.Vasu for showing that Rajni can act in films, which are non Rajni-like. Infact there is a stretch of 10-15 minutes during which Rajni is absent from the screen, tough to imagine if you are a Rajni fan.
I hope Rajni takes the clue right and starts working more on movies of this kind. De-glamorized, De-Rajinified (boycotish?), strong stories.
Keep going sir, we are all on board with you!


Anniyan

Boys, despite being made on a grandeur scale, flopped at the box office. A story line, which almost bordered on Taboo, made it a teenage film. Shankar ' s largest fan group is the tamil middle-class, which is still a bit more conservative than the rest of the world. All his previous films were about their problems spun with threads of fantasy. And through Boys he alienated himself from this mega fan segment.
Now he has set his sail in known waters and back with the Midas touch.

Many of you would have heard about a filmi-term " treatment of the story " , want to know what it means, watch Anniyan. No one other than Shankar could have made this film like this. No one other than Vikram could have played it to perfection.

The story line reminds you of previous Shankar films (Indian, Gentleman). An unlikely middle class hero, who is stung by the poor social conditions, becomes an one-man army. A personal tragedy justifies the transformation. An intelligent police officer is set in hot pursuit of the hero, for his acts against the law. Both outsmart each other and atlast the hero gets caught ... but either escapes or is acquitted by the court of law.

' Rules ' Ramanujam aka Ambi (Vikram) is a loser in modern day standards. A law abiding, god-fearing, honest citizen, to his dismay he finds no one else wants to be honest and law-abiding. Everyone finds him impractical and boring, including the lady of his heart Nandini (Sada). One day he stumbles upon a website which claims to settle the sinners with punishments as in Garudapuranam (Hindu equivalent of Judgement day), he logs his complaints there. One by one all the five people (of whom Ramu had reported) are murdered by Anniyan (Vikram) in bizarre ways. Prakashraj investigates the murders. Meanwhile Nandini falls in love with the irresistible super model Remo (Vikram once again), Only to find out all the three people are the same. Ramu has Mutiple personality disorder (MPD, an higher version of Jothika ' s SPD, Yeah you got the link right!!) How did it happen is a falshback.

Was Ramu cured? Was Anniyan convicted? Did Remo marry Nandini? is the remaining part. Don ' t think I have let out most of the story, as said before, the story is not even 2% of the film ' s greatness. It is the technical aspects of the film that make you glued to the seats.

Manikandan, has captured the beauty and the beast in equally intriguing manner. Be it a song, fight or anniyan ' s frightening moves. Manikandan makes you widen your eyes.
Sabu cyril ' s sets are excellent. Peter Haynes deserves a credit for the entire stunt sequences especially the time freeze styles. Music by Harris Jeyaraj has already hit the charts. His BGM for anniyan character churns your senses. Songs are picturiesed on grand scales. Randakka ... Randakka has entrie town painted! Iyengar veetu azhagi has Thyagaraja mahostavam!!
And a close knit editing (I missed the name) doesn ' t make you feel that you are watching a 3 hour film.
Sujatha ' s screen play and dialogues make the film racy. And manages to make you smile at unexpected times.

Thank God, Shankar got Vikram. Vikram has the knack to make you feel that anyone else adorning his role won ' t be able to do it as good as he does. He proves that again. The way he changes from Ramu to Anniyan and to Remo, in split seconds makes every one in the cinema hall go frenzy, Especially when Prakash raj interrogates him. Wow! He certainly deserves that National award.

Prakashraj has played his role to perfection. Sada is beautiful, her costumes in ' Kannum Kannum ' , and in ' Kumaari ' are good. Vivek has given a good comic relief now and then.

But why does prakash raj keep changing his get up to investigate? How come Nandini couldn ' t identify Remo as Ramu at the first instance only?

They said it took two years and 27 crores to make this movie. And it shows. Great movie!! Shankar is Back with a Big Big Bang.