Watched the movie finally at Chicago’s Golf-Glen. Here is my take. It is definitely worth watching, but could have been better. For detailed review please read on.
I tried to give 360-degree perspective. Though you will likely see some criticism it's only that because I care. For the record I want to state that I loved the film.
Spoiler Alert: Two spoilers 1) Candid opinion 2) A lengthy review.
If you are here to read just the movie review and not for Raai Laxmi, feel free to skip the second part of the review which is just focused on her role from a fan perspective.
Part I - Review
As mentioned during promotions there are several firsts in the movie. Were they leveraged positively? Unfortunately no. Given below are the pros and cons based on my knowledge and observation
What worked well?
As you can see it had all right ingredients. After mixing up the ingredients, biriyani too appeared mouth-watering. Drooling at it I took the first bite…. Ahem..Ahem… so what went wrong? Missing very simple straightforward ingredient. They forgot the obvious ingredient in salt aka screenplay (in best case salt is in-adequate). Either the cook was over confident or there was an oversight since team was working hard on other areas. Unfortunately unlike biriyani it’s difficult to put the screenplay back on a released movie. With that said here are the cons for the movie
What could have been better?
Conclusion:
Don’t get me wrong. It’s not a crap movie. I enjoyed it. I might have sounded like a harsh critic. I’m sure Yuvaraj Bose (if reading this and rightfully so) must be thinking “ivanellam coat-suit pottu Gopinath maadiri vyaagyanam pesa vandhutan” :-). It’s easy for people like me to criticize a product in hindsight. I do understand the operational difficulties. Being a data analyst in field of business intelligence, there are instances where I screwed up projections for my clients as well. Always on hindsight I wished I could’ve done things differently.
So Mr. Yuvaraj, this article doesn’t mean to put you or the crew down. As I said I like the movie for all its pros. All I am saying is it could’ve been better. For a debut director you definitely handled huge responsibility decently. I wish I did my first job as decent as yours. I hope you take this review is read in positive spirit. I am saying all this because I care about this movie and your potential.
The script had huge potential to be a trendsetting movie in this genre. The fact that it turned out to be "average” is what that left me disappointed. This movie should have been our industry’s answer to Million dollar baby or Remember the Titans. But it turned out as yet another average love story. Little bit of our own S.P.Jananathan sir’s “Iyarkai” treatment would have gone long way.
Finally I want to quote Aalavandan song here “kadavul paadhi, mirugam padhi kalandhu seitha kalavai”. This movie sums up to that line. Has huge plus points and equally compelling negatives.
Part II –Raai Laxmi on IK
Well if I say this people will tell me that it’s expected and so typical from her fan. If I don’t it’s gross injustice as a fan. Damned if I say it and damned if I don’t :-) Anyways I’ll go-ahead and say it one more time. Laxy, you looked absolutely stunning in every frame.
Pros:
I tried to give 360-degree perspective. Though you will likely see some criticism it's only that because I care. For the record I want to state that I loved the film.
Spoiler Alert: Two spoilers 1) Candid opinion 2) A lengthy review.
If you are here to read just the movie review and not for Raai Laxmi, feel free to skip the second part of the review which is just focused on her role from a fan perspective.
Part I - Review
As mentioned during promotions there are several firsts in the movie. Were they leveraged positively? Unfortunately no. Given below are the pros and cons based on my knowledge and observation
What worked well?
- Excellent production value. Kudos to Agoram brothers.
- Stellar casting in Atharva, Priya Anand, Johnny Tri Nguyen and of-course my favorite Raai Laxmi
- Sound technical team. Especially loved the editing. Suresh was flawless.
- Excellent on-screen performances by all artistes and crew. Pick any name here. Their efforts are easily visible.
- Awesome performances by Jagan and Devadarshini. I have to call out their names loud because not enough credits given to their good work in other reviews.
- At a 30,000 ft level conceptual storyline is new to Tamil cinema. A peek into bikers life (as it was told during promotion) got all my attention. Before even you guys started shooting I drew parallels between this and S.P. Jananathan’s 2003 classic “Iyarkai” that depicted life of sailors and labors in port.
- Stunts, action sequences, and GVP’s music.
As you can see it had all right ingredients. After mixing up the ingredients, biriyani too appeared mouth-watering. Drooling at it I took the first bite…. Ahem..Ahem… so what went wrong? Missing very simple straightforward ingredient. They forgot the obvious ingredient in salt aka screenplay (in best case salt is in-adequate). Either the cook was over confident or there was an oversight since team was working hard on other areas. Unfortunately unlike biriyani it’s difficult to put the screenplay back on a released movie. With that said here are the cons for the movie
What could have been better?
- Of-course screenplay that drags the pace.
- Why do we need songs in this type of movie? As much as I loved GVP’s music, I have difference of opinion when it comes to songs in this film. I’m not against songs per se. Growing up watching Tamil films (plus being hard-core Illayaraja fan), I can’t think of leading my life without film songs. All I’m questioning is necessity of songs in this script. They drag the pace down and don’t help the script.
- Is it about passion for bikes or is it about love? If the intent is about love at the backdrop of passion for bikes/racing then sorry to say that the point does not come across clearly.
- Should have worked more towards constructing convincing reasons for passionate relationship between Atharva &Priya.
- Coming back to screenplay it should be like twitter. Short, sweet, precise and focused. Unfortunately it was like my review :-) Long, dragging and boring. (I know.. I am almost done, just hang on for a bit)
- Raai Laxmi’s character had potential to look like Morgan Freeman's in “Million Dollar baby”. Instead of showing her as mere friend, director and crew could’ve depicted her as a friend-cum-bike-racing-assistant for Atharva in his race team.
- Similarly Alisha Abdullah. Her character should have been carved out as the coach or assistant on Johnny Tri Nguyen side.
- Cutting down on songs would have paved way for #3, #4, #6, and #7.
Conclusion:
Don’t get me wrong. It’s not a crap movie. I enjoyed it. I might have sounded like a harsh critic. I’m sure Yuvaraj Bose (if reading this and rightfully so) must be thinking “ivanellam coat-suit pottu Gopinath maadiri vyaagyanam pesa vandhutan” :-). It’s easy for people like me to criticize a product in hindsight. I do understand the operational difficulties. Being a data analyst in field of business intelligence, there are instances where I screwed up projections for my clients as well. Always on hindsight I wished I could’ve done things differently.
So Mr. Yuvaraj, this article doesn’t mean to put you or the crew down. As I said I like the movie for all its pros. All I am saying is it could’ve been better. For a debut director you definitely handled huge responsibility decently. I wish I did my first job as decent as yours. I hope you take this review is read in positive spirit. I am saying all this because I care about this movie and your potential.
The script had huge potential to be a trendsetting movie in this genre. The fact that it turned out to be "average” is what that left me disappointed. This movie should have been our industry’s answer to Million dollar baby or Remember the Titans. But it turned out as yet another average love story. Little bit of our own S.P.Jananathan sir’s “Iyarkai” treatment would have gone long way.
Finally I want to quote Aalavandan song here “kadavul paadhi, mirugam padhi kalandhu seitha kalavai”. This movie sums up to that line. Has huge plus points and equally compelling negatives.
Part II –Raai Laxmi on IK
Well if I say this people will tell me that it’s expected and so typical from her fan. If I don’t it’s gross injustice as a fan. Damned if I say it and damned if I don’t :-) Anyways I’ll go-ahead and say it one more time. Laxy, you looked absolutely stunning in every frame.
Pros:
- At the risk of being redundant you are stylish, suave, gorgeous, confidant and hot.
- Not many in Tamil industry could have done justice to this type of role (with the exception of Nayanthara). You carried the role with elegance.
- Hard work in losing weight for this role is visible and paid dividends. Loved the new look.
- If I am not wrong a trend-setting role for tattooed / tomboyish heroine in Tamil cinema? I’m sure future films will try to out-to this. For now this is as best as I have seen in this type of role.
- One more feather to your versatility cap. New addition of tomboyish biker role now added to your earlier list of characters ranging from glam-doll /sexy roles, negative roles, cop, cow-girl, homely Malayalam movies, to a professional lawyer and StarVijay TV host of our own fear-factor (Anu alavum bayam illai).
- I don’t know if the above is planned in your career or not. But I like the fact that you show variety in your characters.
- I expected more bike scenes. Disappointed.
- For the amount of effort you put in, this role is limited than what it should have been.
- You really need to start working on dubbing in your own voice. Though nothing wrong with the dubbed voice in this case it is too soft for your character.
- Despite your versatility this character may strengthen stereotyping that Raai Laxmi = saucy roles. Don’t get me wrong this is such a bold character. But I’ll not be surprised if it paves way to increased stereotyping.
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